PLA MORNING DRIVE
May 30, 2014
Your morning reading from PLA – A sampling of today’s New York news
STATE NEWS
Cuomo Faces a Problem on His Left Wall Street Journal (Erica Orden)
Facing pressure from the political left, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday used nearly every tool in his arsenal to try to coax its support.
He pitched his platform. He reasoned. He threatened. And finally, he took a photo-friendly waterfront stroll with the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party’s “progressive” wing: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The display came as Mr. Cuomo confronts Saturday’s convention of the Working Families Party, a group comprising labor unions and liberal activists that has weighed nominating a third-party candidate who could siphon votes from the governor in his re-election bid.
De Blasio gives Cuomo a hand to win liberals’ support New York Post (Aaron Short)
Mayor de Blasio appeared to give Gov. Cuomo a lesson in Left-Wing Politics 101 on Thursday.
School was in session on Staten Island as the progressive mayor was spotted wagging his finger at the centrist governor, who needs all the help he can get to win over the liberal Working Families Party.
De Blasio has called for the WFP to back Cuomo, despite the governor’s opposition to some of the mayor’s favorite liberal projects, such as crushing charter schools and hiking taxes to pay for preschool.
Hochul financed lobby campaign Times Union (Jordan Carleo-Evangelist)
The woman who would be Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s next lieutenant governor spent $25,000 to lobby him and state lawmakers in an unsuccessful bid to keep her seat in Congress.
In late 2011 and early 2012, the campaign of U.S. Rep. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo-area Democrat, retained the firm Bolton-St. John to lobby Cuomo and the Legislature on redistricting, according to state records.
In Report, State Comptroller Is Cautious About Benefits of Casinos New York Times (Jesse McKinley)
ALBANY — Sounding a cautionary note about expanded gambling in New York State, Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli warns in a new report that casino complexes planned for upstate will face stiff regional competition and that much of the new revenue anticipated from the casinos will come from New Yorkers, not necessarily from out-of-state visitors.
The report, to be released Friday, is far more guarded about the benefits of new casinos than Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has promoted them as a powerful economic development tool for beleaguered parts of the state.
Business groups fighting back in support of Common Core Capital New York (Jessica Bakeman)
ALBANY—Critics of the Common Core in New York have been winning the debate about the controversial education standards, but now they’ll face a counterattack backed by a considerable investment.
High Achievement New York, a nonprofit coalition of mostly business groups, plans to launch a roughly $500,000 phone and digital advertising campaign over the next several weeks in an attempt to promote the controversial curriculum standards.
State advisory board set to release findings Times Union (Rick Karlin)
A state board set up to advise financially strapped local governments is close to releasing its first recommendations.
With that, advisers for the state’s new Financial Restructuring Board appear to be learning some lessons in municipal cost-cutting, and they are getting an up-close view of how state laws governing items from labor contracts to electricity prices pose challenges to saving taxpayer dollars.
Health groups urge 3-5 gas frack ban by Cuomo Times Union (Brian Nearing)
Yuri Gorby won’t take his kids back to visit long-time friends in the natural gas hydrofracking area of his home state of West Virginia.
The decision came after a trip last fall when Gorby, an environmental engineer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, noted a chemical smell in the air — as did his two young sons, one of whom later complained of altered vision.
On Thursday, Gorby was among 250 doctors, health professionals and researchers who sent a letter asking Gov. Andrew Cuomo to impose a three- to five-year ban on fracking in the state to allow more time for scientific studies on what signatories described as the emerging health risks of fracking.
NYC NEWS
New York City Toughens Traffic Laws to Reduce Pedestrian Deaths Wall Street Journal (Mara Gay)
The New York City Council passed a package of legislation on Thursday aimed at reducing pedestrian deaths and traffic accidents across the city.
The legislation includes broad changes to traffic laws, such as requiring the creation of 20 mph “slow zones”; a measure outlawing “stunt behavior,” such as wheelies and revving; and a bill that creates a penalty for drivers who fail to yield to a pedestrian or bicyclist who has the right of way.
BUFFALO/WESTERN NY NEWS
Poloncarz wants comptroller support for county borrowing on road projects Buffalo News (Harold McNeil)
Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz wants the county – not the county’s control board – to borrow money for road repairs and other infrastructure projects, and he wants the county Comptroller’s Office on board with his proposal.
Poloncarz said Thursday that the county may be able to borrow at a lower rate than the Fiscal Stability Authority, and doing so could also expedite projects.
Putting a new face on The Ralph Buffalo News (Jay Skurski)
Any stadium talk surrounding the Buffalo Bills recently has focused on where a new one may end up in the long term.
In the short term, though, the team is right in the middle of a $130 million face-lift of its current home in Orchard Park.
The improvements at Ralph Wilson Stadium were on display for the Western New York media during a guided tour Thursday.
Poloncarz: Congel only casually mentioned Bills Democrat & Chronicle (Dave McKinley)
BUFFALO, NY – Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz confirmed that he met with Scott Congel, the real estate developer recently linked with Tom Golisano, as potential bidders for the Buffalo Bills.
“Actually I met with Mr. Congel and his associates in this room yesterday,” Poloncarz told reporters Thursday at a news conference at the Rath Building. Poloncarz was there to announce his desire for Erie County to re-enter the bond market. That would allow the county to borrow money rather than the county’s fiscal control board performing that task.
Newfane hospital ER supported by elected officials Buffalo News (Thomas Prohaska)
NEWFANE – A letter sent this week by several Niagara County elected officials to the board of Eastern Niagara Hospital emphasizes the need to maintain emergency room services at the hospital’s Newfane location.
Newfane Supervisor Timothy R. Horanburg and others sounded the alarm in March that the 63-bed hospital, formerly known as Newfane Inter-Community Memorial Hospital, might be closed for financial reasons. It has been in operation since 1958.
CAPITAL REGION/NORTH COUNTRY NEWS
Casino vision blurs Times Union (Jim Odato and Tim O’Brien
The $300 million to $400 million vision of a multifaceted casino project near Exit 23 of the Thruway may be scaled back because of development constraints, Albany Common Council members said.
The elected officials said about half the acreage proposed for a casino, hotel, water park and equestrian center is not suited for construction.
“We were told 17 of the 30 acres initially discussed are developable,” said Carolyn McLaughlin, council president. “So that would mean … more than likely we’re not going to see a water park or equestrian park. A hotel and a casino will be the only thing.”
Anti-gambling expert says residents can stop East Greenbush casino Times Union (Kenneth C. Crowe II)
EAST GREENBUSH — Residents can stop a proposed casino if they mobilize and work together, the national director of an anti-casino organization said Thursday night.
Casinos are exploitative and drain the community of money, said Les Bernal of the Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation, which is based in Washington, D.C.
LONG ISLAND NEWS
Rep. Steve Israel: VA scandal merits criminal probe Newsday (Tom Brune)
WASHINGTON — Rep. Steve Israel yesterday joined the bipartisan call for a criminal investigation into Veterans Affairs officials and staffers who manipulated appointments and wait lists for ailing veterans seeking health care.
“If anybody at the VA doctored forms, gamed the system, they ought to be investigated, prosecuted and punished,” Israel (D-Huntington) said.
“And if the investigation suggests that Gen. Eric Shinseki did not have proper leadership at the VA, then he will have to resign,” Israel said of the beleaguered VA secretary.
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