Budget Late Again?
Throw The Burns Out!

Last week . . . actually on April first . . . it struck me. For the 18th year in a row, the State Legislature had failed to pass an on-time budget. Now you’ve read it before and I’ve written it before, these Albany jokers just can’t do their job.

Approving a budget by which to conduct the business of New York State is not a casual matter — it is not a matter that can be pushed to a back burner or relegated to the pile of political deals that continue in the abhorrent, inane legislature which knows not how to do the business of the State.

Business?

Certainly, no responsible business of any size would approach a new fiscal year without a budget in place. For a business the size of New York State do to so is the epitome of arrogance and incompetence. The leaders of both parties – Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno – are the culprits that lead the inept legislature to the blind edge of failure. The Governor, sadly, has not exercised any leadership to solve the problem. However, George Pataki, this Republican governor, is only failing for the eighth time. His Democratic predecessor — you remember him — Mario Cuomo failed for the ten prior years.

So, with a GOP Senate, a Democratic Assembly, and a Governor of either party, you get failure. . . . complete and utter failure. Those that tell you otherwise are lying to you.

We send our Assembly members and State Senators to Albany to represent the best interests of the people of our State. We send them there to run our government, watch our money and keep us safe. We elect them and entrust them with the business of government.

And whether I like each and every one of the Albany legislators or not, they are all failures . . . dismal, pathetic failures. They blindly follow Silver and Bruno and, to a man (or woman), do not raise their voices in condemnation of a process that fails to produce a budget. Not one member has shouted out for a solution. And friends, if they are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem (thank you Eldridge Cleaver).

The next time you see or hear from your State legislator, ask them, “Where is our on-time State budget?” If you get mail from them paid for at public expense, write on it. ““Where is our on- time State budget?”

Now, you’re going to be seeing these guys and gals. Current redistricting has caused lines to change. Some face very different districts than they did before. Others have it easy. But this is the once-in-ten-years when incumbents worry about reelection. They will be out there campaigning — at community meetings, at bus and subway stops, at supermarkets. Remember, don’t listen to their pitches. At the top of your voice say to them and the surrounding crowd, “Shame on you! Where is our on-time State budget?”

Now, I like Mike and Brian and Audrey and Nettie and Mark and Cathy and Ivan and Toby and Serph and Malcolm and company. And Frank and Jeff and Ann-Margaret and Bill and company have all done their jobs pretty well. And the rest of them, Marge and Barbara and Dan and Vivian and George and Ada and Tony and Mike (the other one), go to Albany, raise their hands and many try their best. They have failed you — each and everyone. My powerful friend Brian, my earnest friend Mike, my longtime friend Nettie, my dynamic friend Malcolm, each and every one of the Queens legislators get a resounding “F” for performance.

Until they pass an on-time budget or vow to oust the leadership so mired in politics as to disregard the best interest of the people – friends or no friends – they don’t deserve your support.

I wonder, if the lot of these jokers and all their upstate colleague jokers were term limited, would a new class of legislators come in and give us an on-time budget and an honest day’s work?

Gee, I was never for term limits. After 18 years of not having an on-time budget, maybe it’s time to throw the whole bunch out!

Truth In Politics?
Commuter Tax Repeal

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall released her Proposed $471 Million Reallocation Package to the Mayor’s Budget. Leading the list are such vital budget restorations as $346 million to the Board of Education, $10.5 million to Queens libraries.

In requesting the reinstatement of significant funding cuts, the Beep also proposed revenue enhancements that would raise more than the $471 million she was requesting.

However, the largest portion of the increased revenue, some $453 million, would come from the re-enactment of the NYC commuter tax that our Democratic-controlled legislature allowed to be traded away some two years ago in a useless political maneuver by Speaker Sheldon Silver. They gave it up and got nothing in return.

This writer yelled back then and remembers speaking to one of the then- freshman Assemblymen, telling him that his vote would come back to haunt him.

Well, while Marshall is pleading to deaf ears if she expects the Republican Senate to participate in an effort to reinstate the tax, she points to Governor Pataki as the man who eliminated the Commuter Tax.

Marshall’s statement says: “The Commuter Tax, a tax imposed on wages earned by New Yorkers who commute to work into each of the five boroughs, was eliminated in May of 1999 by Governor George E. Pataki.”

Sorry Helen, it wasn’t the Governor.

If you’re looking for someone to blame, try your own party’s Assembly Speaker and a number of Queens Assembly members who voted in favor of its elimination. The people can only support your efforts if you can affix blame where it belongs and not on the basis of party or friendship. The fiscal health of our borough is above party and politics.

It is this writer’s guess that if anyone is going to come up with and get enacted a revenue stream to replace the lost commuter tax, it is going to be a Republican. Mayor Mike Bloomberg has demonstrated the independence and fiscal creativity to tackle this problem.

How can we rely on the numbers in a proposal which blames the Governor for the failure of the Democratic Speaker and a number of Queens Assembly members?

This lifelong Democrat is not loyal to party but to performance.

Helen, we must all stand up and be counted. Blame and name the Speaker and the Queens members who voted for the commuter tax repeal.

Special Election

A Special Election will be held next Tuesday, April 16 to fill the term of the late Pauline Rhodds-Cummings in the 31st Assembly District.

Democratic District Leader Michelle Titus – with the Democratic, Liberal and Working Families lines – faces Republican Marina Rejas and the Independence Party’s Michael Duvall.

Special Elections with party designations are decided by the party, not the voters. Titus, the Democrat, will walk away with this one.

Playing Power Politics

I’m not making lists. But I have in the past toyed with the exercise of creating a list (in order) of the 10 most powerful Queens politicians today. It’s never an easy game, but it seems pretty clear who the top three names are. They’ve been up there for most of the past decade and continue to exercise the greatest influence over the politics of our borough — former Congressman, Queens Democratic County Leader Tom Manton, former Congressman and pastor of the Allen A.M.E. Church, Reverend Floyd Flake; and president of the Central Labor Council of New York City, Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin.

Now, this is not meant as a slight to Archie, Gary, Joe, Helen and a whole host of influential Queens politicians. But Tom Manton, Floyd Flake and Brian McLaughlin, each in their own right, are giants influencing the Queens political process – and more.

One of those giants, Brian McLaughlin, is about to take another giant step.

McLaughlin is president of the Central Labor Council, an umbrella organization of unions representing more than 1.5 million working men and women. He has served as Assembly member from Flushing since 1992 but has been seriously impacted by this year’s redistricting and is about to run in a district which contains less than 20 percent of his former one. He has been the powerful district leader of his New Century Democratic Club building a local force which elevated John Liu to become the first Asian American in the New York City Council. He has become, in New York City, one of the three most powerful and respected spokespersons for labor.

McLaughlin is about to launch his campaign for reelection in the new district. He is about to make his established Democratic Club more powerful. He is about to reassert himself as a major force in Queens politics and he is about to stake his claim on the future of New York City.

On May 14 (although the date is not yet firm), Brian McLaughlin is being joined in Flushing by his friend, former President Bill Clinton as they rename Brian’s Century Democratic Club to the William Jefferson Clinton Democratic Club – the first political club in the nation to be named for the former president. Brian is also about to announce some major initiatives of the club that will promote the Clinton legacy and “make this world a better place for our children and for the working men and women of our City.” According to those working on it, this new political organization will be a vehicle to promote community service “that will enhance the human condition and benefit the neighborhoods of our City.” It sounds pretty clear that this organization will not stop at the limits of local community service.

Follow this one. It could be the start of something really big.

What we believe is happening is the first step in the launch of a campaign that will take Brian McLaughlin from the top of the list of the most powerful in Queens and move him to the top of the list of the most powerful in New York City.

And then, Mayor Brian?

Stay tuned.

Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato

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Michael Schenkler can be reached at: MSchenkler@queenspress.com