some prople work and others like cuomo are born to steal, scam ripoff, intimidate and abuse
New York lawmakers produce a Very Special Ugly
Naturally, the Legislature’s special session wound up producing a Special Ugly — an omnibus bill loaded down with extras that sock the taxpayers.
The centerpiece was of course the two-year renewal of Mayor de Blasio’s control of the city’s public-school system — without the increase in the charter-school cap that Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan had insisted on, until in the end he didn’t.
Mayoral control was set to end on Friday, so action on that, and on renewing also-expiring sales taxes for 50-odd counties, fits the definition of “emergency” that justified the special session.
But the omnibus also prompted a bidding war as legislators stuck out their hands for more pork and other local favors. Or, as John DeFrancisco, the No. 2 Senate Republican, piously put it: “There were other things that were really emergencies as well.”
So the bill (which Gov. Cuomo promptly signed into law) also provides a financial incentive for Vernon Downs racetrack, near Utica, designates $55 million for Lake Ontario flood relief and more cash for Adirondack road and well construction, as well as sweetening some pensions for cops, firefighters and some other workers here in the city.
Plus $10 million to expand the National Purple Heart Hall in the Hudson Valley — a tradeoff for passing another “emergency”: naming the new Tappan Zee Bridge after Cuomo’s father.
In all, the 72-page bill contains millions in new subsidies and billions in tax renewals.
Credit upstate Republican Sen. Joe Griffo with the understatement of the year: “It’s not the best way to govern.”
Apparently, it’s the only way Albany knows.
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