Colby Hamilton

Update: Links to the US Census Bureau statics are not include in links.

In our first installment examining how the decennial redistricting process affects—and is affected by—ethnic and racial communities of interest, we took a look at Queens’ growing Asian community who are calling for more opportunities to be part of the political process. We made our own plurality Asian Congressional district, which brought up the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the role it’s played in New York City politics.

Few communities have benefited more from the VRA than the black community. While Harlem has been cast as the symbolic center for black politics in New York City, the real epicenter of black political power is Brooklyn. It has been, and remains, the borough with the largest African American, Caribbean and continental African population.

But as with the rest of the city, Brooklyn’s black population is in a state of flux. A number of external and internal forces have reduced the relative and absolute population of people of African descent, and the trend lines going forward indicate a city that will continue to be less black. The waning size of the black population—sooner or later—will have a corresponding effect on black political power in the city.

By Karen DeWitt, New York Public Radio Capital Bureau Chief

The New York State Assembly is coming back to Albany next Tuesday for an afternoon conference, and possibly a special session. Governor Andrew Cuomo has been seeking help from the legislature to close the growing budget deficit.

Assemblymembers have been told by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to come back to the Capitol for a 3 pm conference on Tuesday. They will go into session afterward if there’s anything at that time to vote on.

Governor Cuomo said earlier this week that “there is a need” for a special legislative session to address a $350 million dollar budget gap in the current fiscal year, and a growing $3.5 billion dollar gap for next year.

Among the items Cuomo is seeking is an overhaul of the state’s tax code, with could result in higher taxes on the wealthy, along with tax incentives to help spur job creation. Other steps could include budget cuts or one time revenue raisers. Another option, Cuomo says, is that he could ask the legislature for authority to make the decisions on specific budget cuts.

A Senate source on the Democratic side said they was confident they would be back as well. However, Senate Republicans say they have not scheduled anything for next week at this time.

With Colby Hamilton

In a blow to Senate Republicans today, New York Supreme Court Judge Eugene Devine ruled that the law to have prisoners in state facilities be counted at their last known address prior to incarceration is, in fact, constitutionally legal. The ruling makes the likelihood of tens of thousands of prisoners being counted in downstate districts for redistricting purposes increasingly more likely.

The decision is after the jump at the end.

"Though inmates may be physically found in the location of their respective correctional facilities at the time the census is conducted, there is nothing in the record to indicate that such inmates have any actual permanency in these locations or have an intent to remain," Judge Devine said in his decision.

"Today's decision by Judge Devine is a victory for fundamental fairness and equal representation,” Attorney General Schneiderman, whose office argued in defense of the reallocation law, said in a statement. “As a lawmaker, I fought to end the practice of prison-based gerrymandering that distorted the democratic process and undermined the principle of ‘one person, one vote.’ This decision affirms and applies a fair standard to the drawing of state legislative districts and makes it easier for counties to do the same by providing them with an accurate data set.”

As I wrote when the case was first heard back in October, Judge Devine was asking tough questions of the defense:

The Senate Republican attorney David Lewis was not available for comment, but Senate staffer, who had spoken with Lewis, said the judge, Eugene Devine, did indeed have questions for the defense, interrupting their explanations to ask clarifying questions. The Republican source said the senate plaintiffs were taking this as a good sign, suggesting the judge might have found the reasoning suspect.

It appears Judge Devine was convinced that counting methods that were different from the census process or previous state methods passed muster.

In March 2010, [Census Bureau Director Robert] Groves stated that the Census Bureaus counts individuals as their "usual residence" and that, for inmates in particular, states were free to decide the manner in which prisoners were counted, namely, at the prisons, at their pre-incarceration addresses or altogether removed from "redistricting formulas," where residential information was unavailable.

Senate Democrats, who have the most to potentially gain in the process, are understandably pleased with the outcome. "The time for delay is over. The Senate Republicans and LATFOR must immediately comply with the law. Any further delay is an outrageous and illegal assault on Democracy," said Senate Democrats spokesperson Mike Murphy.

David Lewis, who argued the case for the defendants, said his clients planned to appeal. "We're looking to appeal directly to the [Federal] Court of Appeals because of the constitutional issue and the timing," he said.

Dale Ho, who argued the case on behalf of the NAACP, said he didn't expect a different result. "I think the appellate courts will understand that Judge Devine got this exactly right," he said.

Senate Republican took the decision in stride, with spokesman Scott Reif saying confidently in a statement, "We will review the judge's decision, but regardless of the final outcome of this lawsuit Republicans will expand our majority in the Senate next year."

The state's environmental agency says approximately 6,000 people attended two hearings on hydrofracking yesterday. The meetings, held at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Lower Manhattan, also produced more than 1,250 comments entered into the public record, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation.

“The turnout of 6,000 people at the hearings demonstrates how strongly New Yorkers feel about this important issue,” DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said in a statement. “Public input on the draft environment impact statement is an important and insightful part of developing responsible conditions for this activity as well as determining whether it can be safely conducted. Public comment on the 2009 draft helped DEC greatly improve its proposal which we released earlier this summer.”

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder today, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio joined five members of the city's Congressional delegation and Queens Councilman Daniel Dromm calling for an investigation into alleged abuses of undocumented immigrant detainees at private detention centers.

“This is not complicated: government should not do business with companies that violate basic human rights,” de Blasio said in a statement. “Officials from across the city are adding their voices to this campaign and fighting for the principle that no immigrant—regardless of legal status—should ever be put at risk of abuse.”

In the letter, the elected officials called on the Department of Justice to investigate the practices of private detention facilities it said lacked the oversight of their state run counterparts. In particular, the letter pointed to a company operating in New York City that has reportedly had major problems at other facilities it owns.

"The United States Government should not be doing business with companies that egregiously and consistently violate the most basic human rights," the letter said.

Dr. Rick Timbs of the Statewide School Finance Consortium has a lot to say about the obstacles he sees as fixing the school aid inequities in the state.

We host a “moderated conversation” about hydrofracking featuring Norse Energy Vice President Dennis Holbrook & James “Chip” Northrup, retired oil & gas executive, and vocal anti-fracking activist.

And the Industries for the Blind of New York State is releasing an economic impact study conducted by the University of Buffalo on Thursday that shows that blind and visually impaired New Yorkers are big contributors to the state's economy. Chris Burke joins us with details.

It turns out the current battle over a living wage bill that would raise the pay of workers in a select number of city-sponsored work environments is old hat. According to Doug Turetsky of the city's Independent Budget Office, New York already has living wage legislation on the books that, thanks to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, goes far beyond what's currently being proposed:

Amid the uproar during the past few weeks over the proposed living wage law there’s one important point that you might have missed: the city already has a living-wage law. Its rules cover thousands of workers employed under more than $1 billion worth of contracts with the city.

In fact, New York City had one of the first living-wage laws in the country, though the city’s first bill covered just a couple thousand workers. Passed in 1996, over the veto of then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the legislation was championed by advocacy organizations such as the Industrial Areas Foundation as well as local unions. It required that private firms contracting with the city to provide food services, security guards, cleaners, and temporary office workers pay their employees a living wage that ranged at the time from about $7.25 to $12 an hour.

The number and type of workers covered by the city’s living-wage rules expanded in 2002 when Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a law that extended living-wage provisions to home health care and child care workers whose agencies had contracts with the city. The Brennan Centerat New York University estimated that under the new requirements the pay of 50,000 home health care workers would rise immediately and later the pay of up to 9,000 child care workers. Shortly after the law went into effect, Steve Malanga wrote ruefully in City Journal, “Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, New York will now have the largest number of workers covered by any living-wage law in the nation.”

Read the rest of the blog entry here.

By Karen DeWitt, New York Public Radio Capital Bureau Chief

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (Matt Ryan / WMHT)

The state’s Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, says a statewide undercover operation found blatant violations of the state’s law requiring background checks before the sale of a hand gun.

The AG says he sent undercover agents to six gun shows on Long Island and upstate. They posed as gun buyers with mental health or domestic violence issues, which under law are impediments to purchasing a hand gun. They found that despite disclosing those details, ten different gun dealers waived a background check and sold the agents a weapon.

“I frankly was surprised and disappointed at how easy it was,” said Schneiderman. “No matter how aggressively our investigators asserted the fact that they could not pass background checks.”

Schneiderman says under the law, those accused of illegally selling the guns can only be charged with a misdemeanor. He says he will soon propose a bill to stiffen those penalties and close other loopholes in the law.

The State's Department of Environmental Conservation today announced it was extending the public comment period for hydrofracking until January 11. 2012. The announcement reportedly came during the hearing being held downtown at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center on the Borough of Manhattan Community College campus.

"Many individuals and organizations requested additional time to prepare comments," DEC spokeswoman Emily DeSantis said in an email. "We have decided to extend the comment period by 30 days to Jan. 11."

This will likely come as heartening news to fracking opponents, who have been calling for an extended hearing process. DeSantis, however, said the extended comment period wouldn't affect the time frame for a final decision on rules and regulations for the controversial natural gas drilling process, nor would the extra time mean more public hearings.

Courtesy of the Governor's office.

On Fred Dicker’s show today, Governor Andrew Cuomo was aggressively questioned by Dicker on the details laid out in a Wall Street Journal article this morning about a possible grand tax code restructuring. Dicker tried every angle to get the Governor to say whether elements of a continuation of the so-called “millionaires’ tax” would be part of the restructuring.

Cuomo wouldn’t bite. He continued to argue that whatever plan he comes up with for closing the estimated $3.5 billion budget gap next year will be built on a broad economic program rather than a budget calculation.

“We're not going at this as a budget exercise," the Governor told Dicker. “In the past the exercise has been how do you close the gap--how do you fill the hole? This is an economic problem not a budget problem: How do you create jobs in the state, at a time when you have this national economy and the national current is running against you?"

As we’ve noted in the past, the Governor was reported to be looking for a way to “evolve” on the millionaires’ tax issue. Cuomo is a Big Idea guy. And this is one of those Rahm Emanuel-esque moments where a crisis can turn into an opportunity—at least for Cuomo.

That’s surely one of the reasons why Cuomo refused to say raising taxes was off the table. In a sense, it’d be pure Cuomoian genius: present a broad plan for improving the economy, partly through restructuring a (perceived) antiquated tax code, which will undoubtedly provide pro-business incentives, while “expanding” the tax base. This could mean many things, but most likely would incorporate some form of higher-income increase, without ever mentioning the words “millionaires’ tax.”

Today on "The Capitol Pressroom":

Governor Andrew Cuomo discusses the Regional Economic Development presentations as well as the close of the DEC’s public comment period on hydrofracking

NYSUT’s Dick Iannuzzi discusses education policy.

WCNY’s Matt Michael, formerly of the Syracuse Post Standard, discusses how he and fellow reporter Mike McAndrew initially broke the Bernie Fine story back in 2002.

Crain's Insider this morning has an interesting piece up that looks at the practice of bundling among the likely 2013 Mayoral candidates. As you may recall, Comptroller John Liu has been in the crosshairs with editorial boards and reporters after the most recent campaign bundler--a person who recruits donors for a campaign--was arrested by the Feds for illegally funneling large sums into Liu's war chest.

But, as Crain's Insider reporters Jeremy Smerd and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh report, Liu is not alone. They take aim at former city Comptroller and 2009 Democratic Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in particular for what they say are improbably low numbers of bundlers.

Campaign Finance Board filings show a mere nine bundlers who have raised just $38,825 of the nearly $3 million de Blasio has brought in during his past two campaigns. Thompson has reported 11 bundlers contributing $128,733 of the $6.5 million he's amassed in two runs for mayor.

In contrast, Council Speaker Chris Quinn has listed 107 bundlers contributing nearly $1.9 million. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's 114 reported bundlers have raised $994,363.

Political fundraisers and campaign finance experts question the number of intermediaries reported by de Blasio and Thompson. “It's just not possible,” said one who has worked on a number of citywide races. “To raise millions of dollars with so few bundlers—it's an impossible feat.”

De Blasio in particular appears to have under-reported his bundlers. According to the article, his campaign will be revising their filings, adding around 20 new bundlers. There has been no indication of malfeasance or illegal behavior by any of the other 2013 hopefuls' donors, but the reality is that the process of bundling--and the outsized cash it can create thanks to the city's generous public financing of campaigns--is now receiving much greater scrutiny than before.

Governor Andrew Cuomo is set for another two-fer this morning, hitting up the Fred Dicker show on WGDJ 1300 AM in Albany at about 10:07 am this morning. You can listen in here.

After that he'll be on Susan Arbetter's "The Capitol Pressroom" program which you can listen to as a live stream here on the Empire. That'll be shortly after 11:00 am.

The Governor likes to double down on radio appearances, usually indicating something big is happening, or, more than likely in this case, that his administration's message is being distorted. I'm going to hazard to guess he'll be addressing the report in the Wall Street Journal this morning that his administration is looking to overhaul the tax code which may appear to be a back-door millionaires' tax plan. His administration is denying there's any such thing.

Of course, this may have been in the works for some time.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will hold its final public meeting on hydraulic fracturing tomorrow in Lower Manhattan. It'll be the last chance proponents and detractors of the natural gas extraction process have to go on the record before the state agency puts out its drilling regulations.

While it's uncertain when DEC will actually get around to doing that, one thing is for sure: downstate elected officials have been some of the biggest advocates for postponing or outright banning the process in New York State.

Tomorrow's meeting will be a testament to how well the message of urgency over potential ecological disaster has been retained by New York City residents, a quarter of whom have regularly admitted to not be paying attention to the issue. But not every downstate politician is committed to the anti-fracking cause.

"I'm not convinced one way or another," Bronx Democratic State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. said over the phone earlier today. "On one hand we need fuel. We need to be sure that we become independent. That's one issue that I'm considering. On the other hand people are saying the water could become contaminated. So I'm debating."

After elaborating a bit further, the Senator sounded more like a proponent of the drilling process than not, saying his inclination was towards the independent fuel argument. "We've got to find a way to be independent," he said.

Diaz is no stranger to iconoclastic positions inside the liberal Democratic conference. But a key Senate vote on the other side of the aisle made it clear he, too, was looking for a safe way to support the practice.

"Hydrofracking, if it can be proven to be done safely, is something the state should be doing," Republican State Senator Martin Golden said when reached by phone. Golden had previously missed the big vote on extending the moratorium back in August. Since then he's indicated his support for the measure, saying that "it actually doesn't affect the city of New York" because of measures put in place to protect the New York City watershed.

On the Assembly side dissent has been few and far between. Of all the votes cast on June 6th to extend a moratorium on drilling, only members of the New York City delegation voted against the extension: Democrat Dov Hikind and Republican Lou Tobacco. Neither could be reached by publication time to see if they remained committed to giving hydrofracking a chance.

Just when he thought he was out of the woods: earlier today Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr. of Brooklyn was arrested on bribery charges. From WNYC:

Federal prosecutors say William Boyland Jr. allegedly accepted more than $250,000 in bribes, and he is expected to appear in court Tuesday.

Boyland's attorney, Richard Rosenberg, said he had would wait to see what the allegations are before commenting.

The authorities, from the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, say the alleged actions took place over the past two years.

Three weeks ago, a Manhattan jury found the Brooklyn Democrat not guilty of charges alleging he took a no-show job in exchange for doing political favors for a corrupt hospital executive.

Boyland's attorneys argued that money the Assemblyman received from a hospital was legitimate consulting fees instead of bribes.

State Senator Dean Skelos (Matthew Cavanaugh / Getty)

Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is solidifying his base of support in a major way today. Dean Skelos, the Republican Majority Leader of the State Senate and the highest-ranking member of his party in the state, announced he's endorsed Romney's campaign today, citing the former Massachusetts Governor's 800-plus vetoes and the "conservative principles" Romney brought to state government.

“Of all of the candidates running for President, [Mitt Romney] is the one most uniquely qualified for this moment," the State Senator said in a statement. "Mitt Romney’s policies will translate into more private sector jobs and more opportunities in New York and across the country, and I am proud to endorse him for President."

Skelos is the latest New York Republican politician to throw his support behind the Romney campaign. Yesterday Queens Councilman Eric Ulrich was appointed to run Romney's campaignin New York City.

Today on "The Capitol Pressroom":

Stephen Acquario, the Executive Director of the New York State Association of Counties comments on what NYSAC would like to see from the Regional Economic Development Councils this week.

NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney connects the campaign filing “dots” for us.

Greg May, VP of Residential Mortgage Lending at Tompkins Trust Company, shares his concerns about gas leases and residential mortgages.

Today is day two of presentations. The New York City council will be making it's pitch today at 2:30 pm.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011:

Southern Tier Regional Economic Development Council – 9 a.m.
Capital Region Regional Economic Development Council - 10:30 a.m.
Central New York Regional Economic Development Council - 12 p.m.
New York City Regional Economic Development Council - 2:30 p.m.
Mid Hudson Regional Economic Development Council – 4 p.m.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011:

Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council - 8:30 a.m.
North Country Regional Economic Development Council – 10 a.m.
Western New York Regional Economic Development Council - 11:30 a.m.

By Karen DeWitt, New York Public Radio Capital Bureau Chief

Getty

Governor Andrew Cuomo is not ruling out a special session of the legislature in December to deal with a growing state budget deficit.

Cuomo, who is facing a $350 million dollar budget deficit this year, and a $3.5 billion dollar hole in next year’s spending plan, says there’s a need for a special session of the legislature. But he says he won’t call back lawmakers just for the “theater” of it, and will first try to agree on a deficit reduction plan with legislative leaders.

“There’s no doubt that the numbers are collapsing,” said Cuomo. “And collapsing quickly.”

The governor says there are budget reductions that he can do on his own, without the legislature, or he could simply ask the legislature for authority to cut the budget, without requiring lawmakers to agree on a specific plan. He would not say whether large payments due to schools and local governments in December would be deferred, saying all options are on the table.

Happy post-Thanksgiving Monday! We're happy to announce a new partnership with WCNY in Syracuse to bring one of the best political radio programs in the state to the Empire blog. We'll now be streaming Susan Arbetter's "The Capitol Pressroom" at 11am daily, giving us a great inside look at state politics. Thanks for to the WCNY team for their help in making this happen. Enjoy!