The root of Albany evil: Cuomo blames ‘power’ of entrenched leaders
- Last Updated: 5:35 AM, April 9, 2013
- Posted: 1:08 AM, April 9, 2013
Chad Rachman/NY Post
Gov. Andrew Cuomo: 'power establishment' to blame for corruption scandals.
Gov. Cuomo yesterday shifted blame for New York’s
political-corruption crisis to a “power establishment” that includes
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and other entrenched members of the
state Legislature.During an interview with The Post’s editorial board, Cuomo was asked about Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara’s criticisms that New York’s leaders were condoning public corruption by turning a blind eye to it.
“It’s been going on for 20 years. That’s where I think the Post story came from today,” Cuomo said, referring to Fredric U. Dicker’s column that the governor and his team discussed ousting Silver from the powerful speaker post he’s held since 1994.
Bharara last week condemned New York politics, saying corruption is “rampant” in the state as he charged three elected officials and party leaders in bribery scams.
Yesterday, Cuomo expounded on that notion, saying there are too many rotten apples in Albany because the state capital’s bad reputation and incumbent-driven political culture discourages the best and brightest from running for office, and instead attracts lesser lights or hacks tied to political party leaders.
“Why aren’t we electing better people? I think about it. There has been a degradation of state government across the board. This is a long generation up there. Ten, 15 years. New York state government. Nobody wanted to go,” Cuomo said.
“If you wanted to go into government, you went to Washington or New York City. You didn’t go to Albany. Are we paying a price for that? Maybe so.
“Every nine months or a year or so, you’ve had high-level elected officials, stupid, venal politicians getting themselves in trouble. It’s a story of power and greed.”
Cuomo’s comments come a week after state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens) and two city Republican party leaders were charged in a bribery scheme to allegedly give Smith access to the GOP ballot.
Days later, Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson was indicted in a separate bribery sting for allegedly drafting legislation-to-order for businessmen willing to fork over cold hard cash. The feds used corrupt Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who cooperated with the prosecution, to bust Stevenson.
During the 75-minute interview yesterday, Cuomo vowed to fight for legislation aimed at curbing the seemingly non-stop corruption in the scandal-scarred Legislature.Cuomo maintained that Bharara was criticizing the legislative leadership for corruption, the governor insisted, however, he was not plotting to topple Silver. Nor did he hold him alone responsible for the latest scandal.
Roman Catholic Easter Sunday in preference to Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday. Is it any wonder that NY is bankrupt and its OTBs going bankrupt one after the other? See NY PML Sec 109 and NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3 etc. You might think that one as yet unidicted NY official with standing would avail themselves of a FREE formal or informal opinion from NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
See below
Letter: Why close racetrack on Palm Sunday?
Photo credit: AP | In this photo provided by New
York Racing Association, Stay Thirsty, left, with Ramon Dominguez
aboard, captures The G1 Cigar Mile horse race at Aqueduct in New York.
(Nov. 24, 2012)
To see what's wrong up in Albany, one only
needs to look at the fact that the Aqueduct Racetrack was closed on
Palm Sunday. On an average Sunday, The Big A has a total handle of
between $6 million and $7 million, of which New York
State takes a percentage.Racing also injects money into the industry, paying jockeys, trainers, grooms, etc. Hundreds of employees -- pari-mutuel clerks and racing officials -- help put on the show, which the state gets a piece of in income taxes.
All of this, worth thousands upon thousands of dollars, was lost because on an antiquated law. Not being allowed to race on Christmas or Easter is OK, but Palm Sunday? The New York Racing Authority races on Thanksgiving, and that's a holiday that the vast majority of us celebrate.
Changing this law would be a slam-dunk revenue creator.
Gerard Bringmann, Patchogue
Editor's note: The writer is both a racing fan and a practicing Catholic.
OPEN ON 1ST PALM SUNDAY, OTB RAKES IN $2M - NY Daily News
www.nydailynews.com/.../open-1st-palm-sunday-otb-rakes-2m-articl...
OPEN ON 1ST PALM SUNDAY, OTB RAKES
IN $2M. By Jerry Bossert / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS. Monday, April
14, 2003, 12:00 AM. Print · Print; Comment ...OTB FACES HAND SLAP OVER PALM - NY Daily News
www.nydailynews.com/.../otb-faces-hand-slap-palm-article-1.667233
Apr 16, 2003 – By Jerry Bossert
/ NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ... Aqueduct was also closed on Palm
Sunday, but OTB thrived on action from around the
country.
HI-
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LI Confidential
> Stop scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Perhaps Sheldon Silver should spend less time talking with Barry Yomtov Business Agent for Teamsters Local 707 and past President of Teamsters Local 858 which represented inter alia the Managers of the late bankrupt NYC OTB.
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