From WAMC in Albany, this is the legislative gazette, a weekly magazine on New York State
Government and Politics.
Our host is Dave Galethley, with Commentary by Political Scientist Dr. Alan Shartock,
of the State University of New York at New Podes.
Coming up this week, another prominent New York State Democrat is in some hot water.
Complaints about the Governor's deficit-slashing plan continue and an unprecedented stand by
the state's public employee unions.
Those stories, Alan Shartock will join us, and much, much more on this week's legislative
Gazette.
Senate Minority Leader Manfred Ornstein has had his share of legal troubles.
Now he has company.
Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Mel Miller was indicted on federal charges.
As Karen DeWitt reports, Miller predicted his indictment the day before.
At 3.30 this afternoon, I notified the Governor of the State that I had been informed
late last week that the Eastern District has been given the go ahead to bring an indictment
or make a presentation to a grand jury with the intention of bringing an indictment against
me to find Miller this week, and to this week, or beginning of next week.
Assembly Speaker Mel Miller says he is innocent of any charges the indictment may contain.
It was leaked to a newspaper earlier this year that Miller was being investigated by the
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Andrew Maloney for alleged wrongdoing in a real estate deal.
It was alleged that in 1983, Miller secretly bought two apartments in a New York City cooperative.
At the same time, his law firm was representing the cooperative's tenants in a co-op conversion
plan.
Miller refused to talk about specific allegations, saying he didn't want to comment on
more than he had to until he saw exactly what the indictment contained.
Though his lawyer says one charge will be male fraud.
Miller instead chose to attack the prosecutor, accusing him of playing politics.
The only thing I'm guilty of is being the speaker of the New York State Assembly.
Miller says he was singled out to enhance the resumes and reputations of prosecutors in
the U.S. Attorney's office.
I don't think there's any merits in these charges.
I think these charges were invented.
I think these charges were, take a shoehorn.
You know, and if it doesn't fit, he keeps stretching it, you know, because you don't have
a shoe of another size.
Miller also accused the prosecutor of putting pressure on his law partner, Jay Adolf, who
will also likely be indicted, and said the witness whom he believed led to the indictment
against him was a criminal who wanted to save his own skin.
Miller's attorney, Jerry Leffcourt, explains.
But there's one witness in particular who was found committing a crime of forgery.
And we believe that he was offered immunity if he would say that Mr. Miller was told
that he committed this crime of forgery.
As we understand the allegation, this fellow committed forgery is sometimes in 84, and
claims that he told Mr. Miller about it sometime in 85.
This is the type of allegation we suspect you will find once the indictment is brought
assuming it is.
Leffcourt and Miller refused to name the witness.
Miller revealed that acting on his own initiative, he took a lie detector test about three months
ago and passed.
Miller says he has cooperated in every way in the investigation, handing over files and
documents and even meeting face to face with US Attorney Malone's representative.
Though Miller says his training as a lawyer told him that that was perhaps unwise.
And that violates every rule of what you do in terms of a defense layer.
We went down there because we knew we were telling the truth.
We had nothing to hide.
We went down there and told him the truth.
And I will do the same thing at trial.
I'm going to tell him the truth.
And Miller says he's not quitting as assembly speaker.
I'm not resigning, retiring.
I'm going to remain a speaker as long as the members of my conference asked me to.
The members of my conference have re-nominated me as a Democratic candidate for speaker
on January 9th.
I'm going to be able to elected a speaker on January 9th.
This is not the first time Miller has been investigated by the Brooklyn US Attorney,
a probe into whether Miller illegally gave $25,000 to a Brooklyn State Senator's election
campaign through a now defunct credit union was dropped with no indictments.
Nor will Miller be the only legislative leader under indictment.
Senate Democratic leader Manfred Oranstein faces a trial in 1991 for allegedly paying no
show workers in 1986.
In Albany, I'm Karen DeWitt.
Karen DeWitt's report courtesy of the New York Public Radio Albany Bureau.
It seems to be a dangerous time to be a party leader in New York.
The state's top Republicans are rumored to be meeting in the next few weeks to choose
a new state party leader.
Among those who would attend the meeting are US Senator Alfonz Demado and state Senate
majority leader Ralph Moreno.
There's no word yet on who would replace party chair Jay Patrick Barrett, who came in
for heavy criticism for the gubernatorial campaign of Pierre Enfrey.
I discuss the problems of both Mel Miller and Pat Barrett with our political analyst,
Dr. Alan Chartalk.
Pat Barrett has more serious problems in terms of political longevity than Mel Miller does.
And that is because Pat Barrett is in a game, a competitive two party game where if you
lose, you're out, fire the manager.
And in fact, has had a disastrous year, although it might be pointed out that the Senate
Republicans maintain their control, which some people thought wasn't going to happen.
And then maybe since that happened on its watch that Pat Barrett gets the credit, but
in fact, that just ain't true.
And that's because the Senate Republican campaign operation was separate and distinct very
much so from the total New York State Republican effort to elect a governor, which is where
Pat Barrett's efforts were supposed to really be placed, and which, as you know, led to Pierre
Enfrey, who was still hearing aftershocks from his now attacking Jeffianci, his lieutenant
governor, and saying that he used the campaign to promote the hell of a good cheese.
He'll never stop.
Now Barrett is being taken on now by the Demato wing of the Republican Party who are supposed
to meet without even Roy Goodman, the liberal heir to the X-Lax fortune, and a Republican
state senator who helped pick Enfrey, and at the time I said to myself, now why are they
the Demato Republicans who are in the ascendancy, the Demato Marino Republicans who are in the
ascendancy in their party, why are they allowing the liberal to pick the candidate?
Now I got a pretty good idea that they allowed him to pick him so that he would look like
a jerk, because they knew they were going to lose the election.
And it's clear that Barrett is out.
What we are now hearing is that one of the top Demato lieutenants is Mr. Powers, the chairman
of the Rensler County Committee, may well be the new chairman of the Republican Committee.
I asked Mr. Powers about it, he absolutely refused to come at the one way or the other.
Okay, on the other side of the aisle, of course, smell Miller, is his indictment political?
Well, there are those people who are thinking it is, after all.
We remember that the Democratic DA, Elizabeth Holtzman, who went on to different public
office, could do nothing when presented with certain facts.
As those facts are, that smell Miller somehow used his position as an attorney to not deal
honestly with his clients and to buy a bunch of condominiums at an insider price and
to hide the fact that it was he who was getting it and some ancillary charges along those
lines.
I've talked to many, many lawyers.
None of them were able, not having seen the specific indictment itself, to tell me
on its face why this was a serious crime.
Ethical violation may be, character committee stuff before the bar may be.
But it's going to be a tough charge for the feds to prove.
It may have some major repercussions and how do you run a state in such difficulties
when you have Senator Orinstein under indictment for several counts, Senator, excuse me, Assembly
and Miller now under indictment.
Now remember that Stanley Stein got the former speaker, he was indicted, he got off, his
majority leader was indicted, he got off.
And there were lots of feelings at the time that those indictments were not appropriate.
So that if you're in the limelight, if you're way out there very often, you can get picked
on.
I was mentioning to you earlier today, David, that Senator Israel Ruiz went to jail for
what?
You know what he did?
He filled out a mortgage application and he said that he was making more than he was
making, his assets were greater than anyone and they sent them to jail for that for a year.
Now I don't, I mean I would never lie on a mortgage application but I can tell you this
much from what I've heard from people who have done it.
You're talking about a good deal of the state's population spending time in prison so that
what happens is this is sort of a pyramid and then as you go further and further up, there
are more and more people after you and more likely to take you on and try to get you convicted
of something.
I know that if I were betting man right now and I'm no male Miller fan, I would not bet
that male Miller is going to go to jail time over this thing.
Legislative Gazette, political analyst Dr. Alan Shartock.
Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders had hoped to have a deficit reduction plan in place
by this week but by production time problems were still evident.
Among the differences between the Democrats and Republicans, the GOP does not want richer
school districts to take a larger burden of some $200 million in school aid cuts.
The world of higher education has its problems with the governor's proposals as well, Ryan
Shields reports.
Mark Lawton is president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities.
He says the state budget cannot be balanced on the backs of needy private college students.
Lawton says funds for private colleges have already been cut once this year.
We basically have a series of institutions that are under really severe financial stress
and there are two reductions that will be hitting them.
It's a double whammy on top of a cut that has already been taken.
That is there is a cut to students that attend our institutions of $100 on their tuition
assistance grants and there is as well a reduction in a further reduction I should say
in the direct institutional aid sometimes referred to as bundy aid.
Also proposed as $100 reduction for all recipients of region scholarships and Empire State
Scholarships of Excellence Awards.
Since all sectors of the state will suffer, why shouldn't independent colleges bite the
bullet?
Lawton has three problems with that question.
One is that I think you have to be someone intelligent in your choice of where you cut.
That is to be specific you have to know where you want to get out of what you want to
get out of it and where you want to be when you finish cutting.
One of the things you have to be aware of is that higher education generally has a very
large disproportionate amount of the package that the governor submitted impacts higher education.
Why is higher education?
Second matter is you don't want to damage higher education much more than it is already
damaged because that is where your future workforce is going to be created.
If this state is going to have the tax revenues and it is going to have the economy that
can compete in the manner and fashion that it has to.
When you start shrinking down the capacity of the systems you have in the state, both
public and private, you have got some very serious problems in front of you.
Now thirdly, I would certainly agree with you that everyone has to share in the pain.
But I believe there are better ways to craft what the reductions would be than what some
of the permanent damage that will be done if you deny students, New York State students
access to college and if in fact you diminish the college's capability, there are other
options.
Lawton says about 75% of the students attending private New York State schools need financial
aid.
For the legislative Gazette, I'm Brian Shields.
Furlows and layoffs are two ways to cut spending on the state's labor force.
A state senator has another idea, Lee Farbman reports.
A New York State senator has proposed an unusual way to trim the state's workforce.
He wants to offer a $1,000 bonus to any state worker who quits.
Senator Hugh Farley, a Schenectady Republican, says he has proposed a severance incentive
as far more humane than the thousands of layoffs Governor Cuomo has proposed.
Farley says the bonus would encourage workers who would not benefit from or qualify for
early retirement to leave voluntarily.
Farley adds it also would encourage unhappy state workers to leave, which means the remaining
workers would be those most motivated by public service.
The senator says he's spoken with some of the state's unions and they apparently find
the idea an interesting concept.
It's a fresh idea.
It's one that these are people that would leave voluntarily as opposed to somebody that
is laid off or somebody that is furloughed.
Actually, when somebody leaves voluntarily, you see, you're not eligible for unemployment
compensation.
Maybe they would like to get their financial house in order and move to another part
of the state or to another state or move and finish their education.
There's a lot of things that give them options.
It's simply an option that is available, which would not cause somebody to necessarily
lose their job.
They would voluntarily leave.
The Governor and the legislature have been rushing to get a deficit-slashing plan in
place.
We asked Farley if he thinks the legislature would consider other options when it's so close
to approving one that's already on the table.
Well, I think that the legislature has to look at every kind of alternative that we
have.
We're probably going to find ourselves in court if they go ahead with a mandatory furlough
or that sort of thing.
But I think that we have to look at everything.
I don't think it's been said that there's any sacred cows.
I'm trying to reduce the social pain.
This is just a concept, an idea, which I think might merit looking at.
I've sent it on to the Office of Employee Relations, into the Governor and Senator
Marino.
And I understand that there are some people who are looking at it as an idea that maybe
something we want to try.
New York State Senator Hugh Farley of Schenectady.
For the legislative gazette, I'm Lee Farbman.
The state's public employee unions have not been very happy with the idea of furloughs
and layoffs.
And to show their displeasure, the leaders of the state's four largest public employee
unions have come together to fight the state, more from Bruce Robertson.
For the first time in memory, the four largest state employee unions have banded together
to file grievances against the state government.
The Civil Service Employees Association, the Public Employees Federation, the United
University Professions, and Council 82, the State Prison Guards Union, all say they
have filed identical grievances that charge that the state is locking them out of work.
They claim Governor Cuomo's plan to furlough state workers alters their contract and thus
is a breach of contract.
The governor says if he does not get $135 million worth of concessions from state employees,
massive layoffs will result.
Joe McDermott is president of the Civil Service Employees Association, the state's largest
public employee union.
He says the unions know the state is in a fiscal bind and that's why creative solutions
are needed.
Each of our unions has presented viable alternatives that can help the state resolve its current
budget crunch.
Unfortunately, to our disappointment, the governor and his representatives have not negotiated
with us.
They have dismissed our solid solutions out of hand.
My members want and need to work and they need job security.
Our plan provides for that.
The governor's plan doesn't.
The four unions more often find themselves in turf wars than in the United Front.
Public Employees Federation President Rand Condell said uniting the unions was easy because
all four of them face the same threats.
We are therefore jointly addressing that issue by filing today grievances that call for
the governor to desist in attempting unilaterally to get legislation passed to provide for the
lockout of our members from the jobs.
John Riley is president of the United University Professions, which represents 21,000 workers
in the state university system.
He thinks the state's actions threaten the integrity of collective bargaining.
The government, the administration, in a heavy-handed way is seeking to bust contracts
by going and breaking through neutral agreements that neither party, we know more than they will
seek external to the bargaining table ways to achieve their ends.
That we see a straightforward effort to try to use the legislature to impose upon us
a lockout.
This is a violation of the contract and to our way of thinking it's an assault on collective
bargaining.
Council 82 Executive Director Joe Puma says the state seems to forget that unions provide
services for all New Yorkers.
It just so happens to serve us that my men and women provide the safety and security
behind the prison walls.
Everyone seems to be forgetting the attitudes, the sing-sings and what we learned from these
great atrocities of members of PEPF, CSA, and Council 82 being brutalized, literally
brutalized by convicted felons.
I don't think I've lost faith in New York state citizens, middle class America, like our
governor and hopefully not legislate as have.
They deserve the best services.
Our members collectively give the best services in New York state.
Again, that's why we are the best.
I've heard our governor go around the country chanting the approval and making our union
silent where God's gift and the public employers are the best out there.
Response came quickly from the state, Elizabeth Moore, director of the New York State Office
of Employee Relations, says the union leaders have sent a message which says they would
rather see their members laid off than help share in the fiscal burden.
She added that the leaders are, in her words, acting in their own self-interest and opposing
a plan that would best serve the needs of their members.
For the legislative gazette, this is Bruce Robertson.
The New York Farm Bureau has kept its policies and the headlines throughout this year.
It opposed the Environmental Bond Act, supported the governor's deficit reduction plan, and
President Bush has proposed cut in the Capitol Gaines' tax.
Our Mike Fonda-Caroh spoke with Farm Bureau President Charles Willie to learn what it had
in store for 1991.
One of the key notes with the continued endorsement of our note to more taxes policy,
a very, very strong feeling that we need to reduce government expenses rather than increase
taxes.
We had a considerable discussion about the mandates that are being placed upon local municipalities
by state laws.
We're calling for a certainly review of those and in the case where we have to have local
taxes to fund those programs, we think they should be eliminated.
So we're calling for review of the mandates and certainly a reduction not only at the
state, but in the local municipalities and school districts as well.
I think we've got to hold each area accountable for their activities.
We need efficiency in our government and that has not been taking place as well as it
probably should have been in the last decade.
Given the current financial condition of the state, which anyone and everyone will
agree is not too good, how do you feel about the governor's current plan of trying to
us slash state spending?
We're very supportive of the governor's plan.
We have written to the governor and indicating our support for his cuts.
And the delegates also recognize the fact that these cuts will impact agricultural programs.
We're willing to assume some cuts provided and this is a big provision that they are
placed across the board and all the agencies.
One of the things that does concern our delegates has been the expansion of other state agencies
while the Department of Agriculture and Marketing has really not expanded at all.
And in some cases have lost people.
We think that we need to have those cuts in order to bring the line of government into
the keeping of what most of our rural people think is proper.
What other policies can we expect from the Farm Bureau in 1991?
Well certainly Farm Bureau in the dairy area is going to work very hard to see that we
do not allow imported dairy products to come into our country.
We're so-called Section 22 of the import regulations.
We are supporting continuation of that policy.
We do recognize however if other nations of the world liberalize their trailing, trading
policies.
We then could relax some of our import restrictions.
But we want to defend our market until others show some real openness about theirs.
Another area that we did talk about was continue to push for the dedicated highway fund because
we recognize that our highways need continually repair, we're paying heavy taxes for our
petroleum products.
We think that that money should be placed in a special fund for the repair of our highways
and reconstruction where that becomes necessary.
New York Farm Bureau President Charles Willie speaking with our Mike Fonda Carrow.
Updating a story we covered last week, the troubles at New York State's Martin Luther King
Institute for Non-Violence may claim its executive director.
Monday's editions of the New York Post reported that Tom Cooper may be part of a major shake-up
at the Institute.
Last week we reported that State Inspector General Joseph Spinelli is looking into accusations
of bid-rigging, nepotism, sexual harassment, anti-semitism and other charges made by employees
of the Institute.
When contacted by our program, Cooper said his previous comments have been misconstrued
by the media.
So now he has nothing further to say about the investigation.
Lieutenant Governor Stan Lundin took some time out this week to discuss key issues with
Mike Fonda Carrow.
What do you think of Miller's legal problems?
Well, first of all, I think it's important to understand that Speaker Miller's accusations
against him do not relate to his conduct on his job.
They relate to his private practice of law.
Second of all, I believe that every person is entitled to be presumed innocent until they're
proven, not just indicted by a grand jury.
And he claims that he did not violate any law in his legal practice.
And I think we're just going to have to see what develops.
But I know, Miller, well, I actually went to law school with Miller.
I think he's a person of high integrity.
I hope that this matter will be resolved so that the public's confidence in elected officials
is sustained or perhaps even enhanced.
You mentioned the confidence in public officials.
Perhaps this could be a narrowed-to confidence in the Democratic Party.
You have the minority leader in the Senate going through his troubles.
Now the Speaker of the Assembly.
Do you think it all reflects in a bad way on the party after a while?
I don't think that any party has a corner on integrity or adherence to the highest legal
principles.
We have never claimed that the Republican Party was more corrupt.
And I think they'd be ill advised to claim that the Democratic Party is.
I understand how people's impressions are formed, but I really feel strongly that if
we get to the point where public officials are judged on whether they're accused, you're
just asking for other public officials to use the power, the really awesome power that
a prosecutor has.
In this case, the United States attorney or in New York State, district attorney has
politically.
And I don't think it should be used that way.
If anyone has ever been accused of anything that they didn't do, it's a very frightening
experience.
And I think we should keep that in mind.
We should subject public officials to a higher standard than we do everyone else in society.
That is appropriate, but to say that we're going to assume that there's something wrong
there because they've been indicted, I think, as an unfair standard.
Lieutenant Governor Stan Lundin speaking with the Legislative Gazette's Mike Fonda-Caro.
And that about does it for this week's show.
Join us next week for more news on New York State government and politics.
For the Legislative Gazette, I'm Dave Galatli.
The program is made possible with grants from the Legislative Gazette, the newspaper
about State government, subscription information available by calling 518-473-6482.
And Empire Information Services, serving New York and New England with electronic
news release distribution.
Another New York State top Democrat has found himself in hot water.
I'm Dave Galatli.
Starting up on this week's Legislative Gazette, we'll update you on millers' troubles.
Alan Sharton will be along as well.
Join us each week for the Legislative Gazette.
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