Perhaps an indication that Muriel Howard, president of Buffalo State College, is indeed in the running for chancellor of the State University of New York is that she recently resigned from SUNY’s search committee. The panel has been looking for a permanent chancellor to replace John Ryan, who resigned in May 2007. Howard resigned from the committee Dec. 31, according to a SUNY spokeswoman. (Her biography on Buffalo State’s Web page apparently has not been updated. It states that she has been a member of the committee from 2007 to the present.)

   Howard, who has been named in published reports as a candidate for chancellor, has been president of Buffalo College since 1996 and is the first woman to hold that position. As a member of the SUNY search committee, Howard signed a confidentiality pledge. By doing so, she certified that she was ”personally not a candidate for chancellor, nor shall I become a candidate.”

   Nancy L. Zimpher, president of the University of Cincinnati, has been approached by SUNY about the chancellor vacancy, a spokesman for the president said recently. He added that it’s not uncommon for Zimpher to receive inquiries like that and she sees it as an indicator of the University of Cincinnati’s success.

   Zimpher has been president of the University of Cincinnati since 2003. Like Howard, she is the first woman to be in the job.

   Carl Hayden, chairman of SUNY’s Board of Trustees, said this week that the search was nearing completion. The search committee held a meeting Wednesday. Ryan, the last chancellor, earned $340,000 a year, plus the use of a car, driver, a residence in Albany and an apartment in New York City. John Clark was interim chancellor until Dec. 31. Earlier this month, John O’Connor, vice chancellor and secretary of the university, was appointed officer in charge of SUNY.

   Several hundred academic and professional faculty with United University Professions, along with members of their affiliate, New York State United Teachers, urged elected officials today to reverse proposed cuts to the State University of New York budget.  SUNY, a 64-campus system that includes three hospitals, is reeling from nearly $215 million in budget reductions this fiscal year (which ends March 31). That has led to fewer classes, job freezes, limits on enrollment and other difficulties at campuses, according to the unions.

   For 2009-10, Gov. David Paterson has proposed reducing state operating funds by 80 percent of what a SUNY tuition hike would bring in, using campus reserves and cutting state aid for community colleges by 10 percent. The governor’s budget would cut the state subsidy for the hospitals—located in Brooklyn; Stony Brook, Suffolk County; and Syracuse—by $25 million. Instead of cuts, the hospitals should receive a $40 million increase, the unions said. UUP is asking lawmakers to give its members their negotiated 3 percent salary increase in 2009-10, which has not been included in the governor’s budget.

   Union members, who rallied outside the Capitol, said Paterson’s recommended budget for 2009-10 would make things more difficult for SUNY. They warned that thousands of students would be shut out of a public education and fewer patients would be treated at SUNY’s three teaching hospitals unless lawmakers provide more funding. Members carried signs with messages like, “Keep SUNY open to all,” “Save SUNY now” and “Protect SUNY hospital patients.”

   “SUNY is an important part of the economy of New York,” UUP President Phillip Smith said during the rally. “In fact, SUNY may be one of the only solutions to bring this state out of its economic crisis.”

We’re back to discuss the week’s events at the state Capitol.

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Trying to drum up support among women for his congressional bid, Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco’s campaign is holding this event tomorrow:

“”Women for Tedisco,” a grassroots group of Republican women supporting Jim Tedisco (R,C,I-Schenectady-Saratoga) in his bid for the 20th Congressional District will hold a rally TOMORROW at noon in Saratoga Springs.”

Democrats are eying a variety of candidates for the 20th District seat, but are certainly interested in putting a woman up for the position as a successor to Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate and was able to win Republican votes in the heavily Republican district that stretches from the Hudson Valley to the North Country.

Rep. Eric Massa, D-Corning, is starting a weekly radio show beginning Sunday, called “Washington Week and Review with Congressman Eric Massa.”

People can call in and ask the new congressman questions. The show runs from 11 a.m. to noon on Sundays on two stations out of Hornell, WKPQ 105.3-FM and WHHO 1320-AM

You can listen online here.

The call in number is 607-324-1596 or questions can be emailed to: ericmassaradioshow@gmail.com

President Barack Obama today ripped Wall Street for dishing out $18.4 billion last year, as Comptroller Thomas Dinapoli found yesterday.

Wall Street firms, even after being bailed out by taxpayers last year and producing record losses, were still able to find a way to dole out an average of $112,000 in bonuses to roughly 165,000 workers.

“That is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful,” he said.

Obama said the bonus figure was the same Wall Street bankers gave themselves in 2004, when times were going well.

Obama continued, “Part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, some discipline and some sense of responsibility.”

“The American people understand we’ve got a big hole we’ve got to dig ourselves out of. They don’t like people digging a bigger hole even as they’re being asked to fill it up,” he said, working both ends of the metaphor.

“There will be a time for them to make profits and a time for them to get bonuses,” Obama said. “This is not that time.”

The comments also prompted a response from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has been investigating Wall Street bonuses.

“Over the course of our investigation it has become apparent that while Wall Street melted down, top executives believed that, unlike the rest of the country, they still deserved huge bonuses,” Cuomo said. “That’s why President Obama’s remarks today are a welcome breath of fresh air and a healthy dose of reality for Wall Street. President Obama is exactly right when he calls these bonuses shameful and the height of irresponsibility.”

Former New York Rangers great Mike Richter told the Albany Times-Union this afternoon that he’s skating away from the race to replace former Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand in the 20th District.

Richter, who owns a home in Essex County in the district, told the paper that “I have a great deal of respect for Kirsten and anybody who devotes their life to public service,” adding that it’s not the right time for him to seek public office.

But he did leave the door open to running in the future, saying “The fact of the matter is that I do have a real interest in that, I do have a real interest in serving. It’s something that I would very much consider.”

Richter never indicated that he was interested in the seat, but his name was tossed around as among more than two dozen candidates considering running on the Democratic line.

Tom Poelker, chairman of the Greene County Democratic Committee, said today that the race is now probably down to about 10 candidates.

A Republican official said that Carol Schrager, a Greene County attorney, is one name they are keeping an eye on because she may be able to put some personal money to put in the campaign.

Then again, the candidates are gearing up for an election that hasn’t been called yet, which drew the ire of state GOP chairman Joseph Mondello this afternoon, who called on Gov. David Paterson to set the date already.

“”As the nation confronts the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, it is imperative that our state is fully represented in Congress,” Mondello said. “The time for Paterson to act is now.”

Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, is taking Gov. David Paterson to task over his remarks this morning that he doesn’t see much benefit in the tax cuts that are part of the federal stimulus package.

“Governor Paterson’s sharp criticism of the tax cuts included in the economic stimulus package passed yesterday by Congress clearly shows how out of touch he is with New Yorkers who are sick and tired of paying higher taxes,” Skelos said in a statement.

“Rather than criticize the billions of dollars the stimulus package spends on things such as $650 million for coupons for TV converters, $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, and $600 million to buy new cars for federal bureaucrats – projects that won’t create any new jobs, the governor today on an Amsterdam radio station, criticized proposed federal tax cuts by saying that they won’t make a difference in turning around the economy.”

Skelos continued, “He should tell that to small business owners across our state who are laying off employees because they can’t meet their expenses, including increased state taxes and fees.

“He should tell that to families who are paying higher taxes every year, that tax cuts won’t make a difference in their budgets. Eliminating billions of dollars in property tax rebates, as Governor Paterson has proposed, would put an even bigger dent in their budgets.

“The Governor’s comments today, combined with the $6 billion in tax and fee hikes he proposed in his Executive Budget, demonstrate the Governor’s belief that higher taxes are the answer to our economic problems.

“Senate Republicans could not disagree more and we will continue to oppose the Governor’s tax and fee hikes and urge that money from the federal stimulus package be used to eliminate them.”

Darren Dopp, communications director to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, will get his day before the state Commission on Public Integrity on March 11 to fight civil charges that he violated the Public Officers Law when he released travel records in 2007 on former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s use of state aircraft.

Dopp and the commission will make their arguments before the commission’s administrative law judge Christine Kopec, who would then decide whether to uphold the charges or drop them.

Dopp could face up to a $10,000 fine.

It’s unclear who Dopp’s attorney Michael Koenig may call to testify, but he’s suggested in the past that he could call Spitzer to the stand.

Dopp said today that he plans to put forth evidence on Herbert Teitlebaum, the commission’s executive director, who has been accused of leaking information during the commission’s probe to Spitzer’s staff.

“I’m really looking forward to the hearing. I have evidence regarding Mr. Teitelbaum’s conduct in this case that I intend to make public,” Dopp said.

In July, the commission released 3,000 pages from its Troopergate investigation of whether Spitzer’s aides conspired to release travel records that showed former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno was using state aircraft for political purposes.

The commission alleged that Spitzer aides Richard Baum, Dopp and William Howard, as well as former State Police Superintendent Preston Felton, violated sections of the Public Officers Law by working to compile records in a plot to smear Bruno.

Baum and Howard settled with the commission, while Dopp and Felton are fighting the charges. There is no date set yet for Felton’s hearing.

Gov. David Paterson said he supports measures in the federal stimulus package to help states, but he questioned the need for additional tax cuts.

The $819 billion package approved by the House yesterday includes about $275 billion in tax cuts, which is expected to put about $20 a month more into middle-class workers’ paychecks.

Paterson said the tax cuts won’t stimulate the economy.

“If you give people a tax cut, they are holding the money. If you give people rebates, they are saving the money,” Paterson said on WVTL 1570-AM in Amsterdam this morning.  “This could drive us into a 10-year recession; this is what happened to Japan. We’ve got to get people to work, we have to get people spendingmoney again.”

He added, “I think a tax cut is fine, but I don’t think it’s the right formula we’re using right now. So I don’t really agree with the president on that.”

Later on Utica radio station WIBX 950-AM, Paterson said more money should go to states, who could use the money to offset tax and fee increases. Paterson is proposing 137 new taxes and fees in his 2009-10 budget.

“The tax cut I think is so small it won’t make a difference,” he said. “And the state is now raising fees in our deficit reduction plan. Then the citizen doesn’t know the difference.”

But he did praise the aid to states in the package, as well as the roughly $30 billion in it for instrastructure projects. Paterson said about 40 projects in the state are “shovel ready projects that could start tomorrow.”