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 Shartock.
Hello and welcome to the Legislative Gazette. Coming up on this week's show,
three years and millions of dollars later, a state ethics commission
announces it's about to close up shop. Its chairman says plenty of campaign
finance reforms have been put on the table, but barely any have been adopted by
the lawmakers. We'll have that story. Also, we hear so much about the state's
Republican and Democratic parties, but what about the conservatives? Well, it
held its political action meeting this week. We'll talk with Chairman Michael
Long. And Willie O'Wone, well that's the question on most people's minds regarding
the state GOP candidate for governor. Will it or won't it be Rudolph Giuliani to
take on Mario Cuomo? Well, we'll go straight to the source for the answer to that.
All of that and a lot more coming up on this week's Legislative Gazette.
First, this new special elections will be held March 20th to fill vacancies
caused by the resignations of congressman Robert Garcia of the Bronx and Guy
Mollenary of Staten Island. That word this week from the governor. Garcia
resigned his congressional seat after being convicted in connection with the
wedtech military contracting scandal. Mollenary resigned after being elected
the Staten Island Baroque president. State Assemblyman Jose Serrano will be
the Democratic candidate running for the Garcia seat, no word on the GOP as
yet. For Mollenary, Staten Island seat Susan Mollenary expected to be the GOP
candidate to try to replace her father. She's expected to face Democrat Robert
Giganti. The governor also announced a special election would be held March 20th
for the town supervisor job in Minden in Montgomery County of vacancy
created when the supervisor died. It's a disgrace. That's what the head of the
state commission on government integrity said this week about New York State
government's ethical standards. Ingasada has more. Commission Chairman John
Fierrick, the dean of Fordham Law School in New York City bid farewell to Governor
Cuomo and state lawmakers this week, although the Cuomo appointed board does not
complete its work until next month. Fierrick said at an all-then-news conference
that New York set up for campaign finances remains an embarrassment and a
disgrace. He compared New York status to that of the federal governments before
the Watergate scandal. The Temporary Commission was created in 1987 by Cuomo in
response to New York City bribery and legislative no-show scandals. Fierrick says
although many recommendations have been made during the three years of the
Commission's existence not much has changed. People can make enormous gifts and
contributions to our statewide officeholders and the party committees of
the legislature. Contributions that $40,000, $50,000 and in the case of the party
committees contributions as much as $100,000. Those contributions at that level of
contribution is undermines. We have found through our own work confidence in
government. Secondly, under New York State's present campaign finance law, the
vote is that are really kept in the dark in terms of who contributes to
election campaigns. To what extent do people who do business with government
contribute to election campaigns? And the reason that the kept in the dark is that
so far the state elections board and the leadership of the state hasn't given it
the kind of resources and the kind of ability that it needs to have to put out
that kind of information. As for the recommendations put forth by the
Commission. First of all what we have proposed is that we lower the
contribution limits to a level that gets rid of the impact on an officeholder of
a large contribution so that we would bring down substantially the ability of a
person or an organization to contribute big dollars to candidates to office
number two. We would replace the elections board with a new agency committed to
administering and enforcing our campaign finance law in the state. We also feel
that the state elections board should have my own technology computers they
should be mandated to distribute to the citizens of the state information about
who's contributing to election campaigns. This has been done in New York City.
It's been done in other states in the country. It's been done at the federal level
but so far New York State has not shown a willingness to do that kind of thing.
Lawmakers have failed to move on most of the measures but Fairx says he's not
quite ready to give into the notion that lawmakers want to stay in power by not
passing their reforms. Reforms that could make that goal a little more difficult.
All of our proposals are before the legislature and it seems to me this
particular session of the legislature will test the commitment of all our office
holders to kind of work that we've done. So I don't foreclose certainly and I
don't believe that our office holders are going to walk away from all of these
issues at this point simply because we're no longer in existence.
Commission Chairman John Fierrick, meanwhile at a news conference later, Cuomo blamed
lawmakers especially the Senate's GOP majority for not adopting the changes
recommended by the Commission. Cuomo spokesman Tom Conroy.
You're right when you say and when the commissioners are right when they say they've
done what they can do. They've made the argument by looking at the present system of
government and of elections and proposing excellent reforms which are necessary.
The governor supports all those reforms. He supports changes in campaign financing so
that money is no longer such an important factor in campaigns and doesn't decide who wins
elections. He supports, he's the main reason why we have the new state ethics commission,
why we have financial disclosure required by elected officials and other officials appointed
important policy making positions. The governor supports all of the Commission on Government
Integrity's proposals. The problem is the legislature and the governor and the commission have
to continue to make the case for campaign finance reform and the other reforms and changes
supported by the commission. So the governor's opinion is the commission has done an excellent
job of making the case for these changes of pointing out the need for them of saying
what kind of changes to make but as everyone knows it's up to the legislature to pass the
bills that the Commission and the governor want passed. Cuomo spokesman Tom Conroy and
it looks as though there may not be much activity on the part of legislative leaders again
this year. At least according to Senate majority spokesman Bill Stevens.
It is not at all certain that there will be any action at all in this session. As a
matter of fact it is unlikely that there will be action at this session on a campaign financing
law which would for instance finance provide for taxpayer campaign financing of a gubernatorial
or other statewide offices and certainly not of legislative or local offices.
The next question is why may we see no action at all and how do you know that already?
Well the reason is that the Republican conference in the Senate and other legislators too
as far as that goes have expressed reservations about taxpayer financing of campaign. Secondly
if you go into local legislative races or into legislative races you reach an inequity
point. How do you establish campaign limits that would reflect fairly the differences in cost
to campaign in various parts of the state is clearly more expensive for instance the
by television time in New York City than say in an upstate area. So how do you work out
a law that would address those kind of problems? Senate majority spokesman Bill Stevens.
Well Cuomo says the commission more than earned at $5 million a year price tag despite the
fact that it has gotten almost none of its legislative recommendations adopted but commission
members say they expect to be back at the state capital lobbying for reforms since the
work to raise ethical standards in New York state is not over. For the legislative Gazette
I'm Angus Arda. Our political analyst Dr Alan Shartuck is with us Professor Shartuck
Political Science Professor at the State University of New York. Alan let me ask you about
the recent Marist poll regarding were the rates to be between Mary El Cuomo and Rudolf
Giuliani for governor the two to one margin for Mr Cuomo any surprises in your opinion?
No not really I think that the Republicans may have been a little bit surprised done they
may have had a little bit of a shock because they had commissioned their own poll earlier
that asked certain questions that seemed to elicit the response that they wanted which
was that Cuomo was in some trouble and you may remember that Fred Dicker of the post ran
that piece. I haven't seen the results of the Marist poll in the newspapers yet maybe
they'll never print them but what it does show is that Cuomo is very strong and that Giuliani
isn't going to beat him in my opinion the key question is how much do the Republicans
in the White House want Cuomo bashed to the point that he can be dirtyed enough in this
campaign so that even if he wins he might be weakened and doesn't enter into the fray
for the presidential nomination and I think that's very much on their minds for his part I
asked Cuomo that question and he came right back and said well look if they want to make this
into a national referendum by bringing the national troops in here we'll talk about Nicaragua
and how come they asked for the death penalty for big drug kings like Norega but they haven't
used it and he started to give a litany of all of these potential things that he would raise in a
if they decided to quote nationalized the gubernatorial campaign. For his part Giuliani could get
something back he might be made an ambassador they may make a maternity general a deputy attorney
general down the road they may feel that they owe him but my bet is that you're not going to find
Rudy Giuliani wanting to take on an 800 pound gorilla as it was once put by Ed Koch talking
about Mario Cuomo. I was just going to ask you about Giuliani now people said you know he did a
great job in New York and a democratic stronghold to do as well as he did against Mayor Dinkins.
Let's suppose he runs for governor and let's suppose he does really get beat badly.
Yes he could get these appointments but what does his due to his chances of running for something
better than a beached macro. That's number one I mean I think that's right that right now he has
the claim to fame of having come within a percentage point or so of having beat Dinkins. Now I've
always believed that much of that was an anti-Dinkins vote down there. I don't think you could find
Giuliani beginning to do as well against Dinkins considering the way he has conducted himself
no against Dinkins the way he's conducted himself since the mayoral campaign and who is he
was an unknown quantity. A lot of people had different kinds of images of him it turns out that he's
a man of great dignity that he's been doing responsible things down there and my bet is that he does not
that the next guy out doesn't come that close to him because now people will see Dinkins as being
a man who is more responsible than some of them thought he was earlier. Don't forget Mario Cuomo
first time out came Lou Lerman came within a percentage point of beating him but you don't see
that happening now. Now so I think your question is very good that he loses something politically a
lot politically because he has had one good showing now you don't want to get worse you want to
get better the next one he should win and if he runs against Cuomo my bet is that he's not going to
win and that on some level he's got to know that. Political analyst Dr. Alan Shartag.
If New York state lawmakers have their way companies doing business with the state are going to be
required to follow the ten commandments of the environment. Brian Shields has that story.
New York state assemblyman Gary Proud is introducing legislation aimed at drastically
increasing corporate responsibility for the environment. Under the legislation companies doing
business with New York would be required to follow the ten commandments of the environment.
Proud says the principles were drafted by a coalition of environmental organizations
in response to Exxon's poor handling of last year's major oil spill off the Alaskan coast.
We ask Proud what the basic principles of the legislation are.
Protecting our our air and water resources. Committee themselves to recycling. Reducing risk to
spills. Minimizing tax ex-substances. One form or another. Committing themselves to disclose
what they're doing to protect the environment and establish safety standards for hazardous
substances. Putting at least one member and the board of directors or in tap management
to represent the environment and to establish an annual audit to assess how well they are performing.
But how will the public react to the proposals the Rochester Democrat offers his views?
I think to be very supportive because we all live in the same earth and we see our environment
gradually being destroyed and the time has come to act. We certainly shouldn't be doing businesses
with which exacerbate the problem of destroying our environment and we should only do business
with companies committed to protect and improve our environment.
The bill also calls for companies to conserve resources, recycle whenever possible, protect
wildlife, produce less waste and to submit to yearly environmental audits. For the Legislative
Gazette, I'm Brian Shields. Former US attorney Rudolph Giuliani has been traveling all over the
state in what many feel is a testing of the waters. Many say that he's considering a run against
the governor in the upcoming election. Bruce Robertson went straight to the source to try to find out
what is in Giuliani's political plans. It is a question on many people's minds, especially
Republicans. Is he or is he not going to run for governor? That's something that I've left the
door open to. I've made it clear to the Republican Party that they should seek other candidates
because I can't make the commitment. Actually, the commitment really goes back a few months
that should be made to run on a full-time basis because I ran last year, but I haven't
closed the door on it. I just don't want them to be in a position where they don't have another
candidate. I just ran, I spent most of last year running for office and I have a four-year-old son
and a five-month-old baby and I have some obligations to them also. Many say Giuliani is testing the
political waters during his recent trips across New York State, but the former US attorney says he is
looking more to drum up support for the entire Republican Party. Support, which he says, is evident
by looking at the results of his very close New York City mayoral race against David Dinkins.
Here we are in a city that's five to one Democratic and we were able to get over 800,000
people to vote on the Republican line. The state of New York is in need of that same kind of
political competition. It's in need of a revitalized Republican Party that can act as a source of new
ideas, new encouragement for a lot of people. So I decided right after that that it would be a very
good idea for me to travel around the state to Republican groups that wanted to hear from me,
that I could meet, get to meet me so that we can talk about the future of the Republican Party.
While Giuliani says he's optimistic, a recent Marist poll shows him trailing Governor Cuomo by a
better than two to one margin. That poll was instructive all the more. I'm not known in
of state New York. Part of the process is to get known and to get to know people, get them to know
you, get to know the issues. And also the way I see it, I'm a all different perspective on whether
you're old or young, but I'm young by political standards and therefore I see this not only for
this year, but two, three, four years ahead. Apparently others feel the same way. Hugh Farley is a
Republican state senator from the Capitol District. We've got a rising star in the Republican Party.
I was just down in New York City any other night at a big pack razor. Rudy Giuliani is a superstar
in the city. And there's a lot of people that he came within an eyelash of being mayor. And you
know what? Anybody that runs close to New York City as a Republican can win the Governor's ship or
win anything that they want. Statewide. New York State Senator Hugh Farley. Giuliani said he's not
exactly sure when he's going to make his decision about a run for governor, but in the meantime,
he says he will continue to call for restoration of the death penalty in New York, a continuation of
the planned tax cut, as well as all other issues that have made him so popular with his fellow
Republicans. For the legislative Gazette, this is Bruce Robertson. Speaking of Rudolph Giuliani,
the New York State Conservative Party this week said that a Republican conservative candidate could
beat Cuomo in a race for the governor's seat, but it said it may not readily endorse Giuliani
because the Liberal Party endorsed him during the New York City mayor's race. The conservatives
held a political action meeting this week. Angusard has spoke with the party chairman Michael Long
about what's on the party's agenda for this year. Look at the shape of the state of New York economics
is certainly a very important issue. We're going to put a lot of muscle behind preserving the
scheduled personal income tax cut that the governor wants to take away from us and raise our taxes.
We're living in a zero growth state and within two years we're projected to lose another three or
four congressmen and what's going to happen. What's going to happen here would become the shadow
of the one's great empire state. That's because Cuomo has consistently spent too much money. He
doesn't have it in his budget. He turns around and just wants to raise taxes and fees and gave
us a billion dollars worth of taxes last year once it talked about giving us a billion point for
this year. Plus hold them back out the income tax cut. That was one of the traditional family
values is another one. We're talking about things like the death penalty and our confidence over
the two days. We're all too wrong and we don't believe the death penalty solves the crime problem
but what it would do is send a signal to the people in New York state that we're once and for all
with serious about fighting crime and cleaning up our streets so that people can go to and
that's where it's right to do that place of work and in and out of their homes without
fear and that's not the case that's not the case in this state and another we're going to be
talking about right the right support for parental notification or abortion. Various topics like
that that's going to be that's going to be the topic see that we're going to face. One may listen
and say this sounds a lot like the state Republican Party what sets the conservative party apart from
the Republicans. Well quite a bit I think it was hopefully that more and more Republicans will
start sounding like the conservative party and if you go back to 1962 and we were formed
Republican Party didn't necessarily sound the way it did today. Matter of fact it was headed
in those days by Nelson Rockefeller, Jake Javits, John Lindsay. They were quite a different
breed of Republicans and the conservative party I think has brought has been instrumental in
bringing about the change in philosophy here in New York state of the Republican Party and I hope
that continues when we went into business both the Republican and the Democratic Party was trying
to curry favor of the Liberal Party since we're been in business it is clear that we've had a
bigger impact on the Republican Party I hope we have that continued impact and when we have that
change in the state otherwise we're going to keep losing ground and in fact we lose in the very
government though best of our people are moving out of the state. Michael Long chairman of the New
York State Conservative Party and now with a look at other happenings this week in state government
here is Paul Rosenfall with our regular legislative notebook. New York state's budget deficit
problems are getting worse that news this week from Governor Cuomo he says the state's projected
budget deficit for the current fiscal year has grown from $700 million to more than a billion
dollars he also says the potential deficit for next year state budget could be more than $2.2
billion. Meanwhile in what many are calling a rare show of cooperation this early in the budget
season Cuomo and state legislative leaders met this week to talk about possible cuts Cuomo
thank lawmakers for their cooperation. The state of New York is suing Uncle Sam this week
Governor Cuomo and the state of New York father lawsuit in federal court in Syracuse to overturn
laws requiring states to bury their own low-level radioactive waste. Cuomo says federal law which
mandates states to assume ownership of low-level radioactive waste violates the state's sovereignty.
Most of New York's low-level radioactive waste is now stored in South Carolina. A federal law
requires every state to come up with a place to store the waste produced within its borders by 1993.
The state commission is looking at five possible sites for the proposed dump two of them in
Cortland County and three in Allegheny County. This week state assembly leaders said they want to
investigate whether consumers are benefiting from settlements agreed to by the Public Service
Commission and New York telephone. Assembly Speaker Mel Miller says there's been a
disturbing trend toward the PSC reaching secret deals with the telephone utility instead of
going through a hearing process. A special task force has been set up to investigate the matter
of a Sunday of Martin Luster and Ithaca Democrat is a member of the task force.
I'm approximately nine out of the last 16 raid increase applications before the PSC
have resulted in settlements instead of full adjudicatory hearings with evidence being taken
and findings being made and the problem with that process is that it cuts the public out of
participation. The public doesn't know whether these settlements are good whether it's bad,
what evidence was adduced and what the basis of these settlements is. So the Speaker has appointed
a task force and has asked me to chair that task force on utility settlements to look at the process
to see whether or not these settlements number one are legal. Number two is the process a good one?
Should we be looking at remedial legislation to somehow firm up the structure of
rape regulation in New York State? Assemblyman Martin Luster. Meanwhile Miller says he wonders
whether the settlements represent the telephone company's way of getting around a rate free is
imposed in 1985. Miller says he's asking the PSC to reject New York Telephones request for
$445 million rate increase next year. Medicare patients in New York State are being overcharged
by their doctors the tune of $230 million each year. That's what the group citizens action is
saying and it wants to state legislature to pass a measure known as mandatory Medicare assessment
spokesman Rich Kirsch. It would require that doctors who serve Medicare patients which are
senior citizens and disabled people charge the Medicare reasonable rate and in that case
senior citizens that is able to pay 20% the doctors Medicare pay 80% but it would stop the doctors
from overcharging above that reasonable rate. Senior citizens don't mind paying the 20% of the
reasonable rate they don't want to have to pay more than the reasonable rate and would stop those
Kirsch says the measure has failed to get approval from state lawmakers in the past but he says
Governor Cuomo supports the bill he also says since it is an election year lawmakers may feel
more inclined to at least vote on the bill. Should high school athletes be tested for drug use?
Two New York state lawmakers think so when they propose a bill that would require random drug
testing for the states estimated 500,000 high school athletes. Nassau County Republican Senator
Dean Skello is one of the bill's sponsors Tim Ryan is a Skello spokesman.
In December of 1988 the study was released by Penn State University that indicated that upwards
of 7% of all male high school athletes nationwide were using some form of steroids human
andabolic steroids. The senator then convened three public hearings around the state to see if
the problem was as widespread as the study indicated and he found out that unfortunately it seemed to
be the senator then realized that the drug problem was for real and it was from this point on that
he devised the proposal that he's put forth that would call for mandatory random drug screening
of all high school athletes. Why are the focus specifically on high school athletes?
Okay well in one way you've got to realize you have to start somewhere. Steroids the high school
student most likely to be using anabolic steroids human andabolic steroids is the athlete.
It helps them bulk up. It promotes rapid muscle growth. There is less recovery time needed after
a heavy workout. Unfortunately the high school athlete seems to be the logical choice.
Under the plan students and parents would have to agree to the drug test. Students who refuse to
take the test would not be allowed to participate in inter-scholactic sports. Ryan says the senator does
not believe the measure is unconstitutional. Ryan also says at some point a similar measure could
be proposed to include all high school students he says that's a hurdle that will have to be crossed
when we come to it. That's this week's legislative notebook. I'm Paul Rosenthal.
And that does it for this week's program. The Legislative Gazette is produced by Ingasardo with
technical assistance from Phil Sluzars. The program is made possible with grants from the Legislative Gazette,
the newspaper about state government, subscription information available at 518-4736482
and Empire Information Services, serving New York and New England with electronic news release
distribution. For the Gazette, I'm Don Bender.
