Legislative Gazette Show 1317, 2013 April 26

From WAMC in Albany, this is the Legislative Gazette.
A weekly magazine about New York State government and politics, your host is David Castina, with
Political Commentary by Dr. Alan Shartock, Political Scientist and Professor Emeritus
at the University at Albany.
Statewide distribution for the Legislative Gazette is made possible by New York State United
Teachers, representing professionals in education and healthcare, online at nysut.org.
And NISCASA, the New York State Coalition against Sexual Assault, working to support men and
their decisions to end sexual violence with the My Strength is not for hurting campaign
online at nyscasa.org.
Coming up this week, Hydrofracking opponents say there's a conflict of interest in the
governor's environmental agency.
Political observer Alan Shartock shares his thoughts on a new poll that shows New Yorkers
overwhelmingly believe more politicians will be arrested for corruption.
And a state senator says he would torture the remaining Boston Marathon bombing suspect,
those stories and more, on the legislative Gazette.
Opponents of Hydrofracking in New York are charging there's a potential conflict of interest
with a consultant to Governor Cuomo's environmental agency.
They are asking that the year's long review of Fracking in New York be restarted.
The controversy caused the consultant in question to sever all ties with the gas industry
lobby group.
The legislative Gazette's Karen DeWitt explains now how it all came about.
The controversy all began with the letter.
The Independent Oil and Gas Association wrote a letter to Governor Cuomo saying they're
tremendously anxious about what they say as a profound misunderstanding and misrepresentation
of Fracking.
They say the gas drilling process is safe.
The letter was signed by what Ayoga said was the over 300 members of the association.
One, ecology and environment ink and engineering firm served as a key consultant for the state's
environmental impact study on Fracking.
The company has a $50 million contract.
It's conducted an economic impact study on how Fracking might affect communities in the
Marcella-Shale region.
Fracking opponents immediately cried foul.
Julia Walsh with Frack Action says the letter to the governor advocating that gas drilling
go forward constitutes lobbying and is an obvious conflict of interest for the consulting firm.
Which was responsible for the state's economic impact analysis of Fracking.
They never did a cost analysis of what Fracking would cost the state only the benefits.
And then you have that same company signing a letter to the governor on behalf of and
with the Independent Oil and Gas Association as a member.
Walsh's organization along with the New York Public Interest Research Group brought their
own letter to Governor Cuomo.
They demanded the entire environmental impact study be scrapped and that a new one be conducted
using consultants that are more independent and impartial.
We are going to be demanding that this document now be thrown out immediately and that the
governor instructs the DEC commissioner to start this process over again.
The Independent Oil and Gas Association backtracked.
In a statement, executive director Brad Gill says the roster of company names included
in his letter to Cuomo was aimed at showing the magnitude and diversity of the membership
and did not necessarily reflect each member's individual point of view.
Next, the governor's Department of Environmental Conservation released a statement saying it
had asked the consulting firm to clarify its membership status with Ioga.
In an attached letter, ecology and environment threw the gas and oil lobby group under the
bus saying it was not a member but had merely paid for an employee's membership in the
organization in order to receive its newsletter and attend annual conferences.
E&E claims Ioga misrepresented the group's affiliation and never asked for authorization
to use the consulting firm's name.
E&E says it remains neutral on the issue of whether fracking should be allowed in New York
and has severed all ties with the industry lobby group.
Ross Haven with the New York Public Interest Research Group says he's not entirely convinced.
He wonders why it took three days for any explanation to be offered.
Pulling away from their relationship, relationships with the industry lobbying group seems a bit
right.
In any event, the cheerleading for the industry is clear on E&E's website and you still believe
New York would be best served by an independent review.
Haven says at the very least, the economic impact portions of the state's environmental
review on fracking that were conducted by the consulting firm should be thrown out and
redone by a more independent company.
Finally, Ioga released its own letter also through the State Department of Environmental
Conservation.
In the letter, executive director Brad Gill says ecology and environment has never held
and does not currently hold a corporate membership with Ioga, New York.
Gill also says at this time, no employee of ecology and environment are Ioga, New York
members.
In Albany, I'm Karen DeWitt.
Joining us now, legislative is at political observer Alan Shartalk.
Alan, the issue we want to deal with is reform and how it may take shape in New York.
We see first that this week, state senator Malcolm Smith, the York City Councilman Daniel
Holler and four other politicians plead not guilty to charges stemming from an alleged
plot to buy a spot on the New York City mayoral ballot.
They're all free on bail waiting after a quarter of appearance in white planes this week.
But you see number one, the public thinks that by 81% in a new scene of college poll that
more politicians will be arrested.
Is this the state of politics for New York voters these days?
Hey, David, you know, and we always get a kick out of this that every year I write for
my syndicated family and my common legislative set, an article predicting things.
And one of the predictions always every year is that two Bronx Assemblymen will be indicted
right?
You know, and then I get all of these telephone calls from people who are saying, can you
tell us which one?
And I say, I don't know which one.
I just know two Bronx Assemblymen are going to get entitled and sometimes it happens,
sometimes it doesn't.
But when these people do what they're doing, it is a disgrace.
And frankly, the dumbest thing possible.
To see as the great plunk at a Tammany Hall put it, you know, there were two ways to do
bribery or graft.
One is legal and one is illegal.
And move on.org here in Albany and Occupy Albany got together and they did a thing which
I thought was great.
They had a press conference which said, no more illegal bribery and no more legal bribery.
Listen, this whole system works on the basis of bribery.
Some big shot wants something and they give a lot of money to a political campaign.
That's the legal thing.
If you say before a microphone, like the one I'm speaking before now, if you do this,
I'll give you money and you're stupid, by the way.
That's illegal.
But if you give somebody $100,000 for the party house keeping account and then you say,
oh, right, here's money for your campaign.
You think that the guy who took $100,000 from you doesn't know that he has obligated to
to vote for your issues.
Of course they do that and that's legal bribery.
So the whole system is nothing more than what Barack Obama might describe in his new
healthcare area as an exchange.
It's just like the stock exchange.
You put your money down, you get some stock, you get something back.
That's why if Malcolm Smith did what he's accused of and it looks like he might have,
I wish he's to give money to people to give him what is known as a Wilson Pacula.
So he could run as a, in a Republican primary for mayor of New York.
If he really did that, he's stupid because you don't have to.
There are other ways to do it that are legal and then equally disgraceful as far as I'm concerned.
Well, to your point in the area of campaigns, you recently spoke with Jonathan Soros,
head of Friends of New York Super PAC, which has been pushing for public financing of campaigns.
Alongside that, we have an assembly plan that Speaker Silver has.
We also see this week's a movement where Dean Skellos has said people don't want their
tax dollars used to pay for elections.
The very thing you argued with Soros about that would be happening when it came to the
Senate.
Well, there are a lot of people who think that the politicians are a bunch of crooks and
the last thing we should do is give them money to run their campaigns with.
But of course, as the guy on television used to say, I'm an old guy now.
I used to say, you can pay me now or you can pay me later.
If you don't support these campaigns, you won't get quality people running who would not
ordinarily run because they don't have the money.
And to me, it's quite simple.
The whole thing needs to be handled in the following way.
One, you've got to give the district attorney of Albany, who is really the cardinal of
the district attorney's because this is where everybody's pay comes from, more power.
They purposely starve and we all know that.
In fact, he told me just the other day that he had state troopers in his office to help
him with investigations and all of a sudden those state troopers were withdrawn from his
office.
The last thing they want is the DA of Albany.
So then they all come up every one of them.
The Senate Democrats, the Senate Republicans, the breakaway Democrats, everybody comes up
with a different plan and they're all ridiculous.
Just give the DA the money, give him a corruption unit and he'll do it.
For goodness sake, stop the chicaneery because that's what it is.
Because the DA told me the last thing we really need is another alphabet agency which
is going to do nothing.
This week, in fact, the ethics state ethics commission lost its chair and she went away
back to be DA and Westchester and they got another guy who did what he defended.
He was a lawyer who defended Bernie Madoff.
And so that's what we got.
Have they distinguished themselves?
No.
Are they going to go after now that there being Chris Isom Shnuk who is at the bottom of
the food chain?
Sure.
Because they want to show something.
But this is really not rocket science.
Give the DA the power.
Let us see exactly how much every legislator gets from anybody on the outside.
I don't mean between 100,000 and 150,000 which is what they love to do so that everybody
gets bored and runs away.
I need to know which corporation gave which legislator what money for work that he did
as a lawyer is a real estate person or somebody else.
And I would really like to know what they gave his wife because there's a way.
But I'll settle for to the penny just like in your checkbook how much you gave and to
who.
You'll never see that.
Well, these guys are coming up with their mini plans.
That isn't one of the things that you see.
So it's really quite clear which after do they're just not going to do it.
Legislative Gazette political observer Alan Chartak.
You are listening to the legislative Gazette program about New York State government and
politics.
I'm David Gissteena.
A new report offers recommendations that its authors believe could make New York a national
model by shifting drug policy from a criminalization based to a public health based approach.
The legislative Gazette's Dave Lucas explains.
The Common Core state standards are a set of learning guidelines designed by federal officials
that define what students should learn and be able to do so that all of them are prepared
for college and careers.
The standards have been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia.
School boards in Saratoga, Sogerties, Kingston and New Pals oppose high stakes testing while
parents on Long Island are opting to exempt their children from the testing.
The head of the New York State United teachers, the state's largest union Dick Ionuzzi,
the students are going to be tested on material they haven't been taught yet.
He says polling commissioned by his union showed 91 percent of parents say students have
not had enough time to work with the Common Core standards.
Parents are accept.
They really don't want their children being put in the position way they're being assessed
on material.
It simply hasn't been presented to them.
The State Department of Education says the assessments are designed to improve classroom
instruction and get better results in the graduation rate and college and career readiness.
State Education Commissioner John King.
The fact that the test will be more challenging that the percentage of students who earn proficient
or advanced on the assessments was likely to be lower.
All of that has generated anxiety, which is understandable.
Ionuzzi says state education officials acknowledged that scores will drop, perhaps
as much as 30 percent.
He doesn't want them used to promote students, choose students for gifted and talented classes
or to receive remedial services.
Ionuzzi also doesn't want teachers performances evaluated on these test results.
My members will have at least part of their end of the year evaluation based on a score
that will be meaningless in terms of reflecting their efforts in their classroom and the growth
of the children in front of them.
Ionuzzi adds he finds that the State Education Department listens very carefully but doesn't
hear anything you say.
Again, Commissioner King.
What's unfortunate is the lack of leadership that has been shown by the statewide teachers
union on this issue.
They have expressed, emphatically and repeatedly, their commitment to the common core and the
notion that the shifts in instruction that the common core requires are exactly what
we need to do as a state to ensure that students are college and career ready.
And yet, they're arguing that we should base assessments on a different set of standards.
Nice, it's Carl Korn turns the tables on King's stance.
What we see here is the failure of the State Education Department to take accountability
for its own missteps in the uneven rollout of the common core curriculum.
We have said many times that the common core holds the potential to enhance student learning
and improve critical thinking skills if implemented correctly.
Korn makes a chilling analogy.
If the brakes on your car didn't work and you took your car to the mechanic, the mechanic
would never tell you, well drive the car with bad brakes because if you crash, we need
a baseline to see what it will look like down the road once we fix your brakes.
Korn says nice, it simply doesn't want schools or students to fail by taking high stakes
tests before New York State has provided all necessary curriculum and before students
and teachers are fully prepared.
For the Legislative Gazette, I'm Dave Lucas.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens was at
this summit of Prospect Mountain in Lake George this week to announce a state land acquisition.
The Legislative Gazette's Pat Bradley was there and filed this report.
New York State has purchased more than 2460 acres of land in the town of Bolton and Warren
County from the Lake George Land Conservancy.
The land includes cat and Thomas Mountains and East River Road parcels.
Commissioner Joe Martens says the $1.8 million purchase by the state protects about 46% of
the Lake George watershed.
In total, it's 2400 acres on the flanks of Lake George.
The acquisition of the cat and Thomas parcels and the East River Road Track protect the
scenic back-rop to the lake.
They protect the watershed.
They protect a part of the water supply system, a significant part of the watershed of the
supply system for the town of Bolton.
It's got built in public recreation, which is what draws people not only the beauty, but
the recreational assets here draw people literally from all over the state and the country.
Parts of the track are already open to the public with existing hiking trails.
The town of Bolton Supervisor Ron Conover says state acquisition of the land will aid
further development of a regional recreation master plan.
The town of Lake George, the village of Lake George, the town of Bolton, town of Hague,
Thai, and others have been working on a master planning project of hiking and biking
trails for our entire region.
This acquisition really cat and Thomas really is a centerpiece in that strategy.
The draft report out now will be holding some public hearings to further develop that
report and to develop those assets that we have in this area.
This acquisition is an important step in the implementation really of that plan and
that strategy.
The property was purchased from the Lake George land Conservancy.
Executive Director Nancy Williams says it obtained the land in 2004 from a private owner.
As you drive down the north way, you see that whole range there and it's protected now
all the way down to the screw and leg because that was where the finch pieces were.
So it's a major chunk of land that's now been protected around Lake George.
The announcement of the land purchased by Commissioner Martens comes at the same time that
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the state has closed on the second phase of acquisition
of the former finch prime lands from the Adirondack Nature Conservancy.
Executive Director Mike Carr explains that 9300 acre tract is adjacent to the Lake George
parcel and shares a boundary line.
Very similar, the same sort of upland hardwood forest and dramatic views.
It's an indication of Governor Cuomo's commitment to Lake George and the Adirondack economy
that two tracks adjoin each other and really together I think provide a wonderful recreational
resource, a big part of the economy in Lake George.
So Commissioner Martens and the Governor are to be commended for their vision here.
Funding for the purchase comes from the state Environmental Protection Fund.
The Department of Environmental Conservation will develop management plans for the parcels
and work with the Adirondack Park Agency to determine appropriate land classification.
For the Legislative Gazette, I'm Pat Bradley.
You are listening to the Legislative Gazette, a program about New York State government and
politics.
I'm David Gissteena.
Following the Boston Marathon bombings and New York State Senator is renewing his call
for the death penalty.
He's also saying that he's not opposed to torture under certain circumstances in his
standing by a tweet that made national headlines.
More from the Legislative Gazette's Alice in Dunn.
Following the capture of Boston Marathon Bombers' suspect, Joe Carson Iev, Republican
State Senator from the Hudson Valley, Greg Ball tweeted, quote,
"'So scumbag number two in custody who wouldn't use torture on this punk to save more lives.'"
Law enforcement intelligence officials make those type of decisions, but I'm telling you
that as Greg Ball would be a psalma bin Laden or any of the other scumbags that are currently
looking to kill innocent Americans, that if torture would lead to the saving of innocent
American lives, I would use it.
The Twitter statement drew much attention and criticism, but the outspoken ball says
he stands by his terror tweet.
This is how I feel personally.
I think I stand for a lot of red blooded New Yorkers and Americans that have seen innocent
men, women and children be killed.
And my position is clear if we could even save one innocent American life, including that
of a child, I would use any means necessary in order to do that.
My concept is well established as the ticking bomb theory and under just use of force to
save countless lives.
I make no apology for it and it is what it is.
He is also renewing his call for reinstating the death penalty in New York, citing his
legislation that would use the death penalty in cases involving the intentional murder of
a police officer, peace officer, or employee of the Department of Correctional Services.
A similar bill is also being considered in Massachusetts.
Ball cites the recent killing of the MIT Patrol officer during the Boston manhunt as a reason
to include peace officers and other law enforcement.
You know, the governor has shown an ability to be very, an ability to be very proactive.
He did it with the safe act.
He now needs to do it for the cop killer terrorist legislation.
We need the death penalty as a deterrent to protect those brave men and women who protect
us every day.
There is a piece of legislation specifically for cop killers and terrorists.
And I believe that we will bring it to the floor in the Senate.
I believe it will pass in the Senate and we have the governor for his leadership to get
it done.
But Jim Murphy disagrees with responding to killing with more killing.
I can understand why Senator Ball states those things.
It's in character with some of the other things he said on.
He's taken pretty severe kind of stance on other things as well.
But I don't think it really is the answer neither in Boston nor any place else for that
matter.
He's the new executive director of New Yorkers against the death penalty.
The fact is however the death penalty has and does not really stop crime.
It's not a deterrent to crime.
It tends to make us come down to the level of the person who committed the crime in the
first place.
I mean, how does killing people who kill people prove they're killing is wrong?
Freshman state senator Terry Gibson, a Democrat, says he prefers to stick with current law.
Well, I just believe that all criminals, including anyone that has found guilty of being involved
in the Boston tragedy, should be convicted to the full extent of the law that are on the
books right now.
Senator Ball points to another state senator's call this year to reinstate the death penalty.
Republican Senator Martin Golden of Brooklyn issued a call in January for the death penalty
for cop killers.
Golden's renewed call came after the shooting of three NYPD officers within a one-hour
period.
For the legislative Gazette, I'm Allison Dunn.
And that about does it for this week's show.
We had help from the New York State Public Radio Network.
The copies of the program are available.
Call 1-800-323-9262.
That's 1-800-323-9262.
Ask for program number 1317.
Or just listen or podcast on the web at www.wamc.org.
And join us again next week at the same time for more news on New York State government
and politics.
For the legislative Gazette, I'm David Gissteen.
Statewide distribution for the legislative Gazette is made possible by New York State
United teachers, representing professionals in education and health care, online at nysut.org.
And Nisqaça, the New York State Coalition against Sexual Assault, working to support men
and their decisions to end sexual violence with the My Strength is not for hurting campaign,
online at nyscasa.org.