Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Skelos tells Nassau OTB Bettors to take the day off and surf long beach

Long Beach mulls option to plug budget gap

Originally published: June 25, 2012 8:20 PM
Updated: June 25, 2012 9:15 PM
By PATRICK WHITTLE  patrick.whittle@newsday.com
Long Beach City manager Jack Schnirman in a
Photo credit: Handout | Long Beach City manager Jack Schnirman in a file photo.
The State Legislature's decision to prevent Long Beach from borrowing money to plug its budget gap has left city officials scrambling for an alternative -- and faulting state leaders for putting politics before tax relief.
The city, which faces a $10.25 million deficit, had sought state deficit financing so it could borrow the money and pay it back over 10 years at a low interest rate.
But a bill to enable the borrowing died in the State Senate rules committee on Thursday, when the legislative session ended.
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Twitter: @pxwhittle | @LI_Now
City leaders are now looking for an alternative way to pay down the deficit, which could mean a tax increase, city manager Jack Schnirman said Monday.
He and Assemb. Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) said it appeared Republicans opposed the bailout of Long Beach, a Democrat-controlled city, because Democrats in the State Assembly opposed a measure to aid Republican-led Nassau County.
A proposal to allow Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano to bypass a state financial control board and borrow money to pay $41 million in property-tax refunds also died on the last day of the legislative session.
"We're extremely disappointed that it appears politics is interfering with this routine approval," said Schnirman, who was hired by the Democratic administration that took office on Jan. 1.
Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), chairman of the rules committee and the Senate majority leader, introduced Long Beach's borrowing bill, but said after it failed that he only did so "as a courtesy" to the city. Skelos and the senate Republicans do not believe borrowing is a wise way to get out of debt, said Scott Reif, a spokesman for Skelos.
"Our position is you get your fiscal house in order through reducing spending," Reif said.
Long Beach's city council last month passed a 2012-13 budget that included a 7.9 percent tax hike, contingent on the plan to pay down the deficit over 10 years using deficit financing. The city may instead have to approve a three-year deficit paydown that would put the tax increase at 14.5 percent, Schnirman said.
The city does not have to make a decision immediately, and will look for other options, he said.
Weisenberg said it is unfortunate that Long Beach residents will likely face a steeper tax increase now that deficit financing is unavailable.
"These guys didn't cause the financial mess that exists, they inherited it," he said.
Karen McInnis, vice president of the West End Neighbors Civic Association, said the lack of deficit financing will make it harder for the city to dig out of its fiscal crisis.
"I equate this situation with Senator Skelos to 'Ford to City: Drop Dead,' " McInnis said. "It's a very unfortunate situation."


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Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > 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.

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lawyes lawyers everywhere and not one who will help us see that

  •  
NASSAU OTB IS OPEN 365 DAYS OF THE YEAR SO BETTORS, EVEN INDIANS OR GREEKS CAN BET WHENEVER THEY WISH

Casino Ruling Struck Down

more in New York »

By WILL JAMES

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday struck down a 2007 federal court decision barring a Long Island American Indian tribe from building a casino in Southampton, remanding the case to state court instead.
In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court said New York state and Southampton Town should re-argue their case against the Shinnecock Indian Nation before a state judge, because the federal judge who decided the case against the tribe five years ago didn't have jurisdiction.
Beverly Jensen, director of communications for the Shinnecock Indian Nation, said the tribe was "gratified" to learn about the judgement.
"We again ask Governor [Andrew] Cuomo to sit down with the Nation to discuss how the Nation and the state can move forward together," she said in a written statement.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the office was reviewing the decision and declined to comment further. Mr. Cuomo's office didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.
A spokeswoman for Southampton Town declined to comment.
"The town does find the decision disappointing," said Michael Cohen, an attorney representing Southampton Town. "We're still studying it. We will evaluate our options as we move ahead."
The dispute began about 10 years ago, when the Shinnecocks began clearing trees and brush on a vacant 80-acre property known as Westwoods in the hamlet of Hampton Bays in preparation to build a 61,000-square-foot casino there.
The state and town sued the tribe in order to stop the development, and the tribe had the case moved from state to federal court.
U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Bianco later ruled that even though the tribe owns Westwoods, it isn't counted as sovereign "Indian lands," like the nearby tribal reservation, and thus isn't immune from state and local building regulations.
The tribe received federal recognition in 2010, and has long been seeking a site on Long Island to build a hotel and casino.
It has cycled through potential sites like Belmont State Park in Elmont; Enterprise Park at Calverton, the former Grumman Aerospace Corp. property; and Brookhaven Calabro Airport in Shirley, but all of the proposals so far have been thwarted by obstacles or passed over by the tribe.
The appeals court said that even though the case involved questions of federal Indian law, the core questions were those of state and town gambling and environmental regulations, and thus state court was the correct venue. Neither side had argued for a change of venue during the appeal.
In the decade since the case began, the Shinnecocks have stated that they no longer want to build a casino at Westwoods, and instead have been considering sites farther west on Long Island.
Mr. Cohen said Southampton still cares about the case because it wants to establish that zoning laws must be followed on the property.
"The implications extend beyond gaming," he said.



HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > 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.




Casino Ruling Struck Down

more in New York »

By WILL JAMES

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday struck down a 2007 federal court decision barring a Long Island American Indian tribe from building a casino in Southampton, remanding the case to state court instead.
In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court said New York state and Southampton Town should re-argue their case against the Shinnecock Indian Nation before a state judge, because the federal judge who decided the case against the tribe five years ago didn't have jurisdiction.
Beverly Jensen, director of communications for the Shinnecock Indian Nation, said the tribe was "gratified" to learn about the judgement.
"We again ask Governor [Andrew] Cuomo to sit down with the Nation to discuss how the Nation and the state can move forward together," she said in a written statement.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the office was reviewing the decision and declined to comment further. Mr. Cuomo's office didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.
A spokeswoman for Southampton Town declined to comment.
"The town does find the decision disappointing," said Michael Cohen, an attorney representing Southampton Town. "We're still studying it. We will evaluate our options as we move ahead."
The dispute began about 10 years ago, when the Shinnecocks began clearing trees and brush on a vacant 80-acre property known as Westwoods in the hamlet of Hampton Bays in preparation to build a 61,000-square-foot casino there.
The state and town sued the tribe in order to stop the development, and the tribe had the case moved from state to federal court.
U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Bianco later ruled that even though the tribe owns Westwoods, it isn't counted as sovereign "Indian lands," like the nearby tribal reservation, and thus isn't immune from state and local building regulations.
The tribe received federal recognition in 2010, and has long been seeking a site on Long Island to build a hotel and casino.
It has cycled through potential sites like Belmont State Park in Elmont; Enterprise Park at Calverton, the former Grumman Aerospace Corp. property; and Brookhaven Calabro Airport in Shirley, but all of the proposals so far have been thwarted by obstacles or passed over by the tribe.
The appeals court said that even though the case involved questions of federal Indian law, the core questions were those of state and town gambling and environmental regulations, and thus state court was the correct venue. Neither side had argued for a change of venue during the appeal.
In the decade since the case began, the Shinnecocks have stated that they no longer want to build a casino at Westwoods, and instead have been considering sites farther west on Long Island.
Mr. Cohen said Southampton still cares about the case because it wants to establish that zoning laws must be followed on the property.
"The implications extend beyond gaming," he said.
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Does the Vatican need Andrew Cuomo to keep the faithful out of

Nassau OTB when they should be in Church?
Does the Vatican believe that NY must express a religious preference for them only? See NY Const. ARt 1 Sec 3?
 
We await a return call from the Press Room with the answers to simple questions?
 
 
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Contact information for Opus Dei’s press offices may be found at the menu bar on the left. Non-media web visitors who wish to receive information can write info@opusdei.org.

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Tel: (212) 532-3570
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© 2012, Opus Dei Information Office
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June 26, 2012
 
HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > 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.
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Does Greg Burke need Andrew Cuomo's help ?

June 25, 2012, 4:52 pm26 Comments

The Vatican Takes on ‘Pettiness and Lies’

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL
The Roman Catholic Church has been getting a lot of press lately, much of it negative: The priest sex abuse scandal won’t go away (on Friday, a former cardinal’s aide was convicted of covering up sexual abuse by priests under his supervision); the pope’s butler leaked private documents alleging corruption in Vatican finances (he was then arrested); and church leaders are cracking down on nuns for daring to buck doctrine.
So the Vatican has done what all powerful institutions do in this sort of a situation – it’s hired a new press consultant. Because none of these cases reflects an actual problem. (As the pope’s right-hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, put it last week, the media are guilty of “pettiness and lies.”) It’s all just a matter of getting the message right and getting it out there more efficiently.

This job, which has to be the last prize in the 2012 public relations career lottery, is going to Greg Burke, a 52-year-old correspondent for Fox News who has covered the Vatican since 2001. Much is being made of the fact that Mr. Burke is the first person hired to work on the Vatican’s public relations who came from outside the Catholic news agencies, although he is a numerary of the Opus Dei movement, which means that he is celibate and gives the church most of his income.
Mr. Burke will not be the spokesman for the Vatican. His job will be “to formulate the message and try to make sure everyone remains on message.” Asked how he would handle something like the pope’s decision to reinstate a schismatic, Holocaust-denying bishop, he said:  “I think at that point you say, ‘We have a train wreck coming here.’”
Mr. Burke added: “I don’t have an answer for you on how I’d stop the train, but I’d try.”


HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > 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.






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Even Indians have rights secured by NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. .3

Associated Press

NEW YORK — A federal appeals court has returned to the New York state courts a dispute over whether the Shinnecock Indian tribe should be able to build a casino in the town of Southampton.
A three-judge appeals court in Manhattan issued its ruling Monday by a 2-to-1 vote. It concluded that a federal judge did not have authority to permanently prohibit the Shinnecock tribe from building a casino without complying with state and local law.
Judge Peter Hall wrote in a dissent that the appeals ruling could affect tribes in the appeals court's region: New York, Connecticut and Vermont. He says those tribes subject to state enforcement actions may no longer have the option of a federal forum to resolve those disputes.
Attorneys in the case did not immediately return messages.











HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > 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.

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, June 25, 2012

Andrew Cuomo defines Easter Sunday for Greek Bettors.

  • working, a silly activity for people who are not fed and stuffed by lobbyists?
I-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > 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.



N.Y. / Region


Cuomo Accepts Millions From Interests He Assails

By SERGE F. KOVALESKI and GRIFFIN PALMER
Published: June 23, 2010
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, declaring his candidacy for governor of New York, could not have been clearer.
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Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Announcing his run for governor in May, Andrew M. Cuomo said, “The influence of lobbyists and their special interests must be drastically reduced.”

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Casey Kelbaugh for The New York Times
Andrew M. Cuomo, center, at a rally in Manhattan in 2006 with the labor leader Stuart Appelbaum, in glasses, along with David A. Paterson, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Eliot Spitzer.

Readers’ Comments

Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
“The influence of lobbyists and their special interests must be drastically reduced with new contribution limits,” Mr. Cuomo said last month. “We will be taking on very powerful special interests which have much to lose. We must change systems and cultures long in the making.”
But as he delivered his announcement, Mr. Cuomo was sitting on millions in campaign cash from the very special interests whose influence he said he wanted to limit.
An analysis by The New York Times shows that of the estimated $7.1 million that the Cuomo campaign has received from political action committees, associations, limited liability corporations and other entities, more than half has come from the biggest players in Albany: organized labor, the real estate and related industries like construction, the health care sector and lobbying firms.
In the spirit of reform, Mr. Cuomo pledged in 2007 not to accept donations over $10,000 from most categories of contributors during an election cycle. But he did not stick to that vow and has at times received amounts five times as great.
The donations underscore the awkwardness of Mr. Cuomo’s effort to run against Albany and its insiders at the same time he is benefiting from their largess and, in some cases, his long relationships with them. He drew a similar proportion of his campaign money from special interests in his failed 2002 campaign for governor and his 2006 bid for attorney general.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this article. But an adviser, Phil Singer, said the attorney general had consistently demonstrated his independence from special interests and others who contribute to his campaign. As of its last campaign filing, the Cuomo campaign had about $16 million.
“Any donor who could possibly think they are buying anything other than good government is delusional and blind to all facts,” Mr. Singer wrote in an e-mail message.
He cited a number of cases in which the attorney general’s office had taken action against those who had made political donations to Mr. Cuomo.
The analysis by The Times shows that in the current election cycle, lobbying firms and companies that have registered to lobby on their own behalf have given Mr. Cuomo about $555,000 in donations.
Organized labor, long regarded by Democrats and Republicans as perhaps the most powerful force in Albany lawmaking, has given him more than $1.4 million.
Real estate and construction interests have donated more than $1.3 million, and the health care industry has contributed about $570,000.
As attorney general, Mr. Cuomo has undertaken several major initiatives that have coincided with interests of those donors.
In 2007, Mr. Cuomo’s office opened an investigation into whether health insurers were systematically overcharging patients who used doctors and hospitals outside the insurers’ networks. The inquiry was related to an earlier federal lawsuit whose plaintiffs included the Medical Society of the State of New York, which represents physicians, medical residents and medical students; New York State United Teachers, a union; and the Civil Service Employees Association union, all of which have given generously to him through their political action committees. In 2009, he announced a settlement to shut down the payment system used by the industry and establish an independent database to replace it.
Also in 2007, during New York City’s real estate boom, Mr. Cuomo, after receiving complaints from real estate officials, pushed for passage of a state bill to increase financing for his office to speed up the approval process for co-op and condominium conversions and ease a backlog. The measure was written into the state budget the next year with the blessing of the industry and other stakeholders and also allowed the office to better handle complaints against developers over construction flaws.
But Mr. Singer pointed out that the attorney general had also aggressively pursued some of his contributors. His office reached an agreement in 2009 with WellPoint, the nation’s largest health insurer, to pay $10 million toward an overhaul of the health care reimbursement system. This year, Mr. Singer said, Mr. Cuomo’s office sued Bank of America and two of its former top officers, saying they had duped shareholders and the federal government to complete a merger with Merrill Lynch. This month, the office sued a developer, Yair Levy, saying he stole $7.4 million from a reserve fund of a troubled downtown luxury building.
Mr. Singer also said the campaign required prospective donors to show that they had no matters pending before the attorney general’s office and had not had any in the previous 90 days.
The Times review did not examine donations from individuals, like health care executives or union leaders. But an analysis conducted by the New York Public Interest Research Group recently found that 20 percent of the money Mr. Cuomo’s current campaign committee received from individuals came from people working in real estate or as lobbyists.
Representatives of several organizations that gave to Mr. Cuomo said it was natural that their agendas sometimes dovetailed with his. They said they believed that Mr. Cuomo was right on many of the most important issues affecting their clients or constituents.
Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, pointed to a settlement that the attorney general’s office reached in July 2009 with the owners and former owners of two Brooklyn supermarkets. They were forced to pay $1.1 million for underpaying workers and violating other state labor laws.
“A lot of what Andrew has done as attorney general,” said Mr. Appelbaum, whose group gave Mr. Cuomo $27,000 through a political action committee, “has involved going after employers who have not paid legal wages or overtime or have mistreated employees in other ways.”
George W. Reilly, business manager of Plumbers Local Union No. 1, which gave $29,500 through its political action committee, said Mr. Cuomo’s tenure as assistant secretary and then secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development had made him more knowledgeable about issues important to the union’s members.
The political action committees that are among Mr. Cuomo’s largest labor contributors include the Sergeants Benevolent Association of the New York Police Department, which gave $54,000; the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which contributed more than $53,000; and Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which gave $45,500.
Lobbyists, meanwhile, continue to contribute generously to Mr. Cuomo despite three campaigns in which he has criticized their influence. During his failed bid for governor in 2002, Mr. Cuomo called New York “the Wild West of lobbying” and proposed a ban on contributions by lobbyists to campaigns.
James D. Featherstonhaugh, a well-known lobbyist in Albany, said he had written Mr. Cuomo “a personal check for $10,000 a month or so ago.” Mr. Featherstonhaugh’s law firm has contributed $19,873 to the campaign.
Political contributions by lobbyists can be the currency of access to a governor and an administration, but several lobbyists who were willing to discuss their giving to Mr. Cuomo said they had donated because of relationships spanning two decades or so. Mr. Featherstonhaugh, whose firm has represented the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers, Goldman Sachs and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, does not take umbrage at Mr. Cuomo’s statements about lobbyists.
“I hope what he is saying is not that we should get rid of lobbyists,” Mr. Featherstonhaugh said, “but that we should reform a system that people find offensive because in some instances lobbyists exert an unfair or disproportionate influence on how government works.”
Kenneth L. Shapiro, managing partner of the Albany office of the law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker L.L.P., is also not put off by Mr. Cuomo’s remarks.
“No one feels good about it, but we are big boys and big girls,” said Mr. Shapiro, who has known Mr. Cuomo since the early 1980s. “You take your shots.”
“We contribute to him,” he added, “because in our business you have to believe in somebody, and at a perilous time like this in the state, we badly need someone who can lead us out of it.”
A political action committee of Mr. Shapiro’s firm and the partnership itself — whose clients have included the Atlantic Yards Development Company, Consolidated Edison, the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association and numerous hospitals — has contributed about $59,200 to the Cuomo campaign.
Mr. Cuomo has drawn a considerable amount of political money from the health care industry, including doctors’ groups.
“He has a good track record making sure that insurers treat doctors and patients fairly,” said Moe Auster, an in-house lobbyist for the Medical Society of the State of New York, a nonprofit advocacy group with about 30,000 members. Its political arm has given $50,793 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign, making it his second-largest health care donor.
Medical groups also applauded a 2008 agreement that the attorney general reached with Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and CareCore National to streamline pre-approvals for tests ordered by doctors. Those specializing in cancer, for instance, no longer had to obtain approval for CAT scans, a test frequently used for cancer patients.
Other big health care donors to the Cuomo campaign include Physicians’ Reciprocal Insurers, which has given $45,000, and the political action committee of the New York State Dental Association, which contributed $24,532.
Little attention has been paid to Mr. Cuomo’s abandonment of his 2007 pledge to accept no donations of more than $10,000 per election cycle — about 18 percent of what state law allows — from individuals, unions, political action committees and trade associations.
The Times analysis shows that Mr. Cuomo’s campaign has accepted donations far beyond that limit many times. He took in $55,900 from the political arm of Local 6 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union and $55,900 from the political action committee of the New York State Association of Realtors.
Mr. Singer wrote in an e-mail message that in 2007, the governor at the time, Eliot Spitzer, had voluntarily limited his own campaign contributions, and that Mr. Cuomo had decided to do so in solidarity with him while a campaign finance bill was being promoted for passage.
“After the bill failed and the governor resumed following the existing law, the Cuomo campaign did the same,” Mr. Singer said.
Albany, of course, is known for turning promises on campaign finance into something far more complicated. During his campaign for governor, Mr. Spitzer talked vigorously about reforming the state’s campaign finance laws, and yet he exploited loopholes by accepting donations from limited liability corporations set up by individuals who could legally circumvent contribution caps.
“New York’s campaign finance system is horribly broken,” Mr. Singer said, “a disservice to the public and a burden on the candidate who must raise money to compete.”
“To be in public service today,” he also wrote, “one must either raise money as carefully and as diligently as possible or be a multimillionaire who can self-finance. Many people, including Andrew Cuomo, simply do not have the latter option.”
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Hey Andrew, If Nasau OTB is closed we can neither bet nor work while

you may be in church. The choice is ours. Not yours. See NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3 and quit telling the Greeks of New York that you are ......

 

Quid pro Cuo in pols’ salary hike

Last Updated: 4:37 AM, June 25, 2012
Posted: 12:31 AM, June 25, 2012
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headshotFredric U. Dicker
Gov. Cuomo may link pay hikes for state lawmakers to an end to the much-abused “per diem’’ reimbursement system and cuts in mandates on hard-pressed local governments, The Post has learned.
The controversial pay hikes — expected to be taken up by lawmakers after the November election in order to avoid a backlash at the polls — are likely to raise the current “base’’ pay for legislators from $79,500 a year to just over $100,000, sources said.
The raises, the first since 1999, would cost state taxpayers about $4.25 million annually, but that cost could be cut by more than $2 million if the “per diem’’ reimbursements are eliminated or significantly reduced.
Gov. Cuomo
Gov. Cuomo
The reimbursement system, which can pay legislators nearly $175 a day for time supposedly spent at the Capitol, was adopted in the 1970s as a “reform’’ that replaced small annual-expense payments that couldn’t be increased or reduced.
But the “reform’’ quickly became a method for lawmakers to hike their earnings by claiming $20,000 or more in annual reimbursements, often with only scanty proof that they were actually at the Capitol.
The “per diem” system has also contributed to the lengthening of the annual legislative sessions — since the more time lawmakers spend “working,’’ the more per diems they can claim.
Lawmakers have even bought homes or apartments in Albany, instead of staying in hotels, because the steady stream of per diems can easily cover mortgage payments, providing them with a state-financed investment.
“The governor is looking to have us give up the per diems in exchange for a pay hike,’’ said a senior Democrat in the Assembly.
“I’m not sure it’s worth it. It’s a lot of money,”
However, lawmakers have been told that legitimate business expenses could be deducted from their state and federal taxes.
Cuomo, increasingly worried that many cities and counties face the threat of financial bankruptcy, is also considering tying pay hikes to “significant’’ mandate relief for local governments, including possible changes in “Triborough Law,” which favors public-employee unions over local governments in contract talks, a source close to the Legislature said.
“The governor and legislators know there could be bankruptcies ahead for local governments, so why not give the locals the ability to make more spending cuts themselves, rather than having a situation where the state may have to pick up the tab?’’ the source said.
Cuomo has repeatedly called for raises for his top aides, who have also gone without raises for 13 years. Lawmakers plan to tie such pay hikes to raises for themselves.
*
One of Long Island’s best-known Republicans is putting aside his traditional partisanship and praising Democrat Cuomo in unusually flattering terms.
“In my view, Andrew Cuomo has proven to be the most savvy and powerful governor since Nelson A. Rockefeller, especially when it comes to dealing with the Legislature,’’ former longtime Suffolk County GOP Chairman Howard DeMartini told The Post.
DeMartini’s statement came just hours after Cuomo’s second legislative session came to an end with the passage of the governor’s bill that restricted to parents the public disclosure of the new teacher-evaluation ratings that will soon be required. The Senate GOP had come under intense pressure from Mayor Bloomberg, its largest contributor, to reject the Cuomo plan in favor of full public disclosure.
Strong praise of Cuomo similar to DeMartini’s is often heard these days from Republicans, but, until now, only in private.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/quid_pro_cuo_in_pols_salary_hike_HrToUbo5ygvbH9UFKWXqyK#ixzz1yr80SA9Q



HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > 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.

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