Azi Paybarah

State Senator Pedro Espada signed the pledge from Ed Koch’s PAC supporting non-partisan redistricting and other reform measures in Albany.

Koch--continuing with the group’s MO of using public attention to shame others into signing the pledge--said, “if Espada commits to these reforms, surely you must.”

Espada, a Democratic Senator from the Bronx, has been criticized for a number of alleged ethical lapses, including a history of campaign finance filing problems, profiting from a non-profit health care group he controls and throwing the state into chaos when he and another Democratic Senator caucused with Republicans, flipping control of that house and bringing state government to a standstill.

Among the people who have not signed the pledge are Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Vito Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic County Leader.

Schumer hasn’t ruled yet, but it’s cameras probably won’t film Byrd lying in repose in Senate Chamber.

Washington Examiner: “Before Charlie Rangel lost his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means committee, there had not been a single member of congress punished for ethics violations by congressional ethics officials in three years.”

Arcuri votes for Wall Street regulation.

Senate won’t act until mid-July.

Bloomberg: “[A]ll of us were part of the 12 million undocumented here, getting them here, we all chose to pass a law and then deliberately not enforce it.”

Harold Ford: “Don’t besmirch people who decide to go and make a living.”

Confessore finds state bills quietly passing the legislature.

Wrobleski: “How much longer can you sell the notion that some should be shielded from economic reality just because their salaries, benefits and pensions come out of the public till?”

Sampson now supports creating a contingency plan for not getting $1 billion in FMAP money from Washington.

Weiner: “Paterson declined to offer specific examples of what might be cut if the aid is not approved.”

Sampson couldn’t get 32 votes to pass about $1 billion in new taxes and revenue raisers.

State Senators are going home for the July 4 weekend.

Allowing some SUNY and CUNY campuses to set their own tuition is another budget sticking point: Paterson and Sampson support it; Silver and even some Senate Democrats oppose it.

Stachowski and Senate Democrats on Long Island--Johnson and Foley--signaled they won’t vote for a budget without solving the SUNY/CUNY issue.

Paterson throws cold water on racino deal in Syracuse.

NYSUT points to education funding that Paterson vetoed.

Brodsky wants info on bonuses paid to top officials at public authorities.

Post Star: “An aide to state Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo was arrested Wednesday on charges of robbery and impersonating a police officer, accused of flashing a fake badge and stealing $4,000 from an apartment, police said.”

Arroyo couldn’t be reached for comment.

Padavan wants to outlaw alcohol with more than 160 proof.

Kendall Stewart tries settling his campaign debt. “He asked City Hall to forward him the link to the CFB filing information.”

Jose suffers through City Council timing. “At 2:16, an intern for Garodnick who had been sitting in the room most of the day told me he had no idea if the hearing was going to happen at all.”

Rendell welcomes New York’s overtaxed hedge fund workers.

And here's the “least helpful — police sketch ever released.”

New York, NY —

New York prosecutors say they've broken up a "steal to order" car theft ring that took car requests from as far away as Senegal -- and filled them from the streets and parking lots of the Tri-State area.

Prosecutors say the ring was based out of ...

The sky was supposed to fall. Chaos was supposed to reign. And somehow, Albany failed to deliver even that.

Mayor Bloomberg takes NYC subway to announce new recipients of Cities Of Service Leadership Grants.
June 30, 2010 (Photo Credit: Spencer T Tucker)

The “rumors” Gillibrand was trying to stomp out were started by…Gillibrand.

Seiger reaches his “end-of-quarter” limit on fund-raising emails.

Garcia never told Christie who Client 9 was.

Bloomberg doesn’t agree or disagree with anybody.

Ford: “What threatens our party right now is an attitude that business is bad.”

Kruger gets an answer to the budget question that stumped him.

Savino withdraws her bill: “I’m tired of people trying to politicize the pension system.”

Liz wonders when she can leave Albany.

Weiner makes a nice catch. But what’s up with that throw?

Albany’s plan to tax rich people will help Connecticut.

Gatemouth takes on a New York Post article.

Mott's factory workers in Williamson are getting lots of attention from New York politicians. The latest, Kathleen Rice, who is out with this video of her trip to visit the striking workers.

The solidarity with workers is, I think, a sentiment not entirely shared by voters, according to a Quinnipiac poll released today. Then again, unions do have an unignorable role in Democratic Party politics.

In late May, about 300 workers at the iconic applesause producer went on strike after management sought wage cuts. Worker refused, and said the company made more than $500 million in profits last year, making wage cuts unnecessary.

A reader passed along this invite (after the jump) to Beau Biden's fund-raiser at Chris Heinz's house yesterday. The connection, I'm told, is that they're both sons of Senators and attended Georgetown at the same time.

Biden is runing for re-election as attorney general of Delaware and not running for the Senate seat his father, Vice President Joe Biden, held for years.

DiNapoli's campaign is emailing questions they want reporters to ask when they review challenger Harry Wilson's taxes tomorrow [timing fixed].

The questions:

1. What was Mr. Wilson's total income vs. adjusted gross income ?
2. What was Mr. Wilson's income earned from Silver Point Capital (deferred compensation, etc.)?
3. What was Mr. Wilson's income earned from US Treasury Dept.?
4. What income did Mr. Wilson receive from investment funds? (SPC Cotai Investment, Trust Acquisition Company, SKB Holdings)
5. What income did Mr. Wilson earn from his investment in Granite Corporation?
6. What was Mr. Wilson income from interest and dividends in other securities he holds?
7. Were there any sources of income that were not listed in Mr. Wilson's financial disclosure filing that he submitted to the State?
8. Were there taxes paid on domestic employees? (nanny, housekeeper, etc.)
9. What credits and/or deductions did Mr. Wilson take?
10. What Itemized deductions did Mr. Wilson take?
11. What, if any, credit did Mr. Wilson receive for foreign taxes paid?

Lazio's latest campaign video uses a quote from Mario Cuomo about how closely his son was involved in his administration. Vito Lopez's appearance on NY1 is also used, as is the theme song from Star Wars.

By a margin of 56-36, city voters said in a Quinnipiac poll they feel union workers are not doing enough to help the city during the economic downturn.

Interestingly, it's an opinion shared by most Democrats, who agreed 49-36 percent that union workers aren't doing enough to help the city.

Despite that seeming lack of public support, a majority of voters opposed layoffs for city workers, 68-27 percent. To balance the budget, 48 percent of voters said they support raising taxes. Thirty-six percent said cut services, and 16 percent were undecided.

The poll also had approval ratings for some officials in the city:

Michael Bloomberg's approval rating: 57-33, with 10 percent undecided.

John Liu's approval rating: 47-17, with 36 percent undecided.

Christine Quinn's approval rating: 45-27, with 28 percent undecided

Bill de Blasio's approval rating: 35-17, with 48 percent undecided

Ray Kelly's approval rating: 66-20 with 14 percent undecided

Joel Klein's approval rating: 37-41 with 22 percent undecided

The poll of 1,183 registered voters in the city was conducted from June 21-28 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percent.

The Daily News notes reporters were caught on tape making fun of Palin.

Albany’s override plan is…unclear.

More late nights in Albany.

Rangel on regaining his chairmanship: “As soon as the Ethics Committee completes its work, I will be back sitting in the seat.”

Gillibrand: “[W]e need to end automatic pay raises for U.S. senators.”

Barrett says Cuomo talks to Dicker too much.

Cuomo on legislature: “[T]hey accomplished absolutely nothing.”

Wilson provides tax info on Thursday.

Saujani raises by highlighting Maloney’s history of PAC raising.

Malpass impresses the National Review crowd.

Search council member items.

Domino development sails through Council committee.

Hawkins notes Monserrate’s “alleged campaign.”

NY2 gives us a 7th grade social studies lesson.

And here’s Paterson and Prince Harry.

Rasmussen has a poll out showing Cuomo trouncing Lazio and Paladino, but they also include this note about when their telephone survey was conducted:

The survey was taken just after a New York Times report detailing how Cuomo has received large campaign contributions from special interest groups whose influence he has previously criticized and vowed to curb. But most New York voters are not following the story, although 59% describe Cuomo’s campaign contributors as at least somewhat important in terms of how they will vote in November. That includes just 22% who say it is Very Important.

A reader emails to say Beau Biden will be raising money at Chris Heinz home tonight at 6 p.m.

Biden, the son of the Vice President, is the current attorney general of Maryland Delaware and once thought to be a possible candidate for his father's old Senate seat. Heinz is part of the ketchup dynasty and John Kerry world of family operatives.

Anybody who can snap a picture from inside the event--or at least tell me what they ate--would be appreciated.

Some quick highlights from Paterson’s radio blitz this morning.

On WBEN in Buffalo, the governor said he has “regrets for not running” but doesn’t think it would have changed the budget process.

The Times A1 story today about the lack of diversity in Bloomberg’s administration has a more detailed breakdown of some calculations I did a year ago on this topic.

Paterson vetoed education spending, but NYT notes lawmakers “effectively complete[d] the state budget”

TU: The veto was particularly jarring for Senate Democrats [who] planned to tout part of the education restoration as a de facto property tax break -- in lieu of a tax cap

Paterson estimated the legislators' $136 billion budget was $400 million to $1.5 billion out of balance and said he had no choice but to veto the added spending.

Paterson: “New York again wants to blissfully move forward, fantasizing that the Medicaid money is coming.”

The City Council's list of Member Items -- discretionary spending that city lawmakers target to specific programs and non-profits in their district -- has now been published.

It's not a huge amount of money, but it is arguably the one part of the budget that has caused the biggest headaches in the past (and where Council members most directly flex their muscle, locally).

Also worth noting: Council rules say this and the rest of the city budget has to be published for 24 hours before it can be voted on. So, tomorrow, the Council vote should be late in the day.

WNYC political reporter Azi Paybarah offers the latest on budget negotiations in Albany.

Why are so many lawmakers in Southeast Queens taking a beating in the press recently for alleged ethical lapses and possible financial misconduct?

Because of the Aqueduct deal.

That’s what Rep. Greg Meeks said, speaking this morning on WWRL’s Morning Show with Errol Louis.

Louis, who is also a columnist at the Daily News, raised the possibility that the two events may be related. In response, Meeks said his troubles started “around the time the Aqueduct deal got decided.”

After Meeks hung up, Louis elaborated:

“There is something going on, and I’ll tell you what that something is,” said Louis. “This Aqueduct development parcel is worth billions.”

“The folks who want this parcel have hired lobbyists. Those lobbyists, many of them, are very savvy people: They know the folks in the press, they know politicians, they know the process. And, it’s very easy to do a whispering campaign, smearing one official after another. All you need is a little information, and a willing and complacent member of the press to do your bidding. And I think that is what happened in the case of Gregory Meeks.

[skip]

“If you’re simply listening to – and I’m saying this to all the reporters out there – if all doing is simply listening to the whispered phone calls of various consultants, lobbyists and other connected officials who want this parcel, who want control of this parcel and billions of dollars and thousands of jobs associated with it, you have an obligation to put into your story who your source was and the fact that there are people out there who are talking bad about all the local officials in Southeast Queens specifically because they want control of this parcel.

“Just come out and say it. Because if you don’t, I will, and then you’ll be embarrassed.”

With this passage in mind, Bloomberg responds optimisticly to the SCOTUS ruling that struct down a 28-year-old hand-gun ban in Chicago:

“The Court’s decision today and its decision in 2008 in District of Columbia v. Heller both make clear that we can work to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists while at the same time respecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. That’s what New York City has always done. And, I will continue to collaborate with mayors across the country to pursue common-sense, constitutional approaches to protecting public safety."