Hayseeds No. 189

Monday, January 1, 2007

Governor Spitzer's Inauguration. It's now official. It's 2007 and Governor Spitzer is now are governor, with all the pomp that we saw down at the Empire State Plaza and West Lawn of the Capitol. I was there for a while, but came home and watched the speech on the television as I was still feeling a bit hung over from New Years and it was utterly crazy.

Governor Eliot Spitzer's speech was not all that exciting and didn't have much to note except that he wouldn't be afraid to attack scared cows (hospitals and businesses), the upstate economy needs to be fixed, and that he loved immigrants and of course farmers. Nice stuff. Not nearly as pompous or exciting as the rediculously expensive stage.

It was horribly wet and nasty out there, and all the pomp was pretty obnoxious as was the excessive security for the event. That said, one can see why they might want minimal security, but it was somewhat intrusive for a political event particularly compared to before he was governor. But that's part of the absurdity of it all. P'Link

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Spitzer Reinstates the Following Executive Orders: Governor Spitzer yesterday reinstated many of the important executive orders of the Pataki and Cuomo adminstrations including the Cuomo Order 142 (recycling & waste reduction), Pataki Order 111 (green buildings/energy reduction), and Pataki Order 142 (Biofuels).

Executive Order No. 2, issued January 11, 1983 (Establishing the position of State Director of Criminal Justice);

Executive Order No. 5, issued February 16, 1983 (Establishing the Women=s Division in the Executive Chamber);

Executive Order No. 6, issued February 18, 1983 (Assigning responsibilities of the State Department of Civil Service, and certain State agencies for insuring equal employment opportunity for minorities, women, disabled persons and Vietnam era veterans in State government and establishing the Governor=s Executive Committee for Affirmative Action);

Executive Order No. 7, issued February 18, 1983 (Establishing a Governor=s Advisory Committee for Hispanic Affairs);

Executive Order No. 8, issued February 25, 1983 (Directing State agencies to consider labor relations practices when awarding State contracts);

Executive Order No. 11, issued April 26, 1983 (Expanding the membership and powers of the Securities Coordinating Committee);

Executive Order No. 12, issued May 3, 1983 (Directing the State Office for the Aging to review and comment upon policies affecting the elderly);

Executive Order No. 17, issued May 31, 1983 (Establishing State policy on private institutions which discriminate);

Executive Order No. 19, issued May 31, 1983 (New York State policy statement on sexual harassment in the workplace);

Executive Order No. 23, issued September 1, 1983 (Establishing the Office of New York State Ombudsman);

Executive Order No. 26, issued October 7, 1983 (Directing the State Office of Advocate for the Disabled to review and comment upon policies affecting persons with disabilities);

Executive Order No. 29, issued December 8, 1983 (Guidelines for the purchase of steel for use on construction contracts);

Executive Order No. 32, issued December 29, 1983 (Renaming the New York State Office of Disaster Preparedness to be the New York State Emergency Management Office);

Executive Order No. 34, issued January 13, 1984 (Establishing the New York State Human Rights Advisory Council);

Executive Order No. 36, issued March 15, 1984 (Establishing the New York State Motion Picture and Television Advisory Board);

Executive Order No. 46, issued August 28, 1984 (Naming the State Office Building Campus in Albany the Governor W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus);

Executive Order No. 48, issued October 3, 1984 (Prescribing procedures to allocate the private activity bond volume ceiling under the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984);

Executive Order No. 50, issued October 15, 1984 (Prescribing supplemental procedures to allocate the private activity bond volume ceiling under the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984)

Executive Order No. 51, issued October 30, 1984 (Designating the Division of the Budget to coordinate the intergovernmental review of Federal programs);

Executive Order No. 55, issued December 17, 1984 (Establishing the State Industrial Cooperation Council);

Executive Order No. 66, issued June 5, 1985 (Establishing a Governor=s Advisory Committee for Black Affairs);

Executive Order No. 77, issued October 31, 1985 (Establishing membership of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission);

Executive Order No. 80, issued March 21, 1986 (Juvenile justice planning);

Executive Order No. 82, issued May 2, 1986 (Establishing the Governor=s Office for Hispanic Affairs);

Executive Order No. 95, issued April 15, 1987 (Designating the Disaster Preparedness Commission as the State Emergency Response Commission);

Executive Order No. 96, issued April 27, 1987 (Promoting a New York State policy against age discrimination in the workplace);

Executive Order No. 97, issued April 27, 1987 (Designating the Governor=s Traffic Safety Committee as the State agency to coordinate and approve State highway safety programs);

Executive Order No. 98, issued May 13, 1987 (Establishing a new State Council on Graduate Medical Education);

Executive Order No. 100, issued August 31, 1987 (Naming the Watertown State Office Building the Dulles State Office Building);

Executive Order No. 111, issued April 11, 1988 (Directing the Attorney General to inquire into matters of bias-related crimes);

Executive Order No. 114, issued December 9, 1988 (Naming the Poughkeepsie State Office Building the Eleanor Roosevelt State Office Building);

Executive Order No. 119, issued January 6, 1989 (Reconstituting the Job Training Partnership Committee);

Executive Order No. 120.1, issued November 6, 1990 (Establishing the Statewide Anti-Drug Abuse Council);

Executive Order No. 125, issued May 22, 1989 (Establishing a Council of Contracting Agencies);

Executive Order No. 130, issued December 4, 1989 (Creating a Crime Proceeds Strike Force to Investigate and Prosecute Certain Economic Activities Constituting Penal, Tax, and Banking Law Violations Relating to Money Laundering);

Executive Order No. 131, issued December 26, 1994 (Establishment of administrative adjudication plans);

Executive Order No. 135, issued January 29, 1990 issued (Prescribing Procedures to Allocate the State Low Income Housing Credit under the Tax Reform Act of 1986, as amended);

Executive Order No. 142, issued January 16, 1991 (Establishing new waste reduction and recycling initiatives for State agencies);

Executive Order No. 147, issued July 31, 1991 (Establishing an Office of Indian Relations);

Executive Order No. 150, issued October 9, 1991 (New land use and development by State agencies within the Adirondack Park);

Executive Order No. 158, issued June 23, 1992 (Naming the New Scotland Avenue Laboratory Building the David Axelrod Institute for Public Health);

Executive Order No. 159, issued November 4, 1992 (Establishing the New York Savings Bond Program Committee);

Executive Order No. 169, issued March 22, 1993 (Directing State Agencies to Act consistently with the Upper Delaware River Management plan);

Executive Order Nos. 170 and 170.1, issued March 24, 1993 and June 23, 1993, respectively (Establishing Uniform Guidelines for Determining the Responsibility of Bidders);

Executive Order No. 179, issued December 30, 1993 (Establishing the New York State Commission on National and Community Service); and

Executive Order No. 188, issued September 28, 1994 (Increasing the Participation of Health Care Consumers in Government Advisory Boards)

B. Executive Orders of Governor George E. Pataki

Executive Order No. 20, issued November 30, 1995 (Establishing the Position of State Director of Regulatory Reform);

Executive Order No. 26.1, issued September 28, 1996 (Incorporating the National Incident Management System as the Management System for Emergency Response);

Executive Order No. 35, issued April 17, 1996 (Ordering that Unmarked Police Vehicles of the State of New York not be Used for the Routine Stopping of Motorists in Connection with Traffic Violations);

Executive Order No. 37, issued May 3, 1996 (Establishing Joint Task Force on Health Care Insurance Fraud);

Executive Order No. 40, issued July 26, 1996 (Ordering State Agencies to Register Emission Reduction Credits);

Executive Order No. 45, issued November 13, 1996 (Establishing the Position of State Director of Consumer Protection);

Executive Order No. 47, issued December 16, 1996 (Destruction of Surplus State Firearms);

Executive Order No. 48, issued February 5, 1997 (Creating an International Business Development Council);

Executive Order No. 49, issued February 12, 1997 (Establishing Procedures to Consider, in its Proprietary Capacity, the utilization of One or More Project Labor Agreements);

Executive Order No. 50, issued October 1, 1996 (Establishing a Governmental Commission to Investigate the Recovery of Holocaust Victims' Assets);

Executive Order No. 51, issued May 20, 1997 (Activities of State Agencies Within the New York City Watershed);

Executive Order No. 52, issued May 13, 1997 (Establishing the Forest Resources Development Council);

Executive Order No. 57, issued October 23, 1997 (Establishing the New York City Watershed Protection and Partnership Council);

Executive Order No. 83, issued July 1, 1998 (Establishing the Jackie Robinson Empire State Freedom Medal and the Jackie Robinson Empire State Freedom Medal Commission);

Executive Order No. 85, issued August 5, 1998 (Establishing the Hudson River Heritage Council);

Executive Order No. 86, issued August 19, 1998 (Establishing the New York City Watershed Inspector General);

Executive Order No. 107, issued February 9, 2001 (Establishing the New York State Heritage Commission);

Executive Order No. 109, issued May 9, 2001 (Establishing a Special Prosecutor to Investigate and Prosecute Criminal Acts Relating to Fraudulent Motor Vehicle Insurance claims);

Executive Order No. 111, issued June 10, 2001 (Directing State Agencies to be More Energy Efficient and Environmentally Aware: "Green and Clean State Buildings and Vehicles");

Executive Order No. 116, issued January 7, 2002 (Reconstituting the State Drought Management Task Force);

Executive Order No. 117, issued January 28, 2002 (Establishing the Position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the State of New York);

Executive Order No. 125, issued March 24, 2003 (Directing State Officials to Ensure that the Appropriate Protections and Benefits are Extended to Members of the Reserve Armed Forces of the United States and the Organized Militia of New York State);

Executive Order No. 128, issued June 16, 2003 (Designation of Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to Carry Out Environmental Impact Review and to Fulfill Requirements For Receipt of Federal Assistance in Connection With the Redevelopment of Lower Manhattan Following the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001);

Executive Order No. 132, issued December 5, 2003 (Designating the State Prevention and Preparedness Council; Establishing the Positions of Senior Advisor to the Governor for Counter-Terrorism and Senior Advisor to the Governor for Disaster Preparedness and Response; and Revoking Certain Executive Orders);

Executive Order No. 133, issued November 22, 2004 (Establishing the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center);

Executive Order No. 142, issued November 21, 2005 (Directing State Agencies and Authorities to Diversify Transportation Fuel and Heating Oil Supplies Through the Use of Bio-Fuels in State Vehicles and Builders).

Executive Order No. 144, issued February 21, 2006 (Establishing the New York State Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission); and

Executive Order No. 146, issued October 13, 2006 (Declaring a Disaster in Erie, Genesee, Niagara and Orleans Counties and Contiguous Areas).

He also ordered all other executive orders to be reviewed in upcoming weeks. P'Link

Spitzer's First Executive Orders. At 8:00 AM yesterday morning, the new governor signed four new executive orders into law that will:

• Prohibit the Use of State Property (computers, telephones cars, and other state property) from personal use.
• Ban on all state employees from lobbying their agency within 2 years of working there.
• Prohibit the asking of political party identification in all hiring and appointment in New York State agencies and authority
• State employees who have permission to use state vehicles for personal use must document such use and report it as income
• Prohibits ALL state employees from contributing to gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial campaigns and their associated PACs
• Commissioners and Public Authority Heads may not run for public office without resigning
• Creation of judicial screening commissions to evaluate and recommend judicial candidates for judgeships

In many ways this is like the Hatch Act and similar regulations for federal employees. Some are pretty tough on state employees. It should be interesting to see how they work in practice and how many of them will be struck down in court on first amendment grounds.

He also signed into law an executive order that basically reinstates all of Pataki, Cuomo, and previous governor's executive orders, a fairly normal thing for governors to do. P'Link

Spitzer's Day 2: Get to Work. Our fine governor, has decided to have the state workforce report to work today despite the holiday in the fiscal markets and the federal holiday marking the death of President Gerald Ford.

That already makes him real popular with state employees, which follows up on the popularity he has gotten from the big pile of you know what, that he left on their laps yesterday with his new executive orders. But it saved the state $50 million dollars !

Then again, he had to pay for his big party he held in Albany yesterday. A grandeur-istic governor had to have a big celebration with people bused into Albany from across the state.

Or maybe I'm bitter because I have to work and I can't go to Kirsten Gillibrand's swearing in Hudson today. That and our governor's attorney general office issued some kind report about half a decade ago saying that burning trash was bad for the environment (well, duh). But that's all petty. P'Link

AG Cuomo to Investigate Pataki's Security. It looks like our fine former Governor 'taki is going to continue to get roughly $20,000 dollars a week security even after he's governor, because we live in a post-9/11 world and we know that random terrorists like to drive up through Whitehall without being stopped by the police, then proceed to Putnam to shoot random people on farms in beautiful Putnam, NY.

Andy Cuomo says this wrong:

"The people of the state have clearly spoken that the old ways - waste, fraud - there's no place for that anymore and no place for unnecessary perks. Gov. Spitzer is doing the right thing by going to the Ethics Commission," Cuomo said.

His dad, ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo, left office 12 years ago with no special protection after losing to Pataki.

In other words, Cuomo is saying to Mr. Pataki pay for your own security until the US Secret Service picks it up when you run for President. The same applies to having a state driver (learn something from Alan Hevesi). It's tough losing an election or at least quitting. P'Link

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Spitzer: Don't Forget I'm a Democrat. Eliot as Marc Humbert states, is really trying to remind people that he's a Democrat after 12-years of Pataki. He wants to appear different on the ethics front, even if he's not really proposed much that Pataki hasn't. P'Link

Giuliani's Political Stragety Now Known. It looks like a person working on a competiting campaign released embarassing facts about Rudy Giuliani's campaign for President.

Not that it's going to effect him much or mean that he's a much serious candidate for President then former Governor Pataki. He's from New York, and he's running as a national Republican. Those things usually don't work well. He's too moderate on gun control and gay rights, and that simply won't sit well with Republicans. P'Link

Gillibrand Sworn In. On Tuesday, Kirsten Gillibrand was offically made Congresswomen in Hudson at a ceremony in the packed Columbia County Courthouse in Hudson. P'Link

Bruno Re-Elected Senate Majority Leader. While no surprises here, the some-what embattled Joe Bruno was re-elected Senate Majority Leader. He's now down one more member with Spitzer's appointment of Senator Balboni to Homeland Security Czar, and has to be working overtime to produce for his caucus.

2008 is going to be the test of Senator Bruno. Can he hold on to his majority, when he's down to 33-28, assuming Balboni's seat goes Democratic after the special election to be called by the governor? Like it or not, despite being gerrymandered to death, there are viable Democratic-candidates like Brian Keeler and to a lesser extent Tim Merrick who are putting Republicans at risk. More will pop up in the future, and the Hudson Valley is clearly going more Democratic. Time is his enemy.

Moreover, will he survive the ethics probes or will he have to resign? It's a serious pile of cow dung to step into when the feds are investigating you for corruption. They don't just investigate every public leader. And Bruno has his share of unethical activities and things he has profited by in the past like stopping the wetlands bill. P'Link

Spitzer Viscously Attacks Albany Establishment. Spitzer gave his State of the State Address yesterday, and skipped outlining his policy proposals to instead attack the work of state employees and the state legislature. His speech didn't get that many claps from insiders to say the least despite his populatist rhetoric and popularity:

Of course, along the way, we’ll have our share of difficult moments. There will be occasional missteps and mistakes. But as we in this chamber come together, in return, New Yorkers will stand with us as One New York, inspired by the promise of opportunity and hope for all.

There will be cynics and pessimists who will say we can’t, we shouldn’t and we won’t. Their only job will be to protect the status quo that has worked for them, but not for us. The status quo always has powerful friends.

Still people like Joe and Shelly say they'll go along, as they are scared shitless of our new governor. He has such popularity in the public eye and his proposals sound really good to people outside of Albany who generally believe that all politicians are corrupt and the deals they get in Albany are worthless.

His proposals on the environment are minimal such as keeping the 25% renewable energy goal; they sound like Pataki light. His policies on education seem little more then a rehashing of fruitless policy debates in the past like Pre-K. Yet, he is a new man and he has a mandate. Let's just hope he doesn't squander it all on pissing matches with the state legislature.

Spitzer is a lot of people's hope. But in his first four days in office, he acts more like Andrew Jackson then like Lyndon Johnson. We need a great policymaker as governor, not somebody who stirs up hatred and division as a demagogue.

I still want to believe that Spitzer can be a great leader and get great things done for our leader. Yet, so far this overemphasis on ethics and pomp, at the same time downplaying the major policy questions of our state is outright disappointing. We will be watching this man carefully. P'Link

Ron Canestrari Becomes Assembly Majority Leader. The man who is now in charge of Assembly Democrats (Shelly is officially in charge of all members of the Assembly not just the Democrats despite being mostly the later) is now Ron Canestrari. He got that position largely as pay back for his failed campaign in 2001 for that same position.

It's interesting to see what that means for Cohoes, a beautiful little city in Northern Albany County often overlooked in politics. On the other hand, it also means that Ron Canestrari has a lot of power. He's a nice man, but for many of us it's difficult to swallow him stealing Jack McEneny's bill on Pine Bush alienation for expanding the Rapp Road garbage dump contrary to standard Assembly procedure.

But regardless, that's old news and it's a new session. Ron Canestrari is a truly nice man, even if he's a bit too close for Jerry Jennings for our likings. He is really passionate about education and does a good job running both the Intern Committee and the Higher Education Committee. You see him, you listen to him, and usually want to run up and hug him. P'Link

Partisan Gerrymandering Vetos? One of the things that Spitzer so vividly attacked was the practice of gerrymandering in New York, known to some people who date back to the bad ol' days of the capitol before computers, as the tip-toe after the fact that legislators had to take off their shoes before walking over a map with push-pins and yarn delinating proposed districts with their demographic charatistics..

Eliot said he would veto any gerrymandering plan that would reflect partisan considerations. The Politicker wonders what the hell that's suppost to mean. He's not going to be dealing with redistricting until his second term, in 2011 at the earliest. He said "partisan gerrymandering", he didn't say he was totally against the process of creating specialty districts that benefit one group over another.

Not that it would be a bad thing to get away from so-called partisan gerrymandering. It would be much more fun to have more competitive elections, particularly in "waste" districts of the Assembly where do-nothing Republicans always win and "waste" districts of the Senate where do-nothing Democrats always win. If we could present the voters with the issues on a fair basis, it would be a lot more fun and probably good to boot for Democrats.

Yes, many of us are eying Steve Saland's seat for 2008, and thinking that Brian Keeler's going to be the next State Senator from the ever so beautiful Dutchess County. P'Link

What Eliot Didn't Mention. First off, he did mention the farm community in passing so he won't have a bunch of angry farmers to deal with. Pataki made that mistake in 2004. He also mentioned the environment and education and lots of other things in passing, much like our previous governor.

But what he totally forgot or omitted was the issue of gay marriage.

That has a lot of people scratching their heads. He made it a campaign promise to push for gay marriage, but now he's decided instead to bash the legislature instead. Has he decided that gay marriage is too divisive of an issue and is now backing out of his promise of equity?

Maybe the Empire State Pride Agenda lacks the clout of the farm bureau. Gays after all do not have the economic interest that farmers have—you can't really sell your gayness to others.

Personally, I could care less if a bunch of faggots got married to each other. That's their choice, and I think we should make it legal to keep them happy and give them the equity they deserve. And our governor shouldn't let those people down or the many others that voted for him both on the Working Families line and the Democratic line.

His positions in the speech certainly has Pat Healey's eyesbrows raised on what Spitzerism means to New York. He's clearly not a liberal in the conventional sense, something that Elizabeth Benjamin has picked up on. P'Link