PlanetAlbany

Gov. Paterson and the Hippocratic Oath

A news release put out by the governor today denounces regulations issued by the Bush administration to protect health-care providers from being forced into activities that they conscientiously object to, such as procuring abortions. Says the governor: "The most important area this will affect is women’s reproductive health; however these objections could possibly include a host of other issues, including transfusions, vaccination and HIV/AIDS. The regulations could even be broad enough to allow workers to refuse services to individual patients or groups of patients whose lifestyles they consider objectionable, such as illegal immigrants, drug and alcohol users, and gay and transgendered individuals. This violates not only our basic moral code, but the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, an oath typically taken by physicians, but which should be upheld by all who work in the health care field."
That sounds pretty alarmist, raising a host of issues that will probably not come up - although come to think of it, a surgeon should have the right not to perform a sex-change operation.
One thing about that Hippocratic Oath, though. Throughout the great majority of its long history, it specifically prohibited doctors from participating in abortions. That has been scrubbed out of the oath in our modern pro-choice era of "women's reproductive health." But it certainly demonstrates chutzpah for the governor to now imply that the oath and "our basic moral code" demand that doctors, nurses and others actively participate in killing unborn children.

The indomitable Irishry

"All of the hard times are gone," sang Kevin McKrell last night at The Parting Glass in Saratoga Springs. We'd better hope so. That song was written before the recent bout of economic difficulty that has some people talking about another Great Depression we would be less prepared to weather. The tight-knit Irish neighborhoods of Albany and other cities are almost as long gone as the hard times. But you can still catch the McKrells Christmas show at the Glass, tonight (Dec. 19) and Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 22 and 23. The show, the beer and lamb stew are good, but I'd stay away from the crabcake special, swimming in inedible remoulade, which I was rash enough to order there a couple of weeks ago at a sort of job wake with a bunch of newspaper people. There's an Irish flavor to such events. I went to Joe Mahoney's in the spring at a bar on Madison Avenue in Albany, and chatted with Jack McEneny and Terry O'Neill, who wound up running against each other for the Assembly, and NYPIRG's Blair Horner, who does me the honor of saying I've changed his mind about something. (I vaguely remember talking to a tobacco lobbyist and his client at the same event, but can't vouch for their ethnic heritage.) I talked this week to another Irishman, Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna, who was reminiscing about his bipartisan anti-abortion alliance with former Sen. Howard Nolan, D-Albany. Most of New York's successful Celtic politicians, including the one now in Nolan's seat (Breslin) and the one who is taking Joe Bruno's (McDonald), are on the opposite side of that issue, but others keep taking up the pro-life cause. Unlike Sen. Serph Maltese, who seemed full of good cheer despite losing his seat and the Republican majority, Farley looked a bit glum. So I reminded him of the Happy Warrior, that greatest of Irish pols who, unlike recent governors, made Albany his home.

Canestrari should stand up for Momentive workers and state taxpayers (updated twice)

I did hear back this afternoon from Ron Canestrari in response to the concerns raised below, and he said his office has been in touch with Empire State State Development Corp. about Momentive, and that "the company has a three-year window to achieve goals" of job retention and creation in its deal with the state. "The union's doing their job and they should to protect the workers," Canestrari said, "but I don't know the details. I give the union credit." But he re-emphasized his concern about this "difficult economic cycle" that Momentive is caught up in, and how "we want them to stay in business." My earlier postings I leave below as originally filed.

Kevin Frazier, Ron Canestrari's media guy, has now called me back and said Ron himself will be calling in a couple of hours, at which point I will again update this post.

So what exactly is going on at Momentive, the former GE Silicones, whose main plant is in Waterford and which is planning to move its globalheadquarters to Rensselaer County? Another roundof layoffs, benefit cuts and other bad things, including what the union says are pay cuts that violate its contract. That move from Connecticut to Rensselaer County is, of course, being accomplished with state subsidies, pushed through this year by Sen. Joe Bruno in one of his last deals and spedthrough the Assembly at the end of session by Majority Leader Ron Canestrari, D-Cohoes. Canestrari is theoretically the No. 2 leader in the Assembly, in a post traditionally held by upstaters who have sometimes been relatively conservative. Canestrari, though, has a voting record indistinguishable from downstate liberals (in the 1990s, he was the only Capital Region Assembly member to vote against a bill to ban partial-birth abortion). So how about some liberal harrumphing and muscle-flexing over what is happening to Momentive's workers?  I've been asking hisoffice for a response for some time, including today, but they haven't gotten back to me. I ran into the majority leader himself at the Capitol on Monday, but he wouldn't be drawn into criticizing Momentive, noting (no doubt accurately) that they are affected by the global economic downturn, and that the main concern is that they stay in business. Still, it would be nice for the state to get something for the $6.5 million in capital grants and 10 years worth of tax breaks provided for Momentive this yearby Bruno and Canestrari, and not to be left in worse shape than before.

Paterson needs to wake up and shake up Albany

Reaction to Gov. Paterson's timid and inadequate  budget proposal is breaking down on familiar lines, with liberals and unions decrying cuts and demanding tax hikes on the rich, and Republicans decrying both cuts and tax hikes. The governor, to his credit, has indicated he is open to a high-income tax increase, but at the end of the budget negotiations rather than now. This is another example of Albany's binary logic,  whereby it is considered impossible to walk and chew gum at the same time. The tax increase should be discussed along with the need for substantial  spending cuts and mandate relief and changes to perverse incentives that, for example, induce school districts to neglect their old buildings and propose unnecessary new ones because the state will pick up most of the tab. Real-world budget negotiations need to start sooner rather than later. Since the governor wants the budget passed by March 1 (a month before the constitutional deadline, which is normally missed) and says delay would cost the state yet more money it can't afford, he should be putting everything on the table.

Fair share tax plan seems ... fair

As a constant  critic of high state and local spending, expensive mandates, giveaways to unions and failed economic development policies, I guess I shouldn't be sympathetic to the soak-the-rich tax plan put out by SEIU Local 1199, the health-care workers union. But I am.
The union obviously wants to limit health-care cuts. While there is still room to trim health-care costs, some significant trimming has been done in that area in recent years, and there is more fat in education. I am also sympathetic to the kind of people who work as nursing home aides or in other positions represented by 1199. They are not underworked or overpaid.
The union's Fair Share Tax Reform makes more sense than the Assembly's soak-the-very-rich one-house bill, which would only raise taxes on those with incomes over $1 million per year. The SEIU, by contrast, would establish three new brackets, kicking in at $250,000, $500,000 and $1 million. It points out that the top state income tax rate now, of 6.85 percent, kicks in on households earning more than $40,000. That's absurdly low. The plan would establish new brackets of 8.25 percent (at $250,000), 8.97 percent (at $500,000) and 10.3 percent (at $1 million annual income), which SEIU says would raise $5 billion per year for the state. That plugs about a third of the projected budget deficit.
The politicians should add something not in the union's plan, a blanket adoption of all the recommendations from Tom Suozzi's commission on school property taxes. That would include a property tax cap, along with mandate relief and other measures to control costs. Giving the middle class a break on property taxes is especially urgent if, as Gov. Paterson proposes, STAR rebates are to be abolished. And capping their property taxes will make an income-tax hike palatable for the upper middle class.
Tax increases and spending cuts are better than using back-door borrowing and other fiscal gimmicks to pretend to balance the budget, which is what many politicians will want to do.

More feebleness in Paterson budget

I guess I was too quick to give the guv credit for proposing a new Tier 5 that would exclude overtime earnings when calculating pension benefits. The  Empire Center informs me that "the new tier would not include police and firefighters, whose overtime costs are a major driver in local government budgets." You can say that again. Often, senior members of the departments pad their earnings in the three years before retirement so as to drive up their pensions. Even when there is no intent to pad, they may be more or less forced into early retirement, as after 9/11 in New York City, because of high overtime earnings.

Since everyone knows the governor's plan is just the starting place for legislative add-ons, it's beginning to look like Paterson is no more serious about addressing New York's chronic budget and economic problems than his predecessors Spitzer, Pataki and Cuomo, all of whom could sometimes define themselves as fiscal conservatives when compared to the Legislature. 

Budget is feeble on special ed

As far as I can see (and I have a call in to the Budget Division press office) Gov. Paterson's budget is all about cost shifting in this fat-filled area, as opposed to genuine cost cutting, and does not even include the reforms advocated in pages 73 to 85 of the final report (released Dec. 1) of the Suozzi Commission on Property Tax Relief. I don't see anything about reducing state mandates that exceed federal mandates; nor about encouraging school districts to reduce their high rates of classification of students in need of special ed; nor anything about reducing litigation costs; nor anything about districts more efficiently sharing costs, e.g. in transporting students to BOCES. My wife, a longtime public school special ed teacher and also a former public school district board member, is an advocate of saving money to improve educational outcomes in this area. Regarding some other parts of Paterson's education budget, she's for the $40 million cut in Teachers Centers, but dubious about cutting $10 million from a Teacher Mentor Intern Program and another $10 million from a summer math and science program provided to high school kids at colleges.

Caroline Kennedy's embarrassing supporters

My daughter tells me I need to include more items in this blog of popular interest for the casual reader, such as one about Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's campaign to be appointed to the U.S. Senate. Well, I don't suppose this grown-up princess is any worse than the other touted contenders, although there is something creepy about a president's daughter and a governor's son (Andrew Cuomo) being seen as the main candidates to inherit the seat of a president's wife (Clinton). It also sounds like she's the leading contender, with the stars and Harry Reid lining up for her. While I am reluctant to follow better known pundits who are already in full flow, this time their flights of fancy are so ludicrously gushing that they need shooting down or drying up.

Take Michael Daly in this morning's Daily News. He's a buddy of Caroline, he lets us know, and her apartment "feels like a home." What's more, there are books on the shelves, which "prove she has a keen understanding of the law, a love of poetry and a vibrant patriotism. Her work for the city Education Department proves she grasps the importance of schooling." She also smiles like JFK, and had a pleasant chat once in an Irish pub.

Or take the Capital Region's own Alan Chartock, writing in The Legislative Gazette and his TU blog . It's so "obvious" to him that Caroline is the one that it's "a no-brainer." She has "an international reputation," for Pete's sake. "She is a mom, a loving wife, a rock of Gibraltar in the Kennedy family," and "she is an expert on things educational."

Back to the hard-headed Daly, who "can assure you she is hardworking, disciplined and smart, yet grounded in common sense." What a marvel! Can it be true that such a woman walks (or maybe rides in limousines) among us, at least when we're in Manhattan, and that she might deign to represent us in the Senate? As Chartock says, "Even the upstate downstate conundrum would be solved because Caroline Kennedy transcends the issues." Verily, it is the politics of transformational transcendence from the Bush dynasty back to Camelot.

Still, daughter, the polls say people like Caroline, and your mother asked me what's my problem with her candidacy. "Put not your trust in princes," said the psalmist, but he probably meant any senator type.

RPI must save Proctor's

In Troy, as in Schenectady, Proctor's Theatre is just off Broadway, but this tale of two cities could not be more different. While Proctor's in Schenectady is at the center of a downtown revival, Proctor's in Troy has sat empty for 30 years, despite all the sweet promises made by RPI more than four-and-a-half years ago when it bought the ornately facaded building. Proctor's takes up most of a block on Fourth Street, and has contributed mightily to much of the rest of that block sitting vacant or used only as warehouse space. From the State Street end of the block (where a brutalist Verizon building does its part to deaden street life) you can look up the hill to EMPAC on the RPI campus. For you philistines, that's the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, which RPI was building at a cost of $200 million while it let Proctor's rot, and which opened in October. And the construction of EMPAC may make it less likely that a theater can succeed now at Proctor's. Last week came word that  RPI is seeking a developer for Proctor's and the nearby Chasan Building, and it wants to receive $800,000 for the pair. It's hard to see how RPI is morally entitled to anything, seeing how its irresponsibility has damaged this part of Troy. It reminds me of the Schenectady County Chamber and its dereliction of duty regarding the Gillette House, or St. Mary's Church in Glens Falls which bought its neighbor, an old post office building on Warren Street, and left it to rot year after year after year. Bungling or heedless nonprofits can do just as much damage as corporate or government types. Tax policies should be restructured to reduce the likelihood of nonprofit-sponsored blight.

Public safety spending in Schenectady County

Speaking of cutting the budget, does an organization called "The Homeland Security and Public Safety Training Consortium" really need to build " classrooms, a fire tower and an outdoor course where police officers and firefighters can practice driving" on 12 acres in the Schenectady County town of Glenville?
According to the Gazette, "The consortium has received two grants of $517,000 and $548,000 from Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna, as well as a $2.5 million commitment of state Dormitory Authority money. However, a ballpark estimate of the cost is $8.75 million, according to David Hennessy, chairman of the Department of Business and Law for Schenectady County Community College, one of the consortium members.
"... Hennessy said there is a pool of $11.9 million in state funding for SCCC in the capital budget for a 'public safety/business center' that the consortium could tap, assuming it comes up with matching funds."
In other public safety news, the city of Schenectady is using a federal Homeland Security grant to write an emergency preparedness handbook and mail it to every resident.
I am keenly aware that Schenectady could use more state and federal money for urgent public safety needs. But that's not where this money is going, and since the same federal and state incentives exist everywhere, it's a safe bet that similar misdirection of resources is going on all over the state.