David Paterson

After signing an executive order this morning, Michael Bloomberg fielded a question from a reporter about the new M.T.A. fare hike, and whether the state might force the city to put more money in the M.T.A. budget.

“There is certainly not going to be more money coming from the city," Bloomberg said. "We don’t have it. If the state mandated that we had to put more money in, we’d have to raise city taxes."

Bloomberg said revenue has to be found elsewhere and suggested the state collect taxes from cigarettes sold on Indian reservations.

Funding mass transit, of course, it something of a sensitive issue with the mayor because of his failed congestion pricing plan.

A couple of stories yesterday described David Paterson's apparently strained relationship with State Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm Smith.

I asked Democratic State Senator Diane Savino for her thoughts, and she responded by noting that the sources in the pieces were anonymous.

“People have nothing better to do than to talk shit all day,” said Savino. "If you’re not willing to say something on the record, then don’t say anything at all.”

At the Crain's business breakfast breakfast this morning Representative Anthony Weiner spoke about "saving" New York's middle class, a theme that is likely to be at the center of his mayoral campaign.

The crux of Weiner’s speech, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan, focused on job development. He did not rule out raising taxes, but did say that high taxes stymie job development. He defended the policy that prevents Wal-Mart (but not other big box stores), from coming into the city because it does not pay adequate wages. And he said that the city has to do a better job of offering incentives to keep business in New York City, since New Jersey has lower business taxes and can still access the city's workforce.  read more »

Intern extraordinaire Bharat Ayyar listened to NPR's Michael Martin interview David Paterson,who waxed poetic on NPR about his speech to the N.A.A.C.P. yesterday (where he was uncharacteristically outspoken about that New Yorker cover).

Today, Paterson talked about African-American leadership. Of the civil rights leaders, he said, “These people had to invest their energy on the abolition of slavery, preempting of segregation and the establishment of civil rights when they should have been spending their God-given talents finding new inventions for manufacturing, creating new transportation ideas, medical and scientific research, and perhaps nuclear physics.

"We have just wasted so much of our talent forcing African-Americans, Hispanics and women to invest their great ability in trying to make the Constitution valid and the Declaration of Independence read true," he said.  read more »

David Paterson’s campaign finance filing was just release, and here are some numbers:

$1,959,100 was raised from individuals (although this category includes limited liability partnerships). It also includes a number of $25,000 contributions (from people like Larry Silverstein and Silvercup Studios). That amount is more than twice the limit Paterson’s predecessor imposed on himself.

There’s also a $1,000 contribution to the campaign made by Steve Pigeon, a former upstate Democratic county leader now advising Republican billionaire Tom Golisano.

$66,883.92 was received in in-kind contributions, including $34,197.16 from Spitzer 2010 for “office equipment and supplies.”

$256,705.18 was spent, including $49,850 on polling (June 4) with Global Strategy Group, who got paid an additional $45,000 in consulting.

Three days after the New York Times reported that Representative Charlie Rangel rents four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem, Rangel's neighbor, Governor David Paterson, unveiled this public service announcement on the topic of housing for non-rich people, featuring actor Edward Norton, and two others featuring former Giant Tiki Barber and former Met (briefly) Mo Vaughn.

Paterson’s office said the ads began airing on July 14. In an press release announcing the ads, Paterson’s office said the objective is “to promote the continued development of affordable housing in communities throughout New York State. The PSAs are part of a larger campaign – Affordable Housing Works – which touts attractive and high quality affordable housing developments across New York State.”

These pre-pre election polls have limited significance for any actual contest, but according to this poll from Siena, Michael Bloomberg is benefiting from his continued popularity as mayor, beating both David Paterson and Andrew Cuomo in a hypothetical gubernatorial election.

Here are some other interesting bits:

Paterson wins over Andrew Cuomo among upstate Democratic voters, 51-28.

Rudy Giuliani beats Bloomberg among Jewish Republican voters, 80-20.

Bloomberg beats Paterson among independent voters, 62-26.

And Giuliani edges Paterson among upstate voters, 43-42.

The poll was conducted by phone between July 7 and 10 and included responses from 626 registered voters.

Yesterday, I reported that Suri Kasirer, who used to do Bill Thompson's fund-raising, no longer works for him in that capacity. According to people I spoke with, Kasirer is winding down her fund-raising operations and focusing more on the lobbying part of her business.

But that doesn't mean she's stopped helping people raise money.

She helped organize a fund-raiser for David Paterson last week, according to a reader who attended the event and two people I contacted who were familiar with it. (When I called Kasirer's office, a receptionist there said she is on vacation for the week and declined to comment.)

This gets at the interesting question of when a person who raises money for candidates is not, officially speaking, a fund-raiser.  read more »

On March 17, 2008, Lieutenant Governor and former State Senator David Paterson was suddenly placed in the center of Albany's storm and assumed the Office of Governor. While it may seem premature, we decided to review the environmental record of his first 100 days. New York State's League of Conservation Voters is known for their thoughtful representation of the electorate's interest, so we asked them for their view of our accidental governor's environmental record. Marcia Bystryn, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters observed that:

"In the course of his first 100 days, Governor Paterson has shown that he can work effectively with the Legislature and that he understands the importance of an environmental agenda.  read more »

From David Paterson's comments at a press conference in Albany right now, it seems like he will have a good relationship with Dean Skelos, who is replacing Joe Bruno as the State Senate majority leader.

Speaking to reporters in the back of the Assembly chambers, Paterson said of Skelos, “For eight years he was the deputy majority leader, and I was the deputy minority leader and we used to debate each other on the floor for all my time. He is, in a lot of ways, like Senator Bruno, but he has his own style.”

Paterson, who represented Harlem in the State Senate, added, “He and I grew up about ten minutes away from each other in Long Island.  read more »

Paul Francis, the director of State Operations for Governors Paterson and Spitzer, has resigned, the governor’s office announced today. In the Paterson administration, Mr. Francis provided oversight to many key development projects in the state, trying to sort out the mess at Moynihan Station, among others.

Former colleagues generally held him in high regard as a policy-focused good-government type, though he was said to clash with others close to the governor.

Toward the end of this legislative session, he was a key figure in negotiating the state’s incentive package in a casino resort planned for the Catskills.

Last week, before a deal was eventually reached, we asked Senator John Bonacic, who represents the area, what the holdup was to a three-way deal between the Assembly, Senate and governor’s office.  read more »

Joe Bruno did not commit to staying in office for the remainder of his term when he addressed reporters in Albany just now, instead saying that he'll speak with his conference later today and plans to take things one day at a time.

Speaking in his third floor office in the capitol building, Bruno said he is"satisfied" with his tenure and aims to ensure a smooth and orderly transition.

Here’s the picture I took while trying to keep up with Governor David Paterson as he sprinted to the finish line in the five-mile Hope and Possibility race in Central Park yesterday. He ran the race alongside its chairwoman, Trisha Meili, better known as the central park jogger.

Their time was 53 minutes and 22 seconds. (Meili told me afterwards that they stopped at every water station, so that may explain the time.)

Afterwards, I asked Paterson about coming up on his 100th day in office this week.

“Well, technically, the 100th day is at 1 p.m. on [Tuesday], June 24th," Paterson said, "but in reality, every governor before me either had plenty of time to know they were becoming governor like Malcolm Wilson in 1974, or they had 54 days to plan for it, like Eliot Spitzer.  read more »

Even though he was an honoree, Governor David Paterson couldn’t make it to the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation’s 40th anniversary gala on Thursday night. He was campaigning for Barack Obama.

Things have changed, indeed, for the central Brooklyn neighborhood and its boosters in the 40 years since Senators Robert Kennedy and Jacob Javits founded the preservationist Restoration Corporation.

Women dressed to the nines cried with amazement and pride at lavishly set tables in Steiner Studios in Brooklyn Navy Yard. When Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz made opening remarks about Restoration’s recent successes, including a $25 million renovation to restore and to modernize Restoration Plaza on Fulton Street, the dining room stirred with self-congratulatory remarks.  read more »

There’s an email from the president of the New York State Young Democrats that's getting forwarded around among Democratic activists in the city--one of them sent it to me this morning--that claims David Paterson “opened a phone line to determine how much support there is for his directive to recognize all legal same-sex marriages from other states and counties.”

The phone number the email gives out, 518-474-8390, goes to the governor’s community assistance office, where operators will take down the caller's opinions on gay marriage.

The office wasn’t established specifically for this issue, and, in fact, has been around for years.

An operator who answered the phone when I called a few minutes ago said they have been getting calls about same-sex marriage, then added, “We’re not conducting a poll.”

Here's the text of the email:  read more »

David Paterson made an unscheduled stop at the doctor’s office and underwent laser eye surgery, the third operation in two months.

Here’s the statement from Paterson’s communication director, Risa Heller:

"This afternoon, as Governor Paterson was traveling to New York City to attend his son’s graduation, he experienced pain in his left eye. He went to his physician’s office at Mount Sinai Medical Center for an evaluation where he learned the pressure in his left eye had increased, causing the pain. The doctor found that the prior iriditomy that had been performed to relieve the pressure on his eye (glaucoma) had partially closed - a common occurrence in patients who have a cataract. The Governor had a short laser procedure to relieve pressure on that eye and fully reopen the channel. He left the doctor’s office to serve as the commencement speaker at his son’s graduation. After the ceremony he will return to the doctor’s office for a follow-up visit to ensure that the procedure had the desired result."

A new poll concludes that nearly three in four New York State residents support Governor Paterson's long-shot plan to cap property taxes used to fund local schools.  read more »

Just as David Paterson did earlier today, Michael Bloomberg tried to squash the idea that there is animosity between himself and the governor over the O.T.B. deal.

“I don’t think David Paterson or I ever exchanged a cross word,” Bloomberg told reporters at a press conference in downtown Manhattan this afternoon, where he unveiled a new biking initiative. “He is as likable and easygoing and as nice a guy as you would ever want to meet.”

Bloomberg went on to say, “David has become a social friend as well as business friend.”  read more »

David Paterson denied that he made derogatory statements about Michael Bloomberg, and specifically that he equated Bloomberg's temper with Eliot Spitzer's, both of which Fred Dicker reported in today's New York Post.

“I didn’t say any of the things I’m accused of saying,” Paterson said during a press conference in the capitol building in Albany, where he also discussed the O.T.B. deal that was negotiated over the weekend. “He and I never had an acrimonious relationship,” Paterson added.

Paterson said he will not demand a retraction because the article attributed the quotes to “a source” and not to the governor directly.

“But you’re quoted as saying something that you’re now telling us you never said,” said Daily News Albany Bureau Chief Ken Lovett (formerly of the Post), after asking why Paterson wasn’t demanding a retraction.  read more »

When he announced a deal on O.T.B., David Paterson also nominated State Senator John Sabini as chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board.

If he is approved by the legislature, Sabini will leave his seat and avoid a difficult re-election contest against a challenger who almost unseated him in 2006, City Councilman Hiram Monserrate.

On Friday, I asked Monserrate’s campaign for comment on the nomination. Over the weekend, he issued the following statement:

“I wish John Sabini the best of luck in his new position as Chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. I look forward to the election in November and remain committed to ensuring a Democratic majority in the New York State Senate and providing progressive leadership that advocates for working families in our city and state."

New Yorkers don’t want to see Hillary Clinton or Michael Bloomberg as anyone’s vice presidential candidate, according to a poll out today by Siena.

New York voters oppose a Clinton vice presidency 49 - 41 percent. They oppose a Bloomberg vice presidency 49 - 36 percent.

But -- just for fun, I guess -- Siena determined that an Obama-Clinton ticket leads a McCain-Bloomberg ticket in New York 55 - 37 percent.

Separately, Michael Bloomberg leads David Paterson in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup for governor in 2010 (making it the second poll to show that kind of result.)

And Democrats chose Paterson over Andrew Cuomo, 43 percent to 31 percent.

David Paterson announced that the state will take over the city's unprofitable Off-Track Betting operation, and confirmed reports that State Senator John Sabini will leave his seat to become the head of the state's Racing and Wagering Board.

“We have a looming crisis right here in New York City,” Paterson said. “Because of a dysfunctional statutory system, the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation is unable to continue its disbursements to the city, the state and the racing industry."

O.T.B. will continue to exist, as is, for the next 90 days, after which it will become a new public benefit corporation controlled by the state, Paterson explained. Had the state not stepped in, O.T.B.--which employs roughly 1,500 people--would have been dissolved on Sunday.

Although he shied away from revealing the financial details of the transfer, Paterson did say that “appropriate legislative reforms” will be passed to allow O.T.B. to pay off its outstanding obligations. He mentioned the consolidation of betting systems and internet services across all the state O.T.B.s as possible avenues for reform. O.T.B. will also likely move out of its current office on 42nd Street to the less pricey Aqueduct, saving the corporation $5 million.  read more »

More on the Paterson press conference, from intern Bharat Ayyar:

Just moments after the conclusion of the event, David Paterson went back up to the podium to address the sudden passing of NBC anchor Tim Russert.

“He was a resident of Buffalo, New York, had worked in the governor’s office of the State of New York, and has been an outstanding journalist," he said. "For those who watched Meet the Press every Sunday, any guest on that program was subjected to his steadfast, disciplined, critical and honest nature."

"The world was benefited by his contributions," Paterson continued. "We send our deepest sympathies and prayers to the family of Tim Russert."

Good-government groups have been complaining that David Paterson isn’t pushing hard enough for the kind of reforms that Eliot Spitzer advocated (to little effect) when he came into office.

One of Spitzer's reform-minded changes was to hold public legislative negotiations, which Paterson does not favor. Today, at a press conference in Albany, the governor explained why he doesn't think public leaders' meetings are productive:

“You've never seen a union labor negotiation on television," he said. "And you've never seen a governor and any state leaders negotiating on television. What you do see, what you’re hearing here today, are people expressing their views and debating the issues.

"I think it’s very important to learn from the lesson last year. We tried to negotiate in public. There was a huge fight over campaign finance. On June 13, you were all there, it was right in this room, in a two-hour meeting between the leaders. The fracture from that conversation probably hurt the probability of passing campaign finance, which was the whole hallmark of our plan last year.”

About a year ago, reform of the state’s public authorities came close to a reality before legislation talks broke down in Albany, and now, with state legislators set to adjourn for the summer on June 23, Newsday has an editorial calling for reform once again.

Critics of authorities, semi-independent state agencies like the M.T.A. and the Long Island Power Authority, have long called for reform, saying the bodies have too little oversight and are prone to irresponsible spending.

“There’s been a lot of work being done to prepare the ground for agreement,” Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, chairman of the Assembly committee for authorities, told us Monday. “Over the last week, I’ve been in what I’ll call very, very constructive and active discussions directly with Governor Paterson and his senior staff about the single most important reform,” public authorities reform, he said.

Discussions, of course, do not necessarily mean forward movement.  read more »

Here's Governor Paterson on WHMT's New York Now talking about his plan to cap school property taxes. The show airs Friday and Sunday.

Hat tip: Azi Paybarah at The Politicker.

Here is David Paterson standing firm on his plan to cap property taxes in an interview he taped recently for WHMT's New York Now.  read more »

When voters in a new Quinnipiac poll out today were asked who they’d like to elect as governor in 2010, Michael Bloomberg came out on top, slightly edging out Rudy Giuliani.

The survey gave respondents four choices: Bloomberg, Giuliani, David Paterson and Andrew Cuomo.

Paterson, who enjoys a 67-20 approval rating according to this poll, came in third.

Here are the numbers:  read more »

Here’s Bill Thompson at the rally outside City Hall this afternoon urging the state (i.e. David Paterson) to save the Off Track Betting parlors in New York City before they close in four days.  read more »

Governor Paterson today announced an audit of the schedules and budgets at the World Trade Center site, with his new Port Authority director Chris Ward due to report back by the end of June.

The review, announced two hours after the Port Authority acknowledged it is facing a two-month delay on the site for Tower 2, is already underway at the bi-state agency, as the Paterson administration seems eager to shed any blame for the unrealistic timetables set in the Pataki era.

From a letter from Mr. Paterson to Mr. Ward:

The rebuilding of the World Trade Center site must encompass clear and achievable timelines and budget goals that must be met at every step of the way. Furthermore, the stakeholders and the public must be kept up to date on progress in meeting the timetables and budgets as we move forward.

 read more »

Last month, Governor David Paterson was fielding questions from reporters on a new budget-management program when Fred Dicker spoke up.

“I’m having a little bit of trouble figuring out the significance of the announcement today,” said Mr. Dicker, the famously ornery state editor for the New York Post. “What’s the big deal about it?”  read more »

Governor Paterson today announced the creation of a new panel to help find money to keep the M.T.A. afloat and running, as the agency is facing a tremendous shortfall in needed funding for the coming years.

The panel, led by Dick Ravitch, boasts infrastructure pros, the respective budget directors for the state and the city, the CEO of Con Edison, developer Douglas Durst, M.T.A. executive director Lee Sander, and the director of the Port Authority in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Peter Goldmark, among others.

Transit advocates and some officials widely expect the panel to recommend some sort of combination of increases in taxes and fees, perhaps locally, perhaps statewide; perhaps a combination. The fiscal woes of the M.T.A.—it’s upcoming five-year capital program is expected to be somewhere around $17 billion short of the $30 billion or so desired—could lead to service and upkeep setbacks if the money is not found [more here on this issue].  read more »

Here’s Doug Muzzio, so flustered during his unannounced visit to my desk at City Hall today that he gave an unusually short rant on what he's thinking about today: the heat, Michael Bloomberg, and David Paterson's rent-controlled apartment.

At a press conference yesterday about racial profiling, State Senator Eric Adams said he thought that if Barack Obama, David Paterson or Malcolm Smith "were sitting in a vehicle in South Jamaica, Queens," they could find themselves victims of racial profiling, like Sean Bell and his friends allegedly were.

After the press conference, I asked Adams to elaborate on what he thinks of the prospect of having Paterson, Smith and Obama (particularly if he becomes president) in positions of prominence.  read more »

David Paterson spoke with Barack Obama around 2 p.m., he told reporters in Midtown during the New York State Democratic Party’s meeting.

“He asked me how the first two and a half months were going," Paterson said. "And I told him it might have even been more difficult than your campaign.”  read more »

The upstate chairman of the state’s major development agency has resigned, Governor Paterson’s office announced this afternoon. Taken with the resignations of downstate chairman Pat Foye and downstate president Avi Schick in March and May, respectively, the Empire State Development Corporation has lost its top three officials with no new leader yet announced.

Unclear to us, for now, is whether the departure of Dan Gundersen, the upstate chairman, was his choice or that of Mr. Paterson. Mr. Paterson said in early May that he was planning to reverse the Spitzer administration and consolidate ESDC to only have one chairman (i.e. Mr. Gundersen would suddenly have a new boss, assuming that the one chairman wasn’t him). The structure was criticized as the three leaders frequently clashed.
 read more »

Two highlights of the plan David Paterson announced yesterday to reform the state’s campaign finance law were the dramatically lowered contribution limits (from $55,800 to $10,000 for statewide candidates), and the provision to “level the playing field” should anyone face a self-financed millionaire (or billionaire) candidate.

I asked a spokesman for Paterson if the governor would abide by the lowered contribution limits now, or only after the proposed bill becomes law.

“We believe in a level playing field,” Paterson spokesman Errol Cockfield told me via email.

In other words, he'll do it if and when the limits are passed by both houses of the legislature.  read more »

David Paterson introduced changes to the state’s campaign finance law, picking up on an unfulfilled promise made by Eliot Spitzer to lower contribution limits and restrict how certain companies steer money into political parties.

Under the proposal, caps on donations to the housekeeping accounts of political parties would be lowered from $150,000 to $25,000.

The chart above has the breakdown about other contribution limits.  read more »

Governor David Paterson issued a memo in mid-May—regarding a three-month-old court decision—that was ignored for a few weeks and then, suddenly, publicized.

An appellate court upstate had said that a Canadian marriage between two women must be recognized in New York. This wasn’t much in the way of news! Mr. Paterson had already lobbied for (and seen passed last year, in the Assembly, at least) a bill saying much the same.  read more »

After the Salute to Israel parade yesterday, another reporter and I chatted with David Paterson about D.N.C.'s decision to seat delegates from Michigan and Florida at the convention, giving each only half a vote.

Paterson, a Hillary Clinton supporter, said he would back her if she tries to appeal the decision, but hopes that the party will ultimately be united.  read more »

Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg spoke at a hastily organized press conference scheduled for 11:15 a.m. at the site of this morning's crane collapse on the Upper East Side.

This morning, a crane at the site of the Azure condop development at First Avenue and 91st Street tumbled onto the building across the street, damaging it from the 20th floor to the Duane Reade on the ground floor, and killing at least one person (if not two, depending on reports).  read more »

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, is taking some credit for David Paterson's May 14 memo that ordered state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state.

In this video, posted on YouTube, she discusses the Monroe County case that she says prompted the memo.  read more »

David Paterson says his recently publicized May 14 memo to state agencies—which ordered them to legally recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states—is not in any way a change to state law.

“The Legislature has not provided for marriage equality here in New York. I’m an advocate for it, but that’s not the reason that I came to this conclusion,” Paterson said this afternoon at a press conference in his Midtown office.  read more »

Here’s the video in which David Paterson announced same-sex marriages performed in other states will be recognized in New York. It was presented at the May 17 Empire State Pride Agenda fund-raiser in Rochester (and just posted on YouTube yesterday).

At about the 2:20 mark, Paterson says, “I am directing agency heads that we will recognize marriages conducted outside our state right here in New York State.”

With his characteristic humor, Paterson ends the five-and-a-half minute video by saying, “I am David Paterson and I approve this message. Nobody made me make this message. Nobody cajoled or coerced me into giving these thoughts.”

And here is the text of Paterson’s May 14 memo to agency heads with the same instructions:

 read more »

Also from David Paterson's interview this morning on Fred Dicker's radio show:

Paterson backed off the comment he made last week about Hillary Clinton's "desperation."

"I think a better word would have been 'frustration,'" he said, expressing some regret over how widely his statement was repeated.  read more »

David Paterson said this morning that he expects to call a special session of the Legislature to negotiate budget cuts, possibly even before the next election, although he acknowledged that the legislative leaders—Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver—would prefer to wait until after the elections are over.

"Time is not on our side here," Paterson said, speaking on Fred Dicker's radio show on Talk 1300. "I do have some sympathy for the cuts we made to SUNY," he said, but went on to add, "We need to find an overall solution" for the state budget deficit.  r