From WAMC in Albany, this is the Legislative Gazette.
A weekly magazine about New York State government and politics, your host is David Castino,
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 NISCASO, the New York State Coalition against Sexual Assault, working to support men in
their decisions to end sexual violence with the My Strength is not for hurting campaign
online at nyscasa not ORG.
Coming up this week, the governor rebounds and other politicians make New Yorkers ashamed
in a new poll.
Our political observer Alan Shartock was here, his thoughts on the state of hydrofracking
in New York and will check the latest report card rating of the state's hospital.
New stories and more on the Legislative Gazette.
A new poll finds most New Yorkers are ashamed of the candidacies of Anthony Weiner and
Elliott Spitzer from mayor and controller respectively in New York City.
The CN College poll this week also found that governor Cuomo in contrast is enjoying a
minor rebound with voters.
The Legislative Gazette's care into it has the latest numbers.
The CN a poll finds a small percentage of New Yorkers say they're entertained by the
Weiner and Spitzer candidacies, which have featured extensive personal information about
the two.
But two-thirds say it's embarrassing.
Anthony Weiner is viewed unfavorably by 80% of those surveyed.
A record says CN College poll spokesman Steve Greenberg.
Absolutely astounding.
I mean, you don't see numbers at hit 80.
Greenberg says the previous record was held by Elliott Spitzer, who was viewed negatively
by 79% of the public the week that he resigned as governor over a sex scandal.
Spitzer is now viewed negatively by 59% of New York state residents.
Greenberg says governor Cuomo meanwhile is experiencing a slight increase in the polls.
His first this year.
The governor's numbers have bounced back up considerably.
Right now, 65% of voters across the state have a favorable view of Andrew Cuomo.
More than twice as many as the 30% who view him unfavorably.
Cuomo also has improved his standing upstate, where now a majority of those asked have a
favorable view of the governor.
Back in June, slightly more upstaters had a negative opinion than a positive opinion of
Cuomo.
In the last few weeks, then, the governor has been spending a lot of time upstate.
He's held a whitewater rafting contest in the Adirondacks, fished on the St. Lawrence
River and plans to go wine tasting in the finger lakes.
He's also driven his prize corvette around the NASCAR racing track in Watkins, Glenn,
and showing off a customized motorcycle.
Greenberg says all that hasn't hurt.
When the governor travels to Rochester, a Buffalo or a Plattsburg or Binghamton or anywhere
else, he controls the media for that day.
He leads the six o'clock news and the 11 o'clock news.
He's on the front page of the newspaper the next morning.
So I think that's helped the governor a lot as well over the course of the last two months.
The governor has also been running television ads that positively showcase some of his
agenda, including a special Morlin commission he's named to probe corruption.
Cuomo has not held a public event in New York City, however, in six weeks.
And he's held just two public events on Long Island.
Greenberg says the governor is wise to stay away from New York City politics right now.
He doesn't want to get embroiled.
He's made jokes about it and some of his upstate stops, but he doesn't want to get embroiled
in the ongoing New York City mayoral and city controller races.
And he doesn't need to.
He is very popular in New York City.
76% of New York City voters view Cuomo positively.
The poll also finds that New Yorkers, both downstate and upstate, continue to be evenly
polarized over hydrofracking, which has been delayed in the state for over five years.
In Albany, I'm Karen DeWitt.
Joining us now legislative is at political observer Alan Shartuck.
Or to begin, let's start with something we haven't talked about in a while.
Hydrofracking in New York state, Alan, it seems to be in limbo.
I think it's more in limbo.
I think it's in limbo.
It caught a cold and now it's dead.
I think what happened is that even Andrew was surprised.
You have the specter of the president of the United States now going around to places
which have hydrofracking and congratulating them on it.
I think Andrew decided early in the game.
I'll have some of that too, please.
But it turns out that it caught fire here in New York state.
People really decide, oh my god, we don't want it.
It's going to screw up our water.
It's going to screw up our water supply.
There was hypocrisy, which was that in the areas that New York City had, there would be
no hydrofracking in upstate New York places like Zuriches, there would be no hydrofracking.
The rest of you go fish and if your water gets poisoned, well then you're going to
get poisoned.
That's sort of it.
Well, this became the liberal cause.
And I don't think Governor Cuomo saw it developing that way.
So then came thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of comments to the Department
of Environmental Conservation.
Nobody ever saw anything like it.
Whoa.
So he said, well, we better set up a committee of the DEC to cover this and to study it.
So they studied it and they came back and said, well, the DEC has issued a report, but
they can't really tell us what's going on till the Department of Health does its report.
And I think that the Department of Health is doing it, but doing it probably in the goby
desert somewhere else in the world because nobody has heard a hide in their hair from
them.
And I have a feeling a hydrofracking in New York is probably dead to the point where some
of the big leaseholders have said, we're turning in our leases for this land where we wanted
a hydrofrack.
We're not even going to do it.
So I think when the lobbyists start turning tail and running, it's pretty well dead.
But I think you know, you take people like Garnathely Merchant and so many others who've
been leading this fight.
I'm sure their philosophy is forever vigilant.
Meantime, the president is about to show up in upstate New York and just those places.
Syracuse and Binghamton, he's also going to Pennsylvania, but normally that would be
a boost for the governor wouldn't know.
I think in this case, it could be embarrassing because in the president, we know as taking
a pro hydrofracking stance.
Now, there are people that I know people from the center left who ordinarily love the
president.
And I think what they've decided to do is just ignore the fact that he's saying this
pro hydrofracking stuff.
Would you really want to get between those two guys?
Andrew Cuomo and the president of the United States, now remember, Andrew Cuomo in New
York state because he follows his own guidelines is at a 63% something like that favorability
rate.
His numbers are going up.
He's spending enormous amounts of time in upstate New York, court, upstate voters.
And he knows what he's doing.
And you get a president who isn't doing that well in the polls and he's going to these
places and he's advancing a hydrofracking.
Why?
Because he believes, obviously, that if you provide natural gas, if it's free, you don't
have to depend on other countries at all the rest.
So those are the arguments.
Do I think this is going to help Andrew Cuomo?
No, I don't.
But if, in fact, he's now on the side of the gods where the center left coalition is,
they're going to be even more formed.
Well, I just laid out because that political lips of Rale and Char talk.
You are listening to the legislative Gazette program about New York state government and politics.
I'm David Gostina.
It's back to court for former New York state senate majority leader Joseph Bruno as the
legislative Gazette's Dave Lucas explains.
After an appeals court rejected his double jeopardy claim, Bruno and his legal team are
preparing for a second federal trial.
In 2009, the longtime powerful Rensler County Republican who eventually resigned his seat
was convicted of two counts of male fraud.
The US Supreme Court later tossed out part of the theft of honest services statute Bruno
was charged under and his conviction was overturned.
Federal prosecutors are moving the case back to the front burner in an attempt to retry
the 84 year old.
Tom Carr is an attorney with Tully Rinky.
I guess the first thing that jumped out at me was the court's decision in that Bruno's
attorneys had claimed, well, we've been tried on these charges before and therefore we
can't be tried again.
As the court put it, you were tried on these two charges.
You were actually convicted on these two charges.
And it was because of a Supreme Court decision that overturned the law as it stood, saying
that there needs to be essentially a quid pro quo element to show bribery and that that
wasn't done before, that wasn't the theory of the case before, but even so the court
is still allowing Mr. Bruno to be essentially retried again on those two charges.
Bruno's age may be one thing in favor, WAMC's political observer, Alan Shartuck.
Who at 84, 85 really deserves, I mean, you know, they've put them through the ringer.
To me, you know, he may have done wrong, but this is really, this has really been torture
and it may be time to let him, to let him off the hook and to let him live the rest of
his life.
Some have suggested Bruno's attorneys might ask for a change of venue due to Bruno's
notoriety.
His last trial gripped downtown Albany for weeks.
Heard doesn't see any reason or advantage to moving the trial.
Bruno faces up to 20 years on the charges.
Even if he goes to trial and loses, I think the judge would be hard pressed to come back
and impose a higher sentence on the same charges.
So really, I think the downside he's looking at is the two years that he was already sentenced
to, all be it on the charges that the conviction that was overturned.
Bruno attorney Eastward Jones explains what's next for the case.
On Tuesday, at 3 o'clock, there was a conference before Judge Sharpe, who is the Federal District
Judge assigned to Joe Bruno's case.
And at that conference, next steps will be discussed, both pellet steps and further review
when we consideration the decisions of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and also the
trial date potential, which would likely be sometime in the late fall.
One thing is certain, Bruno's colorful life in the political spotlight is gearing up
for what maybe it's final act.
For the legislative Gazette, I'm Dave Lucas.
It may be a few more months before the state agency that oversees the Adirondack Park
decides the classification of newly obtained lands in the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
We get the latest from the legislative Gazette's Pat Bradley.
Adirondack Park Agency staff planned to recommend to agency commissioners next month the
preferred classifications of three tracks of former Finch Prime timberlands purchased
by the state in the Eastern Adirondacks.
But a final decision on the classification of the lands may not occur for several more
months.
Commissioner Richard Booth, chair of the APA Land Committee, told his fellow commissioners
during their monthly meeting last Friday, which was webcast, that the agency commissioners
ought not to make a decision until October.
I think there's going to be a need for the agency members to absorb all this work and
I don't mean absorb it, but understand what the staff has gone through to get to that
point.
And I somehow don't think that's going to happen, getting that document a week before
an agency meeting and then decide.
So as the state land chair, the best kid I can imagine, it would be all this coming
to us as a recommendation, September and decision in October, maybe even November.
Five Adirondack towns will be affected by the new land classifications.
Hamilton County Board of Supervisors, Chair Bill Farber, was at the meeting when Commissioner
Booth commented.
Some of the APA commissioners seem to feel as if they were a little overwhelmed by the
amount of common and input that it come with respect to this.
And frankly, they're complicated issues.
And the simple reality is we have communities that have not really benefited to a great
degree from the forest preserve.
You consistently had commissioners over the two days that I witnessed that were asking
the staff about the implications.
I think all of those things take time and I was therefore not offended by the idea that
he wanted to make sure the commissioners had adequate time to make a good decision.
Adirondack, Mountain Club Executive Director Neil Woodworth, says Booth's call to delay
a decision is a very smart move.
It's the biggest classification decision that the Adirondack Park Agency has ever done
in my 30 years of doing this kind of work.
The range and diversity of the land, the complexity of ecosystems, the desire for a broad
variety of recreational rights, the Adirondack Park Agency received roughly 10 times the number
of public letters, comments, responses, then they got in the largest last previous classification
hearing.
So I think that the state lands chairman Dick Booth simply said, we're not going to rush
this.
No reason to rush it.
The APA staff not only has to respond to the nearly 4,000 comments, it must also prepare
a preferred alternative and draft environmental impact statement and many agree one month is
not enough time to accomplish those tasks.
Adirondack Council Executive Director Willie Janeway doesn't perceive an October decision
as a delay.
The Park Agency has a lot of work to do to go through thousands of comments and the staff
and I think many commissioners are recognizing that the do their job well and provide the
governor with a sound recommendation that really shouldn't rush it a few months to look
at the science and have time for debate for a decision that will impact us for lifetime
is a very small period of time.
It really is not a delay, it's a matter of getting it right.
Adirondack Wild Friends of the Forest Preserve Partner Dave Gibson agrees that the workload
is such that an October vote is a reasonable option.
So far the staff have just descended facts.
An array of facts, a reem of facts and have not prioritized what is important among those
facts.
What do the commissioners really need to focus on in order to make a wise and important
judgment about the appropriate classification?
That has yet to happen and we hope that happens in September and then the agency can then
make a more reasonable and important judgment in October.
The Adirondack Park Agency is considering seven classifications for the 47,000 acres
of lands ranging from wild forest which would allow motorized access to wilderness the
most restrictive classification.
For the legislative Gazette, I'm Pat Bradley.
You are listening to the legislative Gazette program about New York State government and
politics.
I'm David Gissteena.
We had the next regular session of the New York State Legislature scheduled for January.
Some lawmakers think legislators should head back much sooner to work out several issues.
The senator who's district includes parts of the Hudson Valley's among those calling
for the return.
The legislative Gazette's Allison Dunn has more.
State Senator Cecilia Cachick, a Democrat, says it is imperative the legislature return
to Albany.
She has her focus on legislation to help local taxpayers.
There's a number of bills that really get to the heart of helping local citizens helping
taxpayers.
And those are the ones I'm focusing on and we need to get the legislature back in Albany
to do those.
One concerns a measure she introduced earlier this year to allow three towns in Ulster
County to share services in a former school.
For the towns of Rochester and Marble Town and Rosendale, they want to move their town halls
and town courts into the Rosendale Elementary School which will create better space for
citizens and reduce costs and allow them to share some services.
I'll be sharing the courtroom.
We need to pass that in the Senate.
They pass it in the assembly.
That's going to help the taxpayers reduce their taxes in my opinion.
Democratic Assemblyman Kevin K. Hill sponsored the bill in the assembly.
Yet Cachick and K. Hill have been a part when it comes to another taxpayer issue in Ulster
County, one that has grown controversial.
The Senate passed a bill to extend the authority of Ulster County to impose an additional 1%
sales and compensating use tax, which would continue the sales tax rate at 4%.
The Senate and Senator Bill Larkin sponsored the bill and Senator Cachick co-sponsored it.
But the assembly version did not pass with K. Hill introducing his own bill.
He wanted to see the county absorb the cost of the state mandated safety net program.
Recently, Ulster County executive Michael Hyne also a Democrat signed a resolution that
the Ulster County legislature passed unanimously July 23rd to do this over a three year period.
Now Cachick wants to see the sales tax extension passed in the assembly.
Ultimately, you know, it's based on home rule.
We can't do this bill without the county legislature requesting us to do it.
And that's what happened in the Senate.
The county legislature asked us to do this bill and we did it.
And that's, you know, we need to do it also in the assembly.
So my position is let's get the people's work done.
That means we need to get back to Albany and Passa.
The public and assembly minority leader Brian Colb also has called for a return to session
saying there are many issues that need to be addressed.
Speaking with New York State public radio, Colb said, I definitely think we should go back
whether it's the month of August or the month of September.
But certainly I think we should go back.
Senator Cachick also wants a vote on legislation she introduced to help property owners.
She wants the bill to pass before local property tax bills go out.
We've had some devastating floods in other parts of the state, including in my district.
We need to provide people with property tax relief by allowing local assessors to reduce
their property values so that their school tax bills reflect current conditions on the
property.
The flood assessment relief act of 2013 would allow property owners to seek a lowered
property tax assessment for their flood damaged homes and businesses.
Cachick points to her own district where Fort Plain residents in Montgomery County were
devastated by recent flooding.
She says the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors unanimously endorsed her measure at its July
23rd meeting.
Cachick notes that bringing the legislature back to Albany does not require the governor's
call.
Rather the leaders of the Senate and assembly may recall their respective members at any
time.
For the legislative Gazette, I'm Allison Dunn.
The Niagara Health Quality Coalition has been ranking New York State's best and worst
hospitals for a decade.
And the latest report card released this week shows a mixed bag in upstate New York.
Providers are already responding saying that the ratings are based on outdated data.
Innovation trail reporters, Kato Connell and Rochester and Ryan Delaney and Syracuse have
the details.
The report card takes millions of data sets from hospitals around the state.
From this, it calculates how likely patients are to suffer complications or death undergoing
various procedures.
Those hospitals with results above the state average go on the honor roll.
Investigations with several areas below the average are relegated to the watch list.
Upstate University Hospital, a state-run teaching hospital in Syracuse is on the 2013 watch
list.
It scored below the state average in four areas, including stroke mortality.
But hospital CEO Dr. John McCabe says the report card is based on outdated administrative
data.
He says they look at the report, but don't break a sweat over it.
The bottom line is it's a rehash of data that's out there already.
It's old data.
McCabe may not be perfect data and probably only partly represents the true care that's
being given.
McCabe adds large state-run teaching hospitals like his face a unique set of challenges.
They often take on patients other hospitals won't or can't.
At the end of the day, we ought to say none of those should impact how safe our care is
for patients.
So while we have challenges, I don't think they can be excuses.
Privately run Krause Hospital also scored poorly in several areas, but managed to avoid
making the watch list.
St. Joseph's Hospital was recognized for its above-board treatment of heart attacks.
There were mixed reviews in cities across the upstate region.
Here's Kato Kano with more on how hospitals fared in Rochester.
The city's Highland Hospital went from being praised as one of America's safest hospitals
in the 2011 report to landing on this year's watch list.
Associate Medical Director of the Highland Facility Richard Magnuson also pointed to the
outdated data as a reason for their fall from grace.
So we're being put on the watch list for information that's somewhat dated and we do know that
we've made significant improvements since that time.
But we certainly take it seriously.
We take it as a challenge and as a stimulus to move forward and do better.
On the other side of the coin, it was Rochester General Hospital or RGH that was ranked as
an above average medical center.
Most of the hospitals accolades were for its performance in the areas of heart surgery
and heart disease treatment.
Dr Ron Kirschner, Chief of Cardiotheraic Surgery at RGH says, along with their achievement
in cardiac treatment, the facility is also preparing to be able to deal with any influx of patients
that may occur with the introduction of the Affordable Care Act later this year.
There's been a lot of different attempts at changing health care.
But one thing we've learned is that if you deliver high quality, high efficient care,
then no matter what the model is, you'll be successful.
This can access the report cards for their local hospitals online at MyHealthFinder.com.
But keep in mind that the data presented is not from this year.
In Rochester, I'm Kato Kahnel for the Innovation Trail.
Support for the Innovation Trail comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The Innovation Trail is a collaboration between five of state public media outlets reporting
about New York's innovation economy.
You can hear more at innovationtrail.org.
And that about does it for this week's show we had help from the New York State Public
Radio Network.
Copies are available, call 1-800-3239-262.
That's 1-800-3239-262.
Ask for program number 1333.
Or just listen or podcast on the web at www.wamc.org.
And join us again next week at this same time for more news on New York State government
and politics.
For the Legislative Gazette, I'm David Gistina.
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 Nisqa Sa, the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault, working to support
men in their decisions to end sexual violence with the My Strength is not for hurting campaign
online at nyscasa.org.
