Albany Watch

One day after the state Senate’s new district maps appeared to clear their final legal hurdle for 2012, the state Assembly got the green light today from the federal government to proceed with its new districts.

The U.S. Department of Justice gave the Assembly maps what is known as “pre-clearance” today, according to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan. That means the maps will officially be in effect for the 2012 elections, barring unforeseen circumstances.

Here’s the statement from Silver:

“The United States Department of Justice has pre-cleared the Assembly’s redistricting plan. This action validates the Assembly’s efforts to craft fair and responsible districts based on the input from many individuals and organizations at two dozen hearings held across the state over the past year. Securing pre-clearance means the 2012 election cycle will move forward using the new district boundaries passed by the Assembly and Senate and signed into law by the Governor.”

By law, the Justice Department reviews the state’s once-a-decade redistricting plan to ensure compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act. It already gave clearance to the state Senate maps earlier this year.

Juvenile arrests and criminal activity were down 17 percent outside of New York City last year, according to newly released data by the state Office of Children and Family Services Division of Criminal Justice Services.

According to the data, instances of juvenile crime dropped from 14,864 outside of New York City in 2010 to 12,325 last year. Within New York City, formal arrests were down 3 percent in 2011, while felony arrests dropped by 11 percent, according to the New York Police Department.

Meanwhile, juveniles held as state detention facilities dropped last year, as well. Outside of New York City, there was a 10 percent drop in admissions to the youth facilities, from 3,327 in 2010 to 2,992 last year.

The state budget, passed in March, implemented significant reforms to the state’s juvenile justice system for downstate offenders. Under the “Close to Home” initiative, New York City children in upstate facilities would be moved to new programs within the city’s borders. As a result, some upstate facilities classified as “secure” or “limited secure” could close.

Here’s OCFS’DCJS’ annual report, which was released earlier this week:

OJRP DATA Presentation 05-15-2012

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said today that the state’s pension fund has invested $12.9 million in the Hicksville headquarters of Sleepy’s, one of the nation’s largest mattress retailers.

DiNapoli said the investment in the Nassau County-based Sleepy’s in his home county was made by Hudson River Co-Investment Fund managed by Hamilton Lane. The deal was led by San Francisco-based Calera Capital.

“The state pension fund is investing in New York’s economic future,” said DiNapoli. “Sleepy’s has been doing business in New York for more than half a century and this investment will help them stay here and continue to expand. This company provides a great example of how the In-State Private Equity Program partners with New York businesses to obtain the capital they need to grow and create jobs while generating significant returns for the state pension fund.”

The state Comptroller’s Office spreads some of its $147 billion pension fund into in-state investments. DiNapoli said nearly $1 billion committed to the in-state program since 2001.

DiNapoli’s press release says he plans to visit Rochester soon to look at an investment there.

Pension costs in New York have exploded in New York in recent years, and there appears to be no relief in the next few years.

A report from the state Budget Division shows that state and local government contributions to the pensions of public workers are estimated to grow 40 percent between 2012 and 2015. The contribution rates for public workers was 16.5 percent of salary in 2012 and it could rise to 23.1 percent of salary in 2015, the state’s estimates show. For police and fire workers, the pension increases would go from 22.3 percent of salary to 31.3 percent.

The latest numbers show that pension costs in New York are expected to continue their upward trend as more workers retire and as Wall Street is still recovering the financial meltdown in 2008 and 2009. They will begin to fall in 2016, the estimates show.

The higher costs could be blunted, the report shows, if governments chose to amortize their pension costs—essentially borrowing off the pension to pay their growing costs. The state does it, as well as 128 local governments.

Here’s our database of the pension costs for every government in New York.

Also, the cost of health benefits for retirees has grown. It’s increasing from a total obligation of $55.9 billion as estimated in 2011 to $72.2 billion now, a 29 percent increase. Bloomberg News reported on the rising health-care costs yesterday.

Budget officials said the higher figures for health-care costs are the result of the first recalculation of the expense since 2008, and New York pays its health-care costs for retirees on an annual basis, roughly $1.2 billion a year.

As for the growing pension costs—which have crippled local budgets—state budget spokesman Morris Peters said the expenses would have been even higher if the state didn’t this year implement Tier VI, a less generous pension program for new public employees.

“This is why Tier VI was so important,” he said.

2012_AIS

Another three months of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s public schedules were posted to his transparency website this afternoon, the third round of back-schedule disclosures posted since the website was launched last year.

Overall, the newly released schedules don’t reveal much that wasn’t already known, but there are some interesting tidbits scattered throughout. They cover Cuomo’s meetings from January through March of this year.

Here’s what stood out:

• Cuomo spoke via phone with Xerox CEO Ursula Burns on Jan. 20. Six days later, Cuomo and Xerox announced that the company would establish a call center in Webster, Monroe County, in exchange for $6 million in the form of tax credits and a grant. The move is expected to create 500 jobs, according to the governor’s news release.


• On March 5, Cuomo spoke with Katherine Sibelius, President Obama’s Health and Human Services secretary, by phone. The subject of the call wasn’t revealed, but Cuomo’s had a prep meeting with staffers before the call took place.


• Cuomo had a morning phone call with U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on March 30. Again, the subject of the call wasn’t revealed. Later in the day, he had a photo shoot in the Red Room of the state Capitol with TIME Magazine. That photo shoot produced this photo for the magazine’s 100 most influential people issue.

2012 March

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a ban on the fingerprinting of food-stamp recipients, Gannett’s Aaron Scholder reports.

The fingerprinting of food-stamp recipients had been largely abolished in 2007 under then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, but the requirement had continued in New York City and in some counties for some people.

The criticism of the program had been focused on New York City, but Cuomo officials said the new regulation would affect all the counties that had the fingerprinting requirement.

Arizona is the only other state in the country to require fingerprints to receive food stamps. The new regulation in New York will be formally proposed on May 30 and go into effect 45 days later, officials said.

“As of today, that stigma is removed,” Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy said at a Capitol news conference. “There is no doubt that those that made these rules didn’t go to bed hungry, didn’t face these same challenges, so it really is important that we have a governor who gets it.”

Monroe County was the only county in the state to fingerprint group-home residents, state officials said. In addition to New York City, Delaware, Livingston and Schuyler counties fingerprinted all applicants over the age of 60.

Delaware, Greene, Livingston, Monroe, Otsego, Schuyler, Steuben and Wyoming counties all fingerprinted people aged 18 to 21 who were not the head of a household or married.

Otsego, Delaware, Schuyler, Wayne, Wyoming and Tompkins counties fingerprinted people ages 18 and older who were temporarily or permanently disabled.

Cuomo said the removal of fingerprinting would help increase participation in the food-stamp program, a pledge he made during his State of the State address in January.

“I think it’s important that government, like all of us, leads with its head and its heart,” Cuomo said in a conference call during the news conference. “It is not necessary to use finger imaging to prevent fraud. Poverty and hunger are not crimes so we shouldn’t treat the poor or the hungry as criminals, and that’s what we’ve been doing, and that’s what’s going to stop.”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the practice as a way to prevent fraudulent acquisitions of the stamps and save the city millions of dollars in unnecessary handouts of stamps.

The state of Vermont became the first to officially ban the use of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil, a move that appears to be somewhat symbolic but has New York groups pushing for a ban hoping for a boost.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the ban on Wedensday. It prohibits hydrofracking, though the gas-rich Marcellus and Utica shale formations are not believed to reach the state. It does, however, also prohibit the importing of hydrofracking waste for treatment.

Hydrofracking critics from New York hope the Vermont ban advances their cause. High-volume hydrofracking is on hold in New York as the state DEC works on an environmental review of the technique.

“When I went to VT to testify before the Senate committee it was refreshing to see legislators listening and asking important questions about the science,about the geology, the wastewater, and possible health impacts and showing real concern for their agriculture,” Wes Gillingham, Program Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, said in a statement. “We urge Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature to listen to the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who have called for a ban in order to protect New York’s communities from fracking’s unacceptable dangers.”

American Petroleum Institute Director of State Government Relations Rolf Hanson responded to the initial decision by the Vermont legislature to pass the ban: “The decision by the Vermont legislature to pass a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing follows an irresponsible path that ignores three major needs: jobs, government revenue and energy security.”

Advocates from Vermont who helped push for the ban were in Albany on Tuesday, partaking in a rally for New Yorkers Against Fracking, a coalition of hydrofracking critics.

Some school superintendents are critical of the 60 percent supermajority that is needed to exceed the property-tax cap after their budgets failed to achieve an override.

Only 24 budgets were rejected on Tuesday, with 19 in districts that sought to override the cap.

About 50 districts sought to exceed the tax-cap limit, and that meant getting 60 percent of voters—a so-called supermajority—to pass their budgets.

“I am personally and professionally still struggling with the fact that I’m living in a state where a no vote counts more than a yes vote,” said Deborah Haab, superintendent in Highland, Ulster County, where the override failed, but was approved by 51 percent of voters.

“I don’t understand how that is constitutional or democratic,” she said.

In New Paltz, the budget was passed by 59 percent of voters. If eight voters had voted yes instead of no, the budget would have passed, said superintendent Maria Rice.

The schools that sought an override and failed are now left to decide whether to again seek an override or to lower their budgets to fall in line with their tax cap amount.

The decision is critical. Under the tax cap, if a budget fails twice, they cannot raise taxes at all in the coming school year, which starts July 1.

The next budget vote is June 19.

New Paltz’s budget was proposed with a 4.4 percent tax levy increase. Rice said the district would now likely seek a budget at its cap limit of 3.4 percent—a move that would only need a simple majority to win voter approval.

“As a superintendent, I can’t in good conscious recommend that we would go above the 3.4 percent tax-levy limit,” Rice said. “The stakes are way too high.”

Elmira had its override rejected Tuesday when the budget was approved by 55 percent of voters. The district was seeking a 5 percent property tax levy increase to stave off additional cuts in staff and services. It was already proposing to cut 111 staff positions.

Its cap limit was 2.6 percent, said Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter.

“Legislators passed a law that allows the minority to control the majority,” Hochreiter said Wednesday. “Fifty-five percent of our public supports what we are trying to do, yet 45 percent of the public wins.”

A coalition of Hudson Valley labor groups is gearing up for a rally tomorrow outside of Sen. David Carlucci’s office, where they’ll demand he support a bill that would allow Rockland County to increase its sales tax rate.

The rally, organized by the Hudson Valley Area Labor Coalition Civil Service Employees Association, comes after Carlucci and Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef engaged in a very public tit-for-tat last week after Moody’s downgraded the county’s credit rating. (Carlucci, a Clarkstown Democrat, defeated the Republican Vanderhoef in the race for the senate seat in 2010.)

Vanderhoef blamed Carlucci for the downgrade, citing his unwillingness to carry a bill in the Senate that would allow Rockland to increase its sales tax by 3/8 of one percent. Carlucci fired back, saying he wouldn’t be “bullied” into supporting the tax. “It’s obvious that the county would rather blame me than be serious about getting at the real problems,” Carlucci said at the time.

The unions, apparently, disagree with Carlucci. The event has been dubbed the “Rally for Rockland,” and the flier (pictured at left) urges Carlucci to “put Rockland over politics.”

Some state lawmakers continued their push to legalize medical marijuana before the session ends in late June, pointing to a poll released Wednesday that showed opposition to the measure has gone up in smoke.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, who serves as chair of the Assembly Health Committee, said the bill currently being discussed would have some of the most restrictive regulations to acquire medicinal marijuana in the country. Currently, 17 states allow medical use of marijuana.

At a news conference on Wednesday attended by Gannett’s Aaron Scholder, Gottfried said the bill received favorable support in a Health Committee meeting on Tuesday, with four of the committee’s seven Republicans supporting the measure.

“Thousands of New Yorkers suffer from serious debilitating and life-threatening conditions whose lives could be made more livable and longer in many cases if we allow them to be treated under medical supervision with the use of medical marijuana,” Gottfried said.

But Senate Republicans have been lukewarm to the bill, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last month he’s opposed to it—leaving little chance of its passage this year.

The bill would require patients to secure a certification from a doctor who has determined that marijuana would help with the symptoms of their condition. The patient would then have to send that certification to the state Department of Health, which would issue a card to be used at a specially registered hospital or pharmacy.

If there were no hospital within 20 miles of the patient’s home, a small amount of home production would be allowed, officials said.

The most amount of the drug that any patient could possess at one time would be 2.5 ounces.

The legislators said were confident that the measure would prevent people from trying to secure the drug for recreational use because of the tedious process necessary to acquire it.

A Siena poll released on Wednesday that showed big support from New Yorkers for passing it. The poll found that 57 percent of New Yorkers support passing the bill with 33 percent opposed.