Hayseeds No. 192

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Spitzer's Comptroller Panel Picks No Assembly People. It should be very interesting to see how things play out now that our governor's comptroller panel chose no Assemblymembers to be as candidates for Comptroller, despite the wishes of Shelly Silver. P'Link

Medicaid Participants To Get Plan 'B'. It looks like some of those people who receive Medicaid will now be eligible to get Plan 'B' over the counter at a discount with their Medicaid cards. That will hopefully mean less unwanted pregnancies have to be aborted later on at state expense, much less unwanted babies taken to term then abused by their parents. P'Link

Pirro's Latest Little Ethics Problem. It looks like our hero, Jeaine Pirro is in trouble again, this time for using county computers to do background checks, to ensure that she wasn't getting campaign donations from people she was prosecuting.

That's a little no-no in the public officers law. Oops. P'Link

Comptroller's Panel's Love Of DiNappoli. The MidHudson Blog picks up on how friendly the comptroller selection panel was to Alan Hevesi, despite the fact that they didn't put them on their list. P'Link

Bruno Used Campaign Funds for Trip to Florida. In usual Albany-sleeze, it looks like Joe Bruno took a nice little business trip to Florida on campaign dime. Of course, Bruno blames the TU for revealing the story and mentioning the problem. Go figure. P'Link

TU Takes Up Terry Sayward's Insistence That There Be Cell Towers Across the Adirondacks. As many of us who have been following North Country politics for a while, Theresa Sayward has found yet another sad case of why we must amended the constitution to put cell towers in the Adirondacks.

Of course, if we were talking about a fundamental freedom like the first amendment or the fifth amendment, nobody would be taking her seriously. But it seems so easy to put some of those big towers in the Adirondacks, to dominate the skyline, rather then protect the Adirondack Park.

Can't we survive for about an hour without cellphone reception in the Adirondacks? Yes, there always is going to be horrible accidents in places where cellphones don't pick up. If we get towers on I-87, then what's next? Will we have to put cellphone towers on Route 22 or Route 9, in case people break down there?! P'Link

Did Spitzer Choose the Wrong Person for Running PSC? It looks like the Binghamton Post-Connects is less then happy with Spitzer choosing an NYSEG Lobbyist to oversee the public service commission. Certainly she would be knowledgeable about her material, but it does also pose an interesting conflict of interest. P'Link

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Maureen O'Connell Endorses DiNappoli. The Republican whose running for State Senate in Senator Balboni's old district,, sent out a press release and has been running ads in support of Tom DiNappoli for Comptroller.

It's interesting how so many Republicans have gotten behind Tom DiNappoli for Comptroller like Senator Dean Skelos. It may also not be the kind of support he wants in a democratically controlled joint session. He doesn't want to be seen as the Republican's candidate, regardless of the few Republicans that will be voting in the race. P'Link

It's All in Article IX. Some of the things done in budget legislation, at least in the environment section that you may or may not have noticed:

• Bigger Bottle Bill. Deposits expanded to all bottles except milk, liqour, and wine—and also excepting non-drinks like soup and the alike. Already the bottling companies are flooding offices with memos of opposition.
• Mid-size CAFO Fee Increased. Goes up from $150 a year to $500 a year for medium size farms to help pay for inspection costs. Should be interesting to see what the farm bureau and dairy people say about that. Of course, implementing the new DEC regs for medium-sized CAFOs will be expensive, and it looks like they might just be implemented under a Spitzer administration.
• Dam Owners To Pay $500 a Year. All owners of dams in New York State will now have to pay $500 a year for inspections, up from the previous $100 initial registration and free there after. Probably not popular with dam owners, but how much clout do they have?
• Well Drillers to Pay DEC $100 Annually. This is up from the $10 a year, which was far too little money for the DEC to pay for the well drillers program, where they tracked new wells being drilled. Probably most drillers won't care that much, as the paper work time already costs far more then a $10 or $100 fee, but it might hurt small drillers.
• Air Permits Tax Increases. Offically, the federal law requires that the state increase the per ton emissions monitoring fee for air emissions, but it also will raise the cost of doing business in New York. Of course, nobody seriously supports toxic air emissions.

Still, there is bound to be some push back on all those fee increases. But except maybe for the CAFO fee increase, it seems unlikely that any of them will be repealed in the final budget, as messing with Article IX bills is difficult per the consitution and Pataki v. Silver, despite the wishes of some. P'Link

That Fucking Steamroller. From the New York Post, one of the finest pieces of right wing news in our state:

"Listen, I'm a fucking steamroller and I'll roll over you and anybody else," Spitzer angrily yelled at Tedisco - who was driving in his car and speaking on a cellphone, sources familiar with the conversation told The Post.

One source also quoted Spitzer as having bragged to Tedisco, "I've done more in three weeks than any governor has done in the history of the state."

Neither Spitzer nor Tedisco denied that the exchange had taken place, despite repeated questions from the media about the blowup. Spitzer also got a humorous lecture on the dangers of trying to be a steamroller from Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican. Bruno, a horse farm owner in upstate Rensselaer County, has clashed recently with the governor.

"I got a steamroller up at my place a few years back . . . in the back fields, the horses are out, and they cut the whole field up and you drive to level them out," Bruno explained to a packed press conference called to discuss the Spitzer budget.

"I took the steamroller down this little incline and turned it around and I couldn't get it back up the hill. It started to spin and, guess what, I couldn't get it back up the hill.

"I had to get my tractor, a four-wheel drive tractor, and haul it out of there. We're prepared to help the governor and haul him out."

I guess I didn't know you would use a steam roller to flatten out a pasture. I would tend to think that would overcompact the soil and make it hard for hay to grow. Then you'd have a mud flat that would get the horses all dirty, kind of like you see in areas where cows have torn up the soil. Instead, you'd use a rake towed behind the tractor and groom out the soil.

At any rate, it's a good story and I doubt he was really talking about using a steamroller to flatten out a pasture. I think he was commenting on our fucking steamroller governor.

P'Link

The Problem with Being A Senator and Running for President. It looks like Hillary and others like Chuck Hagel are finding with the balance of power being so close, that for any close vote, they simply can not afford to miss session to be out on the campaign trail. P'Link

The Lowest Savings Rate Since 1933. It looks like -1.0% of Americans income was saved last year, worst then the -0.4% of 2005, and the worst since the Great Depression in 1933.

That is a real problem for many reasons. For one it means that lots of Americans are seriously in debt, dragging down the economy. More seriously though, is it means we are now consuming more then we actually have in resources. We are wasting too much that we don't really have.

That is a sad statement on consumption in our country, and something that should give us pause and make us think. It also is very scary for those worrying about a solid economy in the future with economic opporunity. P'Link