Azi Paybarah

If you're in DC on Monday, why not hang out with the powerful union leader, Randi Weingarten, and New York's senior senator?

Some notable quotes from Bloomberg's radio show this morning.

On congestion pricing: “Balancing the budget by doing something like
this is not a smart thing to do.” The mayor said the money needs to be earmarked for transit programs, in order to work.

On layoffs: “Which do we want? 10 or 15,000 fewer teachers, or continue
a bonus program?" Also, he said, "a billion dollars is 15,000 teachers," referring to the size reduced aid to city schools he's expecting from Albany.

On Trump wanting to run the new Tavern on the Green: “You don't automatically give it someone because they say to the paper I’m willing to do it.” “Donald [Trump] is a promoter and I
think he’s a very good one…I really do like him.”

Bloomberg kept pressing the White House on gun control, telling Lawrence O'Donnell that getting federal agencies to enforce laws already on the books doesn't need congressional approval. The mayor suggested Obama order agencies to certify that they are, in fact, sharing information with the national gun registry about people who are deemed unqualified to buy firearms.

The mayor said congressional approval for that isn't needed, so, basically, Obama could get this done with the stroke of his pen.

The comments - 515 of them so far - are not all flattering. One person claiming to have met Bloomberg, suggested the mayor "walk 6 blocks to the the 24-hour Walgreens....just you and your wallet and see how safe your NYC feels."

Governor Cuomo has across-the-board appeal, according to the latest Marist poll. (azi paybarah / wnyc)

Marist Pollster Lee Miringoff has an explanation for why Andrew Cuomo's latest poll numbers are so high with just about every different kind of New York voter.

"They see him as a moderate," Miringoff said in an interview with NY1 tonight about the poll.

"We hear so much about polarization in our politics today," Miringoff said. "Andrew Cuomo is not a polarizing figure. Democrats, Republicans, independents, New York City, the suburbs and upstaters all pretty much saying, 'Hmm, I kind of like this guy.' "

Miringof, smartly, explains the fault lines Cuomo is deftly navigating at the moment.

"The gap in New York State politics today is not Democrats and Republicans against Cuomo, or for Cuomo. It's between the executive, Andrew Cuomo, and the State Assembly and State legislature," he said.

"Could the overall chamber be held in lower esteem? Not really," said Miringoff. Only 1 percent said either the State Assembly, or State Senate, were doing an "excellent" job.

My favorite number from the poll: when asked if Cuomo is changing "Albany for the better," voters who have a union member in their household agreed, 57-29.

There's been mounting pressure for City Councilman Dan Halloran to disclose more information to back up his allegations that city workers purposely botched the Christmas snow storm in order to embarrass the mayor.

The New York Times said investigators aren't finding evidence to back it up. The Daily News called for Halloran to speak up, or face legal action. And City Hall News outed the name of one of Halloran's source, who is reportedly not giving investigators the same story he gave the Councilman.

I asked the mayor if he thought Halloran should be more forthcoming with the information he has.

The mayor didn't get in the middle of it.

“It’s a City Council issue. You should talk to Dan and other interested parties. It’s nothing we know anything about. He has not shared any information with us, as far as I know," the mayor said.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall was pretty vocal about her criticisms of the city's snow removal efforts during the Christmas storm.

Today, not so much.

According to a spokesman for Marshall, the snow-related problems in Queens are less catastrophic than before.

An oil delivery truck was stuck for six hours in a back parking lot of Queens Borough Hall. The truck was freed just a few hours ago, said Marshall's spokesman, Dan Andrews.

And, on Talbot Street in Kew Gardens, residents complained that there was nowhere to put the snow they were shoveling off their sidewalks. People there were "afraid" of going in and out of the driveways and garages because the snow mountains "are so high."

They requested a dumpster be delivered there so they can put the snow it in and ship it away, he said.

(The area of concern is on Talbot, by Lefferts Boulevard, if you want to visit...and send me a picture.)

But even on Talbot Street, Andrews said the streets in the borough "are plowed nice and clean."

Only once in the 1980s, according to a spokeswoman for the NYC Department of Education.

Feb. 6 1978

April 7, 1982

Jan 8 & 9, 1996

March 5, 2001

Jan 28, 2004

March 2, 2009

Feb 10, 2010

Feb 26, 2010

And, today

It's not easy to call for spending cuts and spending bursts in the same speech.

But spokesman Carl Korn of the state's teachers union does a good job hitching his group's top priority (protection education aid) to Governor Cuomo's (bolstering the state's economy).

Referring to a computer chip company building a plant in Saratoga - just outside of Albany - Korn told me, "Wouldn't it be ironic if...when this latest generation computer chip manufacturing plant opens up, the [company is] forced to go to other states or other nations to hire their engineers because our public schools are cut so deeply that they're not turning out students with the skills that they need to fill those jobs?"

Korn declined to discuss what preparations, if any, the unions has in the works for Governor Cuomo's budget presentation next week, which many are expecting to be quite painful.

"No decisions" have been made, he said.

My story:

When asked about the decision to close city schools because of the snow — something that's only happened nine times since 1978 — Bloomberg was, at first, matter of fact about the whole thing. A combination of mass transit delays and road conditions, made this the right decision for “parents, students and staff," he said.

Sitting in the press corps was one of those students impacted by the decision: 12th grader Myles Miller, a regular attendee of mayoral press conference who routinely reports for an assortment of youth-oriented and citizen-journalist web sites.

After Miller and another reporter asked about the regents exams slated to be given on Thursday, the mayor said that exam wasn't a factor in deciding whether to keep schools open.

“That’s not one of the things that went into our decision making process at all,” said Bloomberg. “The three things are safety, practicality and the economic impact” of parents having to miss a day of work.

Black, the schools chancellor, said 46,000 students were scheduled to take the history and regents exams, 22,000 were lined up for the geometry regents exam, and another 28,800 students were scheduled for the reading, science, chemistry and physics regents exams. The exam is run by the state, which has a policy of not rescheduling it for students who miss their tests.

The next opportunity to take the tests are in June. Which is somewhat problematic, Black acknowledged for "a few hundred" students who were set to graduate this January. "And in the past, they don't make any exceptions," Black told reporters after the press conference.

Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott said the city is talking with state education officials to find a solution for those who couldn't take the regents exams.

The former Republican State Senator from the Bronx was one of the old-school retail politicians who mastered the art of backdoor dealmaking and grasping onto little-known levers of power.

His early release from jail  - where he served time for corruption - caused a backlash and demands for changes to parts of the criminal justice system.

Kappstatter and Lovett note Vellela's post-election life wasn't spent squired away in misery and anonymity.

Even with the controversies, Velella remained a popular figure on both sides of the political aisle.

After losing his law license, he spent the last years of his life as a lobbyist.

He'll be remembered "for his great sense of humor and his straight forward manner," said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

Today's nomination of Ken Adams of the Business Council to lead the state's Economic Development Corporation is just one more nod from the Democratic governor to the business community.

Adams has long ago come out in favor of Cuomo's economic agenda, going as far to say that the Business Council and the then-Democratic gubernatorial candidate were "almost in lock step."

Rick Karlin at the Times Union adds more details:

Adams’ nomination follows that of Leecia Eve, daughter of former Buffalo Assemblyman Arthur Eve, to serve as ESDC’s senior vice president.

The nomination of Adams as President and CEO also bears out what we’ve reported as Cuomo’s plans to split the ESDC leadership, with a president/ceo and a chairman. Still no word on who the ESDC chairman will be.

Mayor Blomberg laughs off a question about Glenn Beck's diss of Co-Op City in the Bronx.

“For all I know he wants to live there and just can’t get through the list and he’s complaining about it," Bloomberg told reporters today at City Hall.

Mayor Bloomberg meets with Chair of the City Council Public Safety Committee Peter F. Vallone, Jr. January 12, 2011 (spencer tucker / nyc.gov)

Mayor Bloomberg did a round of interviews this morning updating people on the snow storm that led him to cancel schools, and close non-emergency offices this morning.

Here's a a transcript of what he said, courtesy of Bloomberg's office.

Halbfinger explains:

The move effectively puts the finance authority board, a six-man panel of state-appointed financial experts and other professionals, at the bargaining table opposite Nassau’s civil servants, police officers and other labor unions.

The board also could unilaterally impose a freeze in wages, a strong club for Nassau, which has been sapped by lucrative salaries, benefits and costly work rules for its police and other workers. But the board chose to stop short of that for now, saying it would try to work with the county first.

The county said it would consider suing to block the takeover.

Mayor Bloomberg - who already called Obama's omission of gun control in his speech last night "disappointing" - has more to say.

Bloomberg told reporters today that stopping illegal guns is a national issue, but the fact more hasn't been done on the issue can't be blamed on one person.

"[I]t's not just the president, and it's not just the Republicans and it's not just the Democrats. All of Washington seems to be cowed by one group," said Bloomberg, obviously referring to the National Rifle Association, who've clashed with him on this issue. Bloomberg - who didn't mention the group by name - said this "one group" "tries to make it about the second amendment. It's not about the second amendment."

When asked what he wanted Obama to say about gun control last night, Bloomberg, said, "that he would take this on as a priority."

Insurgent Democrat Lincoln Restler, campaign manager Sarah Baker, and the couple that inspired them. (Sarah Baker's Facebook page)

Lincoln Restler and his campaign manager, Sarah Baker, share a moment with Barack and Michelle Obama.

Obama's campaign was the catalyst for Restler's own scrappy, and narrowly successful, fight to become a Democratic district leader in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn County Democratic organization is still controlled by Assemblyman Vito Lopez who, reportedly, has not been eager to embrace some of the Obama-inspired activists in the borough.

No, really.

A City Council spokesperson says today's hearing in South Brooklyn on the city's botched snow removal efforts has been cancelled, due to "inclement weather."

In other words, snow.

UPDATE: Bloomberg has declared a weather emergency. (h/t Tish James)

The executive director of Citizens Action contrasts Governor Andrew Cuomo's approach to the budget with the actions of his father, Governor Mario Cuomo.

There once was a governor, who, when confronted by similar difficult fiscal challenges, took a different approach.

It was Mario Cuomo, who dealt with deficits that were similar on a percentage basis, who said:

“A technically balanced budget that fails to meet the reasonable needs of the middle class and poor would be the emblem of hypocrisy.”

Mario Cuomo also said:
“Faced with hard facts, we have a number of choices. Those of us who are comfortable can choose to pretend that the problems don’t exist... We can say that we have stretched our minds and wills as far as they will go …or we can aim higher. We can try to do more. We can dare to be bolder and wiser.”

Well, we at Citizen Action are going to be urging our elected officials to try harder, aim higher, and be bolder and wiser in the weeks and months ahead.  It’s time to make the right choices for all New Yorkers.

We hope that you’ll join us in this effort. We will be emailing, calling you, and knocking on your doors in the coming months to ask for your help.  Please take action, join our events and make your voice heard.  The future of New York depends on it.

The governor's budget is expecte to include deep cuts to spending. (azi paybarah / wnyc)

That's something the capital hasn't seen since 1995, according to Bloomberg's Michael Quint:

“We were warned to prepare for the worst storm we have seen,” said Senator James Alesi, a Republican from Rochester, after he and other lawmakers met Cuomo for hamburgers this month in the Executive Mansion. “He said, ‘We’re not talking about cutting the growth of spending. We’re talking about cutting spending.’”

Such a reduction would be the first scaling back of the overall budget, which includes federal aid, since at least fiscal 1995, state documents show. In the general fund, the measure that Cuomo must balance by law, declines have occurred only twice in that period: last year and in 1995, when Republican George Pataki, who defeated Cuomo’s father, submitted his first spending plan.

Newsweek.com's Ben Adler doesn't agree with Mayor Bloomberg's analysis. (twitter.com)

Newsweek.com's national editor doesn't exactly agree with Mayor Bloomberg's take on Obama's omission last night.