Tedisco vs. Spitzer — Again
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- October
- 17
Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco continued his assault today on Gov. Spitzer for allegedly cutting state aid that Tedisco planned to provide to a Schenectady free health clinic.
“This is payback,” Tedisco told reporters. “This is governance by vengeance.”
Tedisco claims that the governor’s office had recently confirmed that Tedisco had about $438,000 in member items from the prior 2006-07 budget year to spend in his district, which includes parts of Schenectady and Saratoga counties.
Yet he said he was told this week the money won’t be released. About $100,000 was supposed to go to the clinic, which will face closure without the money, Tedisco said.
Tedisco claims the funding cut is Spitzer’s payback for Tedisco’s outspokenness against the governor’s new policy to give drivers’ licenses to immigrants. Tedisco has labeled him “Illegal Eliot,” claiming Spitzer’s policy violates state law.
If you recall, Tedisco was at the receiving end of Spitzer’s now famous “steamroller” comment in January, in which he essentially told Tedisco he’d steamroll him if he doesn’t play ball.
Spitzer’s office released a letter from Budget Director Paul Francis to Tedisco dated today that claims the governor notified Tedisco in January that money approved in prior years would be honored—but not new requests for projects, which they claim the money in question is.
“There was never a commitment to fund these new initiatives,” Francis said.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 3:56 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
