Azi Paybarah

From Siena:

19-41 percent favorable / unfavorable - Sheldon Silver
11-17 percent favorable / unfavorable - Dean Skelos
38-35 percent favorable / unfavorable - CSEA
43-39 percent favorable / unfavorable - NYSUT
37-31 percent favorable / unfavorable - 1199/SEIU
31-25 percent favorable / unfavorable - Business Council of NYS

More on the poll from Liz.

Andrew Cuomo is popular, even if key parts of his budget face resistance, according to a new Sienea poll.

Also, GOP and Independent voters really like Cuomo's budget, even though members of his Democratic Party do not.

Cuomo
77-16 percent favorable / unfavorable among voters.
83-12 percent among Dems
70-20 percent among GOP
70-22 percent among Independents

Obama
62-35 percent favorable / unfavorable among voters.
82-17 percent among Dems
29-67 percent among GOP
55-39 percent among Independents

Cuomo's pledges to not raise taxes, not borrow, and cut spending all poll at 75 percent or higher with voters.

When it comes to cutting health care or education, things change.

Cut Medicaid by $1 billion:
51-45 percent support it.
41-54 percent among Dems
61-36 percent among GOP
59-36 percent among Independents

Cut SUNY / CUNY by 10 percent:
41-56 percent support it
33-65 percent among Dems
50-47 percent among GOP
49-50 percent among Independents

Renew tax on those making $200,000+ annually (which Cuomo opposes)
33-65 percent support
27-71 percent among Dems
45-53 percent among GOP
34-63 percent among Independents
61-37 percent among those making $100,000+ annually

There's some good news in this Wall Street Journal report about vacation homes subjecting their owners to a host of local taxes. It may also help those same people establish residency, if they wanted to do something like run for office.

Attorney Jerry Goldfeder of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan - who literally wrote the election law book - had this to say:

"This ruling is a very expansive view of residency. While not welcome from a tax perspective, it will make it easier for candidates to prove residency when running for office. In this respect, it reflects 21st century reality -- many people have 'second' homes and each one is a bona fide residency."

One reader emailed me to ask, "What would have happened to Regina Calcaterra if this ruling was controlling?"

Aram Roston tries connecting the dots between Bloomberg LP's legislative agenda in Washington, Michael Bloomberg's political operatives and a Bloomberg BusinessWeek story. Howard Wolfson figures prominently:

Roston:

Bloomberg’s lobbyists quickly told the coalition members that it intended “to capitalize on the great Business Week/Bloomberg story this morning,” according to an e-mail obtained by The Nation from a member of the coalition. The lobbyists wrote, “We’d like to flag it for reporters with a quick quote and topper.” The coalition’s press statement said of the article, “These donations…are part of a calculated attempt to buy approval for a merger that offers too many dangers for consumers and media organizations.”

There is no evidence that the Bloomberg reporters wrote the story as part of a companywide strategy or were assigned the story because of corporate influence. A Bloomberg spokeswoman says there is an “impenetrable firewall” between editorial decisions and the other parts of the company. Still, it was a captivating confluence of forces: Glover Park Group, paid by Bloomberg LP, and acting with the coalition it had created on Bloomberg’s behalf, was on the warpath to distribute a news story Bloomberg Businessweek had written about the issue that was the most important pending matter in Washington for the Bloomberg brand.

Glover Park Group, for its part, readily concedes that it organized the coalition and that Bloomberg was its paying client but insists that the coalition was not technically a lobbying operation. “Any lobbying work that’s done is registered and fully disclosed,” a spokesman wrote in an e-mail to The Nation. “The Coalition never did any lobbying.” Here is the way to parse that: Senate lobbying definitions make it clear that lobbying includes “any oral or written communication” with White House or Congressional officials. But material “that is distributed and made available to the public” gets an exemption.

In a subsequent statement to The Nation after a request for clarification, a Glover Park spokesman said the coalition letters and other releases “are simply public communications.”

Another highlight from the story: "One oddity of the Bloomberg news empire is that without exception, all of its journalistic operations lose money, and they always have, according to sources with knowledge of the company."

Nick Langworthy, the Erie GOP Chairman and former aide to Chris Lee says, the former congressman could have stayed in office.

"He was not accused of any crimes or abusing his office…he's broken no laws, he probably could have weathered it…I believe he probably could have weathered the storm."

Scott Stringer - the Manhattan borough president and prospective 2013 mayoral candidate - is out with a statement slamming Bloomberg for "outrageous" comments about pension payments he'd like the city to stop paying.

It's a milder criticism than Bloomberg got from police and fire union leaders yesterday, who called him a "liar" and other unflattering things.

At issue are $12,000 annual payments the city makes to uniformed retirees from what's known as the Variable Supplement Fund. Officers with more than 20 years on the force receive them. Bloomberg has called the payments a "Christmas bonus," and therefore, a perk that can be taken away in a budget crunch. Union members say it's part of their pension, and therefore, can't.

Having to takes sides on the issue is problematic for most officials, particularly those expected to run for mayor: angry unions on one side, angry taxpayers on the other.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn - who has strong ties to unions and the mayor - hasn't publicly stated her position, saying she needs to speak with her colleagues on the Council. A spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu - whose work looking over the city's finances will play a large role in any future campaign - said he's "extremely concerned with any proposal that breaks a promise" made to these retirees.

In a statement, sent to me by a spokeswoman, Stringer takes a shot at Bloomberg, but doesn't come out definitely on whether the city should keep the payment plan in place, which city officials say cost NYC about $1 billion a year. (Unions say the city got cash and concessions decades ago that more than make up for it.)

Here's Stringer:

“I am becoming increasingly concerned about the tone and direction the Mayor is taking as it relates to union negotiations and a discussion around pensions. To characterize the Variable Supplement Fund benefit as it relates to the men and women of our police and fire departments as a “Christmas bonus” is simply outrageous. When you throw mud, it splatters. We need a serious conversation between City Hall, our labor leaders and Albany about pension reform. In a time of serious fiscal crisis, we’re going to need collective sacrifice. Grandstanding, bomb throwing and divisive accusations by City Hall will undermine the fiscal soundness of this city.”

"Increase the student performance, you'll win a grant,"Cuomo says in this clip from his speech at Hofstra yesterday. He went on to say, "And let's also reward good managers who are actually finding efficiencies."

Rep. Chris Lee - a married Republican from upstate - announced he's resigning from congress following the "profound" mistake he made contacting a woman on Craigslist.

It's not the first time a career has ended thanks to the private exploits of a public official first reported by a not-so-mainstream media outlet.

Gawker published emails they say were between Lee - sent from a private account - and a woman who posted an ad on Craigslist. A spokesman for Lee first suggested the emails could been the result of someone hacking into his account.

But there was also the topless photo of the congressman, which seemed like a smoking gun.

Gawker has made a concerted effort to concentrate on original reporting, and not just being a site of well-written recaps of other people's work. They - along with Columbia Journalism Review - FOILed David Paterson's emails - something I had marginal success at.

It only took Gawker one item to end Lee's career, whereas the National Enquirer spent years chasing John Edwards around the country, and put his extramarital affair on their front page and inside their paper, numerous times before the mainstream media caught on.

Gawker did this by simply having the goods. The emails. The photos. Basically, that was all you needed. The National Enquirer had unnamed sources, blurry photos, much less traction with the MSM.

If there's a lesson from the Chris Lee & Gawker episode it's that any web site can end a career; any web site can get the goods. If, you know, they have sources and good info.

Which is all journalism ever really required, right?

Lee is a Republican upstate. (gawker.com)

Gawker:

On the morning of Friday, January 14, a single 34-year-old woman put an ad in the "Women for Men" section of Craigslist personals. "Will someone prove to me not all CL men look like toads?" she asked, inviting "financially & emotionally secure" men to reply.

That afternoon, a man named Christopher Lee replied. He used a Gmail account that Rep. Christopher Lee has since confirmed to be his own. (It's the same Gmail account that was associated with Lee's personal Facebook account, which the Congressman deleted when we started asking questions.)

By email, Lee identified himself as a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist and sent a PG picture to the woman from the ad. (In fact, Lee is married and has one son with his wife. He's also 46.)

I'm waiting for a comment from Lee's spokesman. More on the story here.

Before the police and firemen's union called Bloomberg a "liar," the mayor told reporters his efforts to scale back the $12,000 annual payments to retired uniformed workers is an important part of the city's budget that needs to be addressed, soon.

We certainly didn’t put out anything that is to the best of my knowledge not accurate and true, so an allegation that it’s misinformation, I don’t know how to respond. If I saw their individual complaints, fine. Nobody wants to get cut back, I understand that, we have to make a decision. Do we want to send out Christmas bonuses or have more teachers? It’s that kind of decision, it doesn’t have to be those particular employees or that particular expense the city has...The question is how we’re going to continue to provide the services people want without raising taxes."

Steve Cassidy, of the firemen's union, called the mayor a "liar." (azi paybara/ wnyc)

Police and fire unions aren't holding back:

The rally Thursday Wednesday morning was unusual for its tenor and tone. Cassidy and Lynch repeated referred to Bloomberg as dishonest, a "liar" and characterized his move as an effort to "steal" money from their members. While the mayor has sometimes been at odds with different unions, today's comments were among the harshest he's received in years.

"We did endorse the mayor in the past election," said Lynch of the policeman's union, "and we're calling him a liar today because he's saying lies in the public."

"We never endorsed him and he is a liar," said Cassidy.

The borough president and un-announced 2013 mayoral candidate Scott Stringer. (azi paybarah / wnyc)

Justin Krebs explains Scott Stringer's speech yesterday :

Mayor Bloomberg didn’t need to be called out by name for everyone to understand at whom this salvo was aimed. After a decade of decision-making that rarely welcomed and often ignored public comment, it’s not just a narrow sliver of jilted parents, ideological progressives and good government groups who are tired of the mayor’s style. The controversy following Cathie Black’s appointment was as much about the secretive process as about the ill-prepared appointee. Following the questions about the mayor’s whereabouts during the December blizzard, City Council is considering legislation that require him to “sign out” when he leaves the city. Even the mayor sensed the public’s restlessness, which is why he dedicated real estate in his own annual address to the concept of “crowdsourcing,” suggesting he was more willing to listen to the public.

Stringer doesn’t need to run against Mayor Bloomberg, which is fortunate for him. Even the pugnacious Anthony Weiner was finally intimidated by Bloomberg’s moneyed and massive campaign machine last time around. But New Yorkers are ready for more elected officials to challenge the mayor. The Progressive Caucus of the City Council has been finding its voice. The Public Advocate had been vocal in calling out the mayor over the past two months of controversies. And Borough President Stringer — while being careful not to paint the mayor as an adversary, and while being respectful of what Bloomberg has achieved — has laid out a different approach to governing that New Yorkers need to remember can exist.

Police and firemen's unions are rallying in order to stop what they say is Bloomberg's "misinformation" campaign about their pension payments.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Uniformed Firefighter's Association announced they were rallying later this morning on the City Hall steps "to fight the mayor's orchestrated misinformation campaign to reduce police and fire pension benefits."

Bloomberg has referred to the $12,000 payments given to retired uniformed workers as a "bonus" the city can no longer afford - and stopping it could spare the city from laying off "thousands" of public school teachers (see how he connects those two issues).

The unions say the payments are part of their pension - not an addition to it - and is the result of a decade's old deal struck when the unions gave hundreds of millions of dollars to help the city when it was in a financial crunch.

It's unclear if the alterations to the payments - called the Variable Supplement Fund - require a vote in the City Council prior to action from the state (which has final say on the matter). Requiring the Democratically-controlled City Council to vote on it - in a procedure called a "home rule message - could be problematic, since many have close ties to the unions.

But Bloomberg told reporters in Albany earlier this week he's confident it would pass.

"I think the City Council is going to have to sit there and say, '10,000 teachers or a home rule message.' That seems to me something that'll carry pretty quickly, but i don't even think it's needed," Bloomberg said.

Mayor Bloomberg delivers testimony before the Joint Session of the Assembly Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committees about impact of proposed state budget on New York City. February 07, 2011 (edward reed / nyc.gov)

Senior Advisor Howard Wolfson offers this comment when asked about Mayor Bloomberg testifying before a grand jury about campaign operative John Haggerty illegally obtaining nearly $1 million of the mayor's money during the 2009 campaign.

"The Mayor was asked to testify regarding the DA’s allegations that money was stolen from him and he did."

More on that from Liz Benjamin and Grace Rauh.

City Record - now available online - has long been a must-read for any dogged reporter looking (the old fashion way) for granular-level information about city government.

Now that it's online, you can do fun things like read it on an iPad (anybody, please, send me a picture of that!) and, more importantly, you can search the entire document for key words, like "salary" and "resigned."

Try it.

Jay Jacobs went from being Nassau County Chairman, to NYS Chairman, thanks to David Paterson. (azi paybarah / wnyc)

Page Six sent tremors through New York Democratic circles this morning with a blind item saying the head of the party, Jay Jacobs, was getting replaced by one of Governor Cuomo confidents, Charlie King.

The item included a terse-sounding comment from an unnamed Cuomo's spokesperson who said "Not true."

Of course it's unclear what exactly the "not true" means: "Not true at the moment" or "Not true; Jacobs has the full support of the governor and we have no plans to install King in his place."

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto did not respond to an emailed request for elaboration. An email to Simon Brandler, who handled press for the state party during the campaign, bounced back. A telephone message left for King at the state party's office was not immediately returned. Jacobs said he did not want to comment publicly.

Jacobs went from Nassau County Chairman to State Party Chairman, thanks to support he got from Governor Cuomo's predecessor, David Paterson. Jacobs was re-elected to a 2-year term this past September.

As NYC is seeking many millions from Albany, it's ignoring some millions from its tax base.

City Comptroller John Liu said $2,569,740 in uncollected taxes were missed by the city's Department of Finance, due to "flaws in recording payments."

The money is "sorely needed in the fact of looming budget cuts," says Liu. He also noted the Department of Finance wasn't entirely helpful during this audit.They "handed over limited information" and spent $575,000 "to hire an outside consultant" to do a "similar" review as Liu was conducted of the agency.

An additional $785,730 went uncollected because the city did not return to the tax rolls 19 businesses that participated in the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program.

While it's true the city is looking in every corner for money - the $3.3 million Liu found palls in comparison to the more than $2 billion Mayor Bloomberg says the city needs to make up for cuts heading their way from Albany.

Michael Bloomberg has learned a lesson from his congestion pricing battle: don't force NYC Council members to take a controversial vote on legislation that ultimately is decided in Albany, if the legislators in Albany aren't promising to vote on the same bill.

This issue may come up as Bloomberg asks state lawmakers to allow him to cancel $12,000 supplemental payments to uniformed retirees. When Bloomberg mentioned it during his testimony in Albany yesterday, one state senator asked if a "home rule" message from the NYC Council was needed.

Bloomberg's response:

“I don’t know if it’s necessary” Bloomberg told the committee. “I can tell you this. Unless you tell us you’ll do it, I’m not going to fight that battle. I was asked by the legislature, with congestion pricing, to come up with a home rule message. We did,” and, Bloomberg said those City Council members who took a vote on the controversial bill were left “twisting in the wind” because state lawmakers never followed up with a vote on the same legislation.

“I’m not going to let that happen again,” said Bloomberg.

Andrew Cuomo's budget will lead to the loss of 150,000 jobs, with about half of them coming from New York City, according to Assemblyman Jim Brennan, a Democrat from Brooklyn.

Brennan described the budget as  "a complete disaster" for New York City and the state.

He made the comments while the joint budget committee he sits on was receiving testimony from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Quinn said, "I would not describe the governor's budget as a complete disaster"

"Partial disaster?" Brennan asked.

Quinn, trying to settle the matter, said, "I would not describe - lest I be misquoted - I would not associate the word 'disaster' with Governor Cuomo's budget."

While Bloomberg was in Albany, I asked him what he thought of the study that found 41 percent of pregnancies in New York City ended in abortion.

"I have no idea if that's an accurate number or not. I just don't know," he said.

The report was announced by a group that included Archbishop Timothy Dolan. Bloomberg aides took a more nuanced view of the figure, according to this New York Times story.

[C]ity health officials and groups that support access to abortion say that behind the 41 percent statistic — nearly twice the national rate — are complex social and legal factors: fewer obstacles to abortion in state law; the absence of mandatory sex education in New York City public schools; the ignorance of people, especially young ones, about where to get affordable birth control; and the ambivalence of young women living in poverty and in unstable relationships about when and whether to have children.

UPDATE: About that methodology. The study says their findings hold up, even when calculated by the method used by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization. A spokesperson for the Guttmacher Institute told me they too come up with a 41% abortion rate for NYC.