From Albany, this is the legislative Gazette, a weekly magazine on New York State government
and politics.
Your host is Don Decker, with commentary by a political scientist Dr. Alan Shartuck.
Hello and welcome to the legislative Gazette.
I'm Dave Galetli, sitting in this week for the vacationing Don Decker.
Coming up, it looks like the war on drugs is going to be a hot issue again this session.
We'll hear how lawmakers intend to add ammunition to that fight.
Meanwhile, a coalition of environmental groups is telling legislators to put their money
where their mouths are.
Governor Cuomo says an idea he presented in his state of the state address is being misunderstood.
Our political analyst Dr. Alan Shartuck speaks with the chief executive about that.
And the New York Post Fred Dicker will join us to share his insight on the state political
scene.
All that and more on this week's legislative Gazette.
New York state officials are hoping to hit drug dealers where it hurts in their bank accounts.
Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers this week opened 1990 strategizing on the state's drug
war.
And the focus was on stopping the laundering of drug trade profits.
As Inga Sardar reports, legislators would like the crime to become a felony instead of a
misdemeanor.
And they're calling for other changes in law as well.
New York State Senator Hugh Farley, chair of that Chamber's Banking Committee, says billions
of dollars from proceeds from illegal drug deals are circulated through the nation's
banking system every year.
And a lot of that money could be in New York.
It's just absolutely incredible.
The country and the state is a wash and drug money.
It's beyond your imagination.
And they try to get this back into circulation legitimately, into legitimate circulation.
And they're using every means that they can.
And they're not going to use our financial system in New York.
And that's the purpose of this.
The federal government is moving on that.
But we're the financial center of the world in New York.
And we've got to, we've got ways that we can stop this.
According to the Capitol District Republican, the Senate is aiming to establish a criminal
investigation bureau within the state banking department.
It's like an intelligence network within the banking department, which would be able
to look at, with peace officer status, they could look at records and fingerprint people
and try to eliminate any sorts of crime that is going on within our banks and within
our financial community.
So we want to eliminate sub agents of money for money transmitters.
And we want to eliminate telegraph company exemptions for money transmitters and investigate
check casures, licenses and increase the penalties for unlicensed money transmitters.
That's where the major problem is.
And strengthening all kinds of penalties for money laundering.
Meanwhile assemblyman Herman Farrell, a Democrat from New York City, estimates $1 trillion
per year's worth of funds is electronically sent through the American money system every
day.
Like Farrell, Farrell contains much of that is likely to be drug money.
Farrell has his own ideas of how to handle the problem.
One of the things I would like to see done is come up with some sort of system where you
define what a drug, what would be a profile of a drug dealer.
And you define that in terms of economics.
One of the things that a drug dealer coming up with five hit points, let's assume.
And you define ten different activities that make define what a drug dealer is.
If five of those are hit, that's someone you look at.
According to Farrell, there are other problems as well.
People especially in New York City where we have a large amount of people from all over
the country, all over the world, and many of them come to a merc and then of course, send
money back home to their families and to your islands or wherever they come from.
And what's popping up is a lot of illegal money transmit as people say to you, basically,
give me your money and we will transmit that money to you back to the islands to your
family.
So we've got a problem where that is going on and we're really getting a lot of people
who are giving their money in such a manner that money is unsecured because they're illegal
and not licensed.
And two, that legal money which though it may be illegal in the manner it's moving through
is basically legal money is then integrated in with illegal money and transmitted.
So it's one of the things we've been looking at, a matter of fact, the New York state we've
had, I think, two indictments in the last two years, major indictments of firms that have
been closed down for doing illegal money transmitting.
One of the things we're looking at legislatively is to how to tighten up our whole money transmitting
legislation.
Meanwhile, New York's Republican U.S. Senator Al Fon's D'Amato, who also testified at
the hearing, says ending the laundering of drug money will take work by both the state
and federal governments.
We need a comprehensive overall of the state money laundering laws.
We need tougher federal requirements that banks know their customers.
There's no reason for a bank to be taking millions of dollars in cash from a customer who
would have a very difficult time explaining how it is that they came by this cash.
If you're dealing with a customer, for example, who's in the retail car business, how many
people come in and pay tens and tens of thousands of dollars in cash?
If you're dealing as it relates to these wire transfer operations, many of them who use
storefronts, who operate travel agencies, how many of them come in and deal cash?
So the banks should have that requirement to say, listen, we want to know, how is it
that this cash is coming on?
This has been one of our great areas of failure, I believe.
Like state lawmakers, D'Amato is also calling upon the international community to work together
to end the problem.
For the legislative gazette, I'm Inca Sarda.
Stiffer penalties for money laundering are not the only way officials hope to win the
war on drugs.
This week a Senate committee held a hearing to discuss other strategies, as well as take
a closer look at the governor's recently released anti-drug plan.
It included more than 100 recommendations and came with a billion dollar price tag.
Inca Sarda spoke with Senator Tom Leibus, Chair of the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee.
I think in the area of treatment we want to talk about the campus idea and the concept.
We want to see that if we go into this concept, is it really going to be helpful?
I think also in the area of law enforcement, we're looking at some of the suggestions that
the governor came out with as far as setting up the four regional, our cut-out undercover
teams setting up some tougher and stringent laws that really have been state, the Senate
philosophies and policies.
So we're going to ask a lot of questions on the report and we want to see what direction
we're going to be going in.
There must be some concern about the financial aspect.
There's no question about it.
We are spending in New York State almost $1.2 billion right now in the area of alcoholism
and drug abuse.
Before we proceed any further, we want to make sure that the present dollars are being
spent adequately.
As you know, the Division of Substance Abuse Services has gone under some criticism lately.
Mr. Martinez has resigned and we need to take a serious look at whether or not the resources
and the funding that we're now using is being spent properly and adequately.
And that's one of our concerns in the state Senate that's one of my concerns is Chairman.
We want to look at that before we move forward and talk about spending additional dollars.
You mentioned before that there were some other ideas that may be floating around out there
to deal with the drug problem that were not included in that plan.
Could you throw some of those ideas out for us?
Well, I think there's a number of things as far as they deal with different laws and tougher
penalties for criminals or last year's you know we outlawed drug paraphernalia.
I think this year in the area of education we're looking at tightening up school curriculum.
Right now we know that in New York State there are many, many school districts that are
having a number of different substance abuse programs.
But we now think it's time that maybe some of these programs be coordinated.
That we're all moving in the same direction and that some of the programs are not overlapping each other.
I think the area of education is one that the the Senate is very concerned about and we'll be asking a lot of questions on today.
Senator Tom Leibus, a Republican from Binghamton.
New York State Lieutenant Governor Stan Lundin was on hand for the hearing as well.
He of course headed up the task force that put together the governor's report.
He says he's pleased Cuomo has seemingly wholeheartedly endorsed the plan in his state of the state address.
And he says legislators have an important role to play as well.
This report has been endorsed and the specific recommendations noted in the governor's state of the state address.
We will be providing the resources necessary to carry out a full flutch fight against drugs in New York State.
I wanted to go before the legislature and tell them that I don't think this is a partisan issue.
I don't think it's a matter that ought to divide the legislature and the executive.
We would really appreciate their additional suggestions as to what could be helpful in terms of fighting drugs in New York.
But that we need legislation.
We need the legislature to adopt a very progressive budget to fight drugs,
both on the criminal justice and on the prevention and treatment aspects.
We need to fight drugs by reducing the supply available on the streets and in the schools and buildings of New York.
But we also need to reduce demand by giving people treatment and preventing people from becoming drug users in the first play.
Lieutenant Governor Stan Lundin.
Lieutenant Governor Cuomo, of course, did not just address the drug issue in his speech.
He also called for the idea of limited referendum in New York.
He told our political analyst, Dr. Alan Shartock, his calls have been misunderstood that he does not want to leave the legislature out of the law-making process.
The limited initiative in referendum is, look, I feel very strongly about this unclaimed deposits bill.
For four years, I've heard the governor say that there's $80 million a year that we're being ripped off for that we could have used for the environment or other purposes.
For four years, you've not even mentioned it.
You've not even debated it as a legislature.
We want you to debate it.
That's why people hate the legislature.
We, for, see, this is limited initiative in referendum.
I'm just giving examples.
We hear you guys talking and gals all the time about campaign financing.
Life in prison without parole.
But you never debated on the floor.
Because they don't do it, because it's all important.
So what we want is the right to sign petitions to say, look, the judgment is still yours.
You decide up or down, but we would like to hear you discuss it, vote on it, and give it to you.
Why let them decide?
They're the ones who go into closed caucuses behind closed doors in a representative democracy,
and don't even let anybody know how they voted when they killed bills and the only bills that come to the floor,
the ones that are going to pass anyway.
Well, a kind of nonsense like this.
I probably, because of my background, frankly, my background has always been before I was a public official.
I was outside the walls, shouting up at the guards, at the parapet.
So what, now that you're inside the...
So now that you're in, you're going to say, forget it?
No, just the opposite.
Now that I'm in, I'm saying let more people in.
Well, then let, and I thought it was a very good analogy when you said, now that democracy is coming to Eastern Europe,
perhaps some should come here, too.
I was pretty...
I said a little more.
That's a powerful...
This is the source of democracy and freedom, and maybe we should expand a little bit.
And that's what this limited initiative and referendum is.
I think it is a perfectly responsible thing.
I think, frankly, when the legislature has a chance to study it, I think some of them, because I could tell later,
they had quick objections to it.
You said it's dead on arrival, that's what they said.
Well, I think that's...
That's what they said about liberty scholarships, remember?
Right.
Remember, the first book, Mark Humbert, did an AP stories, and this thing is...
He didn't use those terms.
But that's because they hadn't had a chance to hear it.
And if they thought it was an initiative and referendum, yeah, that would be dead.
It would be dead with me.
I didn't ask for that.
I asked for limited initiative and referendum.
New York Governor Mario Cuomo.
A wealthy Republican congressman from Manhattan has said that he may challenge Governor Cuomo's expected re-election bid this year.
Representative Bill Green says he thinks Governor Cuomo was more vulnerable than he's been in the past.
He said he would consider running for Governor if the Republican Party agreed on a candidate early and raised campaign funds early on.
Bruce Robertson takes a closer look at another Republican who's already declared his intentions.
The name Herb Holland may not be familiar to most New Yorkers, but if the Rockland County Insurance agent has his way,
all New Yorkers will know who he is in one year.
Holland is running for Governor.
He is seeking the Republican and Conservative lines in this year's race.
The 57-year-old Holland, who admits he has no experience in government service, says he will run the state like a business.
And he has already met with state Republican chairman Barrett.
I met with Mr. Barrett about a couple of months ago now.
And of course, he threw up on the whole party to me, the rights and privileges of the Republican Party.
Of course, there are other people that they're looking at at the present time, but people like Giuliani is not going to bring it back.
It just can't happen.
No, if you're thinking of a Giuliani per se, he's not going to win.
I could bring this state back and give it back to the people of this state.
And that's where it has to be.
And I can do it.
And Holland says New York State faces a number of problems, topping the list, crime.
I mean, everything like affordable housing is great.
We can give you affordable housing, but if you can't come out at night to walk on your city street, what good is it?
I can give you education.
But if I can't bring my child to school without getting beat up, what good is it?
What good is it if there's guns in the school?
For that, when it comes down to it, the first primary problem that has to be solved in New York State is the crime problem.
Holland, unlike Governor Cuomo, is in favor of the death penalty.
Running for governor is an expensive proposition, but Holland says he is counting on the support of the people to finance the campaign.
We've been raising money from day one.
It hasn't been as good as we like because until you get the nomination, people are very, very hesitant.
But from day one, we've gone to the public.
And our campaign has been, if you'd like to see your way of life improved.
And that's what I'm interested in doing, the quality of life here in New York.
We have the public to come across with fight on.
Give five to survive.
And we people have been coming through.
When we were up in Albany recently, we were just walking through the Capitol building.
And a total stranger stopped me.
Said I've heard of you, Mr. Holland, and handed us a fight out of the check.
Now that fight out of the check could have been five million to me because they just, I was floating on a cloud.
Holland says he's been traveling the state to gain support for his candidate as he for governor.
And for the legislative Gazette, this is Bruce Robertson.
Joining us now with a look at some other happenings this week in state government is Paul Rosenthal with the legislative notebook.
The state legislature's first bill of the 1990s would punish abusers of handicapped parking permits.
People who pretend to be handicapped to get special parking permits would be subject to a $250 fine under the bill approved by the state Senate this week.
A memo on the bill was released by Senator Norman Levy, the Nassau County Republican and sponsored the legislation.
It says it's imperative that the small number of parking spaces reserved for the handicapped are indeed available to the truly handicapped.
The memo said those who knowingly and falsely represent themselves as handicapped in order to obtain a permit should be punished.
Say to some of you men Jose Serrano said this week he'll declare his candidacy for the Bronx congressional seat vacated last week by Robert Garcia.
The native of Puerto Rico says he'll do so as soon as the governor calls the special election.
Garcia resigned his seat in disgrace after being convicted on extortion and conspiracy charges in connection with the wedtech military contracting scandal.
Governor Cuomo's press secretary Gary Fryer says Cuomo will soon announce a special election probably to be held in late February for the Garcia seat.
Cuomo could allow the vacancy to continue until the November election, but Fryer says the governor would not do that.
Meanwhile, Frederick Solerna was nominated by Cuomo as chairman of the state University of New York Board of Trustees.
And he says SUNY is a lot better than most New Yorkers think, but the New York telephone company president says there's always room for improvement.
The appointment is subject to approval by the state Senate.
New York agriculture officials had nothing but praise for Governor Cuomo's farming proposals in his 1990 state of the state address last week.
State agriculture and markets commission Ericon McGuire said he was pleased to see Cuomo call for a variety of programs to maintain competitiveness in New York's agriculture sector.
Well, the pro dairy has been a success in this increased production.
And on about a thousand farms in the state of New York already and it's going to expand into more dairy farms.
Certainly this would be an advantage knowing the farmers book to the consumers as we're in a relatively short supply, which has caused the high prices to consumers.
And so we should do everything possible to increase production here in New York state.
So we recommended that the governor and he certainly mentioned up front in his speech.
Also, research and development because we have a lot of transition in agriculture from historical uses of our farmland in the state to new and more innovative uses to meet the needs of a changing appetite, a changing diet and a changing cultural clientele of our consumers here in the Northeast.
Those two are specifically mentioned.
But McGuire says the real test comes when the governor unveils his budget on Tuesday.
New York state will receive $156 million in federal anti-drug abuse grants this year, a 71% increase over last year.
That's according to a research group representing governors and state legislatures.
The grants are divided into three basic groups law enforcement, alcohol, drug abuse and mental health services and drug free schools and communities.
In New York, we'll see its biggest increase in federal money for law enforcement from $7 million last year to $25 million this year.
And the assembly and senate each approved a resolution honoring the latest assembly speaker Stanley Steingut.
He died of cancer last month at age 69.
Steingut elected to the assembly in 1952 won the speaker's job in 1975.
His legislative career ended in 1978 when he was defeated in a bid for reelection to the Brooklyn seat he had held for more than a quarter century.
This week's legislative notebook I'm Paul Rosenthal.
The 1990 legislative session is now underway and here to share his insight on what's brewing in state politics is New York Post investigative editor Fred Dicker.
He spoke with our Alan Chartock.
Fred Dicker of the New York Post.
Welcome.
Thank you, Alan.
What's going on?
It's starting to heat up at the Capitol right now.
Yeah, where's the heat?
Where's all that heat coming from?
I feel it too.
Well, it's coming from a few different quarters.
It's coming from this being an election year, both the legislature and the governor and the state controller and the attorney general are all up for reelection and they're going to be running.
And two, it's coming from it's kind of a cold heat.
It's coming from the lack of money for the state and everybody's very, very worried about the fact that the state is in big financial trouble.
Cuomo is going to be attacked by the Republicans and he's going to attack back on that issue.
So we've got two sources of heat at least.
Tell me about I was talking to a Republican biggie the other day who said who was that Alan?
Come on, come on.
Well, you know, you don't really have to know, but let's put it this way.
He's the senator from Washington in the Republican Party.
So a New York senator?
Yeah, well, I'm sort of discussing it.
And a third guy who is at the group who shall go nameless.
Right.
A friend of his said, well, what Ralph Moreno wanted to do is take the governor's budget and just pass it as is and not let the governor snooker him.
As you know, what the governor tries to do is to come in low, put the heat on the, on eliminate a lot of things that the Republicans are going to want, put the heat on them.
And then they come in and they insist that the budget be raised in some way.
And then the next year he says they raise the budget quite correctly.
So now this guy says, well, why don't they just pass the budget?
And I said because obviously they can't afford to take that kind of heat from their constituents and not deliver services.
What do you think?
Well, Alfonso and his friends are clever people, I must say.
And without giving away your source, of course.
This some merit to that.
And something like that may happen.
Of course, the assumption there is, Alan, that the governor is going to come in with an unusually low budget so that he doesn't get blamed for raising taxes.
And then somehow if the state senate Republicans went along with it, they would be snookering the governor.
It's trouble from the Republican point of view on that is that even if the governor comes in with a low budget Alan, he's going to come in with a budget
which favors New York City over the suburbs where the Republicans have their greatest strengths and which will cut things that the Republicans think are more important than the governor and the Democrats often think are important.
So they couldn't quite go along with it.
I don't believe in addition.
I think the governor, the governor anyway has given strong indication that his budget is going to call for the elimination of a tax reduction.
That's in effect this year that is he's going to want to raise taxes.
And I don't think the Senate Republicans right now want to do that.
But it's an interesting clever idea.
And if in fact the governor comes in with an unusually low budget, then there may be a real temptation on a part of the Senate Republicans to do it alphons is front suggested.
Yeah. So now what's the governor up to in terms of the tax cut?
I mean, what do we see is happening here?
Well, we see some mixed signals coming out.
We see the governor trying to say there's a business community and to those who believe that it's in the state's interest to lower taxes
because we are a very highly taxed state, especially in comparison to our neighbors.
He's been saying, I understand your concerns.
We've been doing our best.
We want to keep taxes low.
But in the other hand, he's been strongly suggesting since last summer.
And I think he did it first on your radio program that the last year of the tax cut, which is now in effect this year, 1990, maybe should be put off for another year.
So that the state with its severe financial problems can use the $400 million.
So that it would otherwise be taking in.
It's a very interesting philosophical question.
I mean, the question is, where does the $400 million really belong with the taxpayers of New York or with the politicians?
So they can spend on programs they say are important.
There's a guy over at the Senate Finance Committee, Abe Lackman, very smart guy, I think, who made an interesting observation.
He said that in effect this last year of the tax cut has become a budget cap.
And if it's left in place, it will force the government to make some economies that he says he think should be made.
And then if it's not left in place, if it's repealed and the taxes are increased, it will mean the state wasn't able to live within a budget cap.
Now, the governor in the state of the state called for a cap on expenditures.
Was that for real?
No.
He's done that for years.
Hugh Carey, his predecessor, did that.
I think he does it again to sound good to say he really believes in fiscal restraint.
But interestingly enough, Alan, he's called for caps, Cuomo, his call for caps in the past.
And his own budgets have exceeded what he called for in the caps.
Now, he would tend to blame the legislature for that, and he may be at least partially right.
But calling for a cap is like calling for life without parole in the state right now.
Neither one, it appears, has a chance of passage.
So the New York Post's Fred Dicker, speaking with our own Alan Shartoth,
a number of environmental groups got together this week to announce their legislative package.
As Brian Shields reports, it was in honor of Earth Day, 1990.
He spoke with the head of one of those groups, Lee Wasserman, Executive Director of New York's Environmental Planning Lobby.
First, you may ask, what exactly is Earth Day?
Oh, Earth Day is a celebration of the need for everyone to get involved with the environmental movement
and every walk of our life.
That's each of our individual habits and further up companies and industries that take action
that affect the health of our environment and citizens.
And so it's a way for all of us to join together to become more conscious of what we're doing,
what we can do to improve, to impress upon our legislators and other decision makers out there
that need to consider the environment first, rather than second into make changes in our lives
that will make all the difference.
According to Wasserman, a coalition of environmental groups has put together a legislative package
bills they would like to see become laws this year.
It basically encompasses six areas and they include recycling, land preservation, measures to combat global warming,
the Safe Drinking Water Act, citizen suits, and the essential habitat bill.
And the reason that we thought it was necessary to establish a standard for environmental achievement in 1990
is that I think the public is going to see a number of environmental wolves and sheep's clothing.
And what I mean by that is we're going to be hearing about many proposals coming out of the legislature this year
and many claims of environmental concern.
But it's very important to let the legislature know that in 1990, this most important year,
the only thing that's going to count is the bills that pass the legislature and become law,
not any pledges of environmental fidelity.
So this package is going to be the parameter of the legislatures to feelings and concern about the environment
and the public's and meeting the public's to me and that they do something this year.
Wasserman also says it's helpful it's an election year.
He says that fact may prompt lawmakers to not just talk but take action as well.
The focus is over and over that they want the environment to be one of the top areas that the legislature focuses on this year.
We've seen that in any number of polls and legislators have certainly heard it personally from their constituents.
So setting up this Earth Day package with all of us focusing more attention on the environment
than we even usually do which is considerable because of the celebration of Earth Day
and the election, the important election I might end up coming up.
I think we stand a chance of having a tremendous session for the environment in all
of us, everybody, we'll be up to all of us to impress upon our legislators.
That's what we're, that's what we'll be demanding.
Lee Wasserman, the Executive Director of New York's Environmental Planning Lobby.
For the Legislative Gazette, I'm Brian Shields.
And that about does it for this week.
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For the Gazette, I'm Dave Galetli, sitting in for the vacationing Don Decker.
