PEF and CSEA to hold candlelight vigils calling out Gov. Paterson on layoffs

  

ALBANY –Leaders and members of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) will gather outside state offices in several locations across the state Wednesday, December 29, to call out Gov. David Paterson on the layoffs.

Union representatives will light hundreds of candles to symbolize the services being “snuffed out” should the layoff of 902 state employees go forward December 31, as planned.

PEF President Kenneth Brynien and CSEA President Danny Donohue will attend the largest gathering at the state Capitol in Albany. Candlelight vigils also will take place in Hornell, Elmira, Endicott, Utica andPoughkeepsie.

Albany
West Capitol Park
Wednesday, December 29
4:30 p.m.

Hornell (800) 724-5001
40 Main Street
Wednesday, December 29
4:30 p.m.

Elmira (800) 724-5001
(In front of Senator-elect Tom O’Mara’s office)
333 East Water Street
4:30 p.m.

Endicott (607) 785-1699
Glendale State Office Bldg.
1600 E. Perimeter Road
(In front of Bldg. 16)
Wednesday, December 29
4:00 p.m. (note start time)

Utica (315) 768-0123
State Office Bldg.
207 Genesee Street
Wednesday, December 29
4:30 p.m.

Poughkeepsie (845-473-5022)
DOT Regional Office Bldg.
4 Burnett Blvd.
4:30 p.m.

Union leaders and members will be available for interviews at each location.

Local 46 Versus Zell

Union members from Metallic Lathers Union, Local 46, protested outside a speech given by billionaire businessman Sam Zell at the Harmonie Club in Midtown Manhattan on the icy morning of December 14.

“Sam Zell Go Home!” shouted two dozen men on the sidewalk. There was a shrill chorus of traffic whistles and a chant started up. “What do we want? Union! When do we want it? Now!”

Local 46 members protested Zell’s refusal to use union workers to build his new apartment tower in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on 23rd Street and 10th Avenue. The planned 111 high-rise apartments are the latest New York City project by Chicago-based Equity Residential, a real estate investment trust founded by Zell.

BALCONY HAILS PASSAGE OF ZADROGA 9/11 BILL

12/23/2010 – New York City – BALCONY, the Business and Labor Coalition of New York, today, Thursday, applauded the U.S. Senate, and especially the New York delegation, Senator Kirstin Gillibrand and Senator Charles Schumer, for passing the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (HR 847 sponsored by New York Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Representative Peter King (R-NY), and Representative Michael McMahon (D-NY)). BALCONY further congratulates NYS AFL CIO President Denis Hughes, Dr. James Melius of LECET, and Fire Fighters Union President Steve Cassidy for their commitment and dedication demonstrated in support of the Zadgroda Act.

The bill passed the House in September but was blocked by Republicans in the Senate. A newly reconciled version of the bill passed the Senate and then the House on Wednesday, the final day of the lame duck session of Congress. This critical legislation, nearly a decade the making, will provide long overdue and much deserved assistance to thousands of first responders whose health was negatively affected by toxins at Ground Zero. In a time when partisan bickering threatens to consume the legislative process, BALCONY applauds the members of the U.S. Congress for putting politics aside and ensuring that these heroes are neither ignored nor forgotten. BALCONY will continue to advocate on behalf of 9/11 first responders and support legislation that ensures they have the assistance and compensation they need and deserve.

To read more on the passage of the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act click here (NY Times)

PEF refutes Bloomberg’s attempt to restructure juvenile justice

Albany – “New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s plan to turn over control of juvenile justice services to local governments is misguided and dangerous,” said PEF President Kenneth Brynien.

“While New York City and other municipalities have developed some exceptional programs for diverting youth from residential placements, these programs are not appropriate for all criminally involved youth. The fact is the vast majority of youth in state programs have failed in their placement in the types of programs that Mayor Bloomberg is advocating. It is simply not in the best interest of either the youth or the community.

Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal does not address the serious question of what to do with those youth who are too dangerous to be placed in a community based program. This is a policy issue that demands a comprehensive statewide solution, not a piecemeal approach.

What the Mayor ought to be calling for is the overdue resignation of the woman responsible for mismanaging the system, state Office of Children and Family Services Commissioner Gladys Carrion. Commissioner Carrion knew the juvenile justice system she inherited was broken. Rather than putting the resources of her agency into fixing the system, she chose instead to expend considerable resources on a public relations campaign to dismantle it.

Commissioner Carrion has systematically emptied state juvenile facilties sending youth to private programs that lack oversight and the proven ability to treat seriously troubled youth. The most glaring example is the misplacement of 19 year old Anthony Allen. Allen murdered 24 year old Renee Greco, a youth counselor at a private facility in Niagara
County last year. Putting dangerous young criminals into unsecure community based programs would endanger public safety.

Commissioner Carrion was also well aware of the 12 month notice law for state facility closures when she chose to waste state taxpayer dollars by emptying out the Tryon Residential Center in Fulton County. The law is designed to make sure the closure decision is thought-out with ample opportunity for uprooted service recipients, economically
devastated communities, and families of employees who may lose their jobs to plan for the drastic impacts of closures.

Finally, the Daily News is so committed to furthering Carrion’s misguided mission that they attached to their web editorial a photo that had nothing to do with the juvenile justice system in New York. The photo was of three youths arrested for nearly beating a homeless man to death in Florida, a fact not included with the photo. It appears to have been a cheap attempt to sensationalize an important issue,” Brynien said.

PEF is the state’s second-largest, state-employee union, representing 56,000 professional, scientific and technical employees.

BALCONY Breakfast Forum with NYS Comptroller DiNapoli and NYC Comptroller Liu promotion spots air on WCBS Newsradio880.

BALCONY Spot 1

BALCONY Spot 2

For tickets and more information about THURSDAY’s Forum, click here: Wall Street

New Data shows Extreme Inequality Restrains Growth for Most New Yorkers

NYC and NYS polarization trends expose economic fault line

New York–In a report released today the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) documented the pronounced concentration of income growth that has occurred in New York State and New York City since 1980. The richest one percent of households increased their share of all income statewide from 10 percent in 1980 to 35 percent in 2007, while in New York City the income share going to the top one percent rose from 12 percent to 44 percent over that span. For the first time, the report compiled state income tax data to analyze trends since 1980 in income growth by various segments of the state’s population.

In the United States as a whole, income concentration was higher in 2007 than at any time since 1928, reversing the trend that prevailed through the first three decades following World War II. For those three decades, the top one percent’s share of income was stable at around 10 percent and an expanding middle class enjoyed rising living standards. Yet, this new analysis shows that as historically high as income concentration has become in the United States, it is far greater in New York State and even more pronounced in New York City.

The FPI report helps put into context the highly skewed benefits flowing to the richest one percent from the proposed extension of the Bush tax cuts agreed to last week by President Obama and the Republican Congressional leadership. Citing estimates by the highly respected nonpartisan group Citizens for Tax Justice, FPI notes that the richest one percent of New York State households—which have an average income of $2.3 million—will receive an average tax cut of $123,890 in 2011. Meanwhile, the average household in the middle fifth of the population, whose incomes average $44,161, will see their federal taxes cut by $1,500 and the poorest fifth of households, with an average income of $10,685, will get a $288 tax cut. The richest one percent—whose inflation adjusted incomes already grew 36 times as fast as the incomes of the bottom 95 percent from 1980 to 2007—will get over one-third of the entire tax cuts destined for New Yorkers.

“We’re on the verge of growing further apart when we know our economy performs best when we grow together,” noted James Parrott, FPI’s Deputy Director and Chief Economist and the principal author of the report. “There are many reasons to be concerned about New York’s extreme income concentration. Among the most pressing is that the pronounced polarization in the distribution of the rewards of economic growth is holding back the nascent recovery. Growth is stalled because our system of rewarding economic effort is out of kilter—the average worker is not paid for the productivity he or she generates and incomes flowing to those at the top are far out of proportion to what they contribute to our economy.”

Since 1990, the sharp concentration of income growth at the top in New York has been accompanied by income stagnation for those at the bottom and very slight growth for middle income households. From 1990 to 2007, Wall Street pay and the average incomes of New York State’s top five percent more than doubled and their share of total income rose from 31 to 49 percent. However,

* Real median hourly wages barely improved over this period, inching up by less than one percent over the entire period;
* Real median family income increased by less than half a percent a year;
* New York’s poverty rate was basically the same in 2007 as in 1990 (14.5 percent); and
* The average real earnings of a young (age 25-34) college-educated worker fell by 14 percent from $60,000 to $52,000.

If all groups had grown together rather than apart over the past three decades, the highest earners still would have enjoyed the biggest income gains, they just would not have seen “super-charged” income gains. And the living standards of the other 95 percent of New Yorkers would have been substantially higher.

If all income groups gained by 2.1 percent a year between 1980 and 2007—the actual annual growth after adjusting for population change—and each group maintained its 1980 income share, the average income of the bottom half would have doubled from $14,000 to $28,000. The “middle” 45 percent would have seen their average incomes rise by 43 percent, twice the growth that was realized. This would have pushed the average incomes of the “middle” 45 percent to $104,000 in 2007, instead of the $72,300 level they did reach. And the top five percent would still have seen a substantial income gain of almost $150,000, putting their incomes on average at $343,300.

In addition to benefiting families directly, this income distribution would likely have also translated into faster and more sustainable (or less volatile) overall economic growth, since a more broadly dispersed pattern of economic rewards would have boosted consumer spending and productivity-enhancing investments in higher education.

The report notes that while there is no easy set of solutions to reverse our extreme polarization, better tax policies at the Federal, State, and City level are a logical place to begin. The report is available at: http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/FPI_GrowTogetherOrPullFurtherApart_20101213.pdf

To view the full report, click here

James A. Parrott, Ph.D.
Deputy Director and Chief Economist
FISCAL POLICY INSTITUTE
11 Park Place, Suite 701
New York, NY 10007
212-721-5624
www.fiscalpolicy.org
parrott@fiscalpolicy.org

Statement of PEF President Kenneth Brynien on Layoffs

Albany – This is a dark day for the state of New York as more than 900 hard-working and committed state employees are formally notified they are being laid off. It is an action that is unnecessary and unconscionable.

Not only are these individuals facing incredible hardships, their families are suffering, taxpayers will be impacted through the loss of services and the local economy will suffer as well.

Gov. David Paterson should be ashamed that the final act of his administration will be to punish union members and their families because he wanted to score cheap political points.

Paterson will no doubt try and place blame on the unions. He will claim these layoffs could have been avoided and on that point, we agree. Time and again, the governor was presented with many options for cost reductions but instead he chose to cut the jobs of 900 workers.

We have tried to reason with Gov. Paterson on numerous occasions to point out several other options to achieve needed savings. Continued news reports that PEF refused to negotiate with the governor on how to help close the budget deficit are just plain inaccurate. There were no meetings, no discussions and a refusal on the governors part to even consider our ideas.

The loss of nearly 900 state employees will take $363,080,054 out of the state’s economy at a time when we can least afford it. That staggering amount of money equates to more than 9,600 jobs lost in the private sector over the next three years. (The number is based on the standard economic multiplier for job loss as provided
by the Capital District Planning Association).

PEF has pointed out repeatedly that there are 11,500 fewer state employees today than in 2008. That is 11,500 fewer people to provide the vital services on which taxpayers rely.

There are no words to ease the pain for our members who have been targeted for layoffs. This historic action taking place today has been caused by Gov. Paterson and can be stopped by Gov. Paterson.

PEF is the state’s second-largest state-employee union, representing 58,000 professional, scientific and technical employees.

Wal-Mart Tries Again for New York City Store

RWDSU

by Elizabeth A. Harris

The New York City Council was supposed to hold a hearing this Tuesday about a renewed campaign by Wal-Mart to open its stores in the city.

But it had to be rescheduled, for January.

“We needed a bigger room,” the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, said. “We heard from unions all across the city, small business leaders from across the city. It’s a growing list of people.”

Wal-Mart, an inescapable part of the retail landscape just about everywhere except in New York City, twice retreated on efforts to open stores in the city after fierce community opposition.

Now it is back, and mounting an aggressive campaign to crack the country’s largest urban market. Wal-Mart is looking at properties in each of the five boroughs and has hired Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s former campaign manager, Bradley Tusk, to help coordinate its lobbying efforts.

Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, predicted, “They’re not going to find it easy to get serious public support.”

“As you reap,” Mr. de Blasio added, “so shall you sow, and they’ve had a really bad history. You can talk to people across the spectrum and they’ve all heard something about the problems of Wal-Mart.”

The renewed push by Wal-Mart comes five years after the retailer tried to open stores in Queens and Staten Island but faced furious opposition from community leaders and elected officials. But the retailer and its supporters, and even its opponents, say that the dynamics have changed and that the city has become more receptive to so-called big-box stores, like Target and Ikea.

But perhaps the greatest difference is the economy. With the city’s unemployment rate hovering around 9 percent, any project that promises jobs might find appeal.

“This is a time when the economy is bad and a lot of my constituents are looking for jobs,” said Darryl C. Towns, a state assemblyman whose Brooklyn district includes East New York, one area Wal-Mart is considering. “We have to begin to think out of the box and look at some different opportunities.”

Wal-Mart is the country’s largest private employer, with 1.4 million workers, but it has been a constant target for labor groups who say its wages are too low and its benefits insufficient. The United States Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the nation’s biggest employment discrimination suit, which claims that Wal-Mart has discriminated against female employees in pay and promotion.

“There are some people who say, ‘Well, if Wal-Mart comes in, that means jobs,’ ” said Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which supported the efforts to stop Wal-Mart the last time it tried to open stores in New York. “But what it does is, it replaces good jobs with jobs that keep people in poverty.”

Other big-box stores that have gained a foothold in New York, like Costco, provide far better compensation than Wal-Mart, some labor leaders said.

And critics say Wal-Mart would also spell doom for nearby small businesses that could never compete with the giant retailer on price and selection. But some Wal-Mart supporters say protecting businesses that charge higher prices is unfair to consumers, especially when so many New Yorkers are worried about their finances.

“Competition means people have to step up and compete or it’s not going to work out,” said Steven Spinola, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York. “I don’t think government should say that we’re going to make sure people have to pay more or travel farther because we want to protect certain types of establishments.”

This time, Wal-Mart is using different tactics to make stores more palatable to neighbors.

Steven Restivo, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said the retailer was looking at sites of all sizes, including land parcels that would accommodate stores that — by its standards — are quite small, under 30,000 square feet. Many Wal-Marts are five times that size. The company is working with a commercial real estate broker to talk to property owners.

“There is a business case to be made for our growth in large cities across the country,” Mr. Restivo said. “We know we have customers there, and we know we want to make access to our brand more convenient.”

Wal-Mart might also look to build stores in New York that are small enough to require only a willing landlord and a lease, bypassing the City Council, which must give special zoning approval to projects over 10,000 square feet. About a year ago, the Council defeated a plan, which had been supported by the mayor, to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx into a major commercial complex.

This year, Wal-Mart has also expanded its pitch, promoting itself as a solution to problems beyond unemployment. Mr. Restivo said that in its hunt for real estate, the company was focusing on areas that were “underserved” both economically and in their access to fresh food. Providing more fruits and vegetables to these so-called food deserts is a crucial issue for both Mr. Bloomberg and Ms. Quinn, the council speaker.

And in an effort that is likely to anger other labor groups, Wal-Mart is working to win the support of one powerful union group, the Building and Construction Trades Council, and is negotiating a deal that would guarantee that some stores would be built by union workers.

But there is still enormous opposition, from unions, community groups and elected leaders, to the idea of a Wal-Mart rising in any city neighborhood.

One union official, Pat Purcell, an aide to the president of the UFCW Local 1500, which represents supermarket workers, said, “This is not a battle, this is a war.”

Mr. Bloomberg, who invested major political capital in trying to win support for the Kingsbridge Armory proposal, told reporters recently that he “would love to see Wal-Mart open here,” noting that many New Yorkers travel to Nassau County or New Jersey to shop at Wal-Mart.

“You’re not going to stop, and nor should you stop, people from having the opportunity to shop where they want to shop,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “The city should not be in the business of picking and choosing who is there.”

Cuomo Gains an Ally for a Looming Fight With the Public-Employee Unions

By CHARLES V. BAGLI
Published: December 9, 2010

Business and real estate executives intend to raise $10 million in the coming weeks in support of Governor-elect Andrew M. Cuomo’s looming showdown with government employees’ unions over wages and pensions.

And the business leaders, organizing as the Committee to Save New York, have found a surprising ally: one of the most powerful union officials in the state.

The official, Gary LaBarbera, is the president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, a 100,000-member federation of electricians, iron workers and operating engineers who work on large building sites around the region.

Their trades have suffered 20 percent unemployment in the economic downturn, and the union argues that healthier state finances and lower taxes will spur development and construction work.

And while, on average, the construction workers earn more than their union brethren in the public sector, they have the rankling perception that government unions have not shared in their recent suffering.

“We’re advocating for a fiscally sane economy in New York,” Mr. LaBarbera said Thursday. “This is not about bashing public-sector unions. But without a fiscally sound environment, we will not be able to attract new businesses to the city; we’ll continue to lose business.”

He conceded that “at times there will be competing interests between public- and private-sector unions.” But he added that he had become involved in the committee, in part, to serve as a counterweight to those who would “vilify working people.”

His participation was heatedly discussed during a recent meeting in Puerto Rico of the Public Employees Conference, a coalition of government employee unions in the state. And labor leaders say the top union official in the state, Denis M. Hughes, the president of the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O., is concerned about what could turn out to be a debilitating schism in the most unionized state in the country.

Joshua B. Freeman, a labor historian at the City University of New York and the author of “Working-Class New York,” said he was not surprised that there might be “an open break” within the labor movement.

“The construction trades have been hard hit by the economy,” Professor Freeman said, “and are hard pressed to provide leadership for a labor movement that is increasingly dominated by public-sector unions.”

Though there has long been friction between private- and public-sector unions, the construction trades have had reason to feel aggrieved with other unions as well. Last year, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union successfully defeated the $310 million Kingsbridge Armory project in the Bronx, which would have meant hundreds of jobs for construction workers, when the developer failed to agree to certain wage demands for employees who would work at the resulting retail mall.

But unions representing public workers have come under increasing pressure around the country. The Republican governor-elect in Wisconsin, for instance, has suggested that public employees should perhaps be stripped of collective-bargaining rights.

Still, Mr. Freeman said he would be “amazed” to see any unions join the business coalition if Mr. Cuomo turned his fiscal campaign into an open attack on unions.

Officially, Mr. Cuomo has no connection to the committee, but his ties are evident, and he has been fully apprised of the group’s progress, executives said.

The committee’s work will be run by Bill Cunningham, a managing director of DKC, a public relations firm started by Dan Klores, a close friend of Mr. Cuomo’s. John Marino, a former state Democratic Party chairman who is close to Mr. Cuomo, also works at DKC and has been active in the effort, committee members said.

The addition of Mr. LaBarbera — whom Mr. Cuomo named to his transition committee on transportation and infrastructure — may provide the Committee to Save New York with some insulation from criticism that the elite is looking to solve the fiscal problems of the state on the backs of working people.

Kathryn S. Wylde, the president of the business association Partnership for New York City, has been a key player in the formation of the committee. She said it was not trying to turn government workers into “villains.”

“This is just a situation where we have not been realistic over the past decade about what New York could afford to spend and still remain a competitive and attractive place to live and do business,” Ms. Wylde said.

Mr. Cuomo has made it clear that he plans to hold the line on property taxes, restructure Medicaid spending and take on the unions in a bid to resolve the state’s $9 billion budget deficit.

And he has publicly asked business leaders to back him up.

One influential leader, Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said, “I believe the business community needs to stand up and support a fiscally responsible budget.”

The committee, which includes the Real Estate Board and the Business Council of New York, has been asking executives and companies to pledge money, to finance a campaign of advertising and advocacy to counter the kind of advertising campaign that unions have used effectively to blunt previous cost-cutting attempts by governors.

One union, the Public Employees Federation, is already distributing stickers opposing layoffs and urging, “Keep Vital Services.” These are aimed at Gov. David A. Paterson, who has been threatening cuts in his final weeks in office.

Regardless of the involvement of the construction unions, Ed Ott, the former executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council, said the group’s demand for government employees to sacrifice was “too much of a one-way street.”

“It’s all about what should working people give up,” said Mr. Ott, now a lecturer on labor matters for CUNY.

“Let’s put the stock transfer tax on the table,” he added, referring to proposals to revive a state tax on stock sales, which Wall Street vehemently opposes.

Rob Speyer, co-chief executive of Tishman Speyer Properties, is expected to be named a co-chairman of the new committee, along with Richard D. Parsons, the chairman of Citigroup, and H. Carl McCall, a banking veteran and a former state comptroller.

The committee is soliciting pledges of financing. Tishman Speyer has said it will donate $1 million.

In recent years, efforts to curb state spending have been blunted by advertising campaigns by unions, notably 1199/S.E.I.U., the health care union.

Mr. Cuomo is intent on overhauling the Medicaid program, where state spending has tripled over the past 10 years while enrollment has more than doubled. Instead of slugging it out with 1199, however, Mr. Cuomo has quietly entered talks with George Gresham, president of the union. Mr. Gresham had early and loudly endorsed Mr. Cuomo’s bid for governor, when many other unions sat out the race.

Groups to Back Cuomo as He Tackles Unions

By JACOB GERSHMAN

With the encouragement of Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo, business leaders and civic groups are planning to raise millions of dollars behind a new effort to blunt the influence of public-sector labor unions over the statehouse.

The group is in its infancy and still lacks a name. But the idea for a well-financed advocacy campaign to lobby for spending restraint and lower taxes has pledges of financial support from major corporate and real-estate figures. Organizers say they intend to play a vocal role in next year’s budget battle, when Mr. Cuomo and lawmakers struggle to close a deficit approaching $10 billion.

A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Behind the plan are two well-connected lobbying groups friendly to Mr. Cuomo—the Real Estate Board of New York and the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit network of corporate executives led by Kathryn Wylde. The outgoing chairman of the Partnership is Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal.

The Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog group, and the Business Council of New York State, a trade association, are also involved in the project.

Rob Speyer, the co-CEO of the major commercial-real-estate firm Tishman Speyer, is leading the fund-raising effort. Organizers say their goal is to raise $10 million to $20 million for television ads and mailings, among other things.

Mr. Speyer declined to comment on the project. A former reporter for the Daily News and New York Observer, Mr. Speyer oversees many of his firm’s sales and purchases.

The plan isn’t the first time that the state’s business community has tried to create a counterweight to education, health-care and municipal unions, whose vast lobbying budgets, disciplined tactics and members willing to appear at rallies have helped ward off cuts to Medicaid, public schools and retirement benefits—the largest areas of state spending.

But past attempts have fallen victim to internal squabbles and fund-raising problems. Last year, saw the rapid rise and fall of “It’s Your New York,” a similar effort led by a Long Island business association and a real-estate executive.

The Real Estate Board, acting on its own, rounded up more than $3 million from major landlords during this year’s election season, directing money toward key Senate races and funding radio and television ads.

Lobbying for more Medicaid spending, the state’s health-care union, hospital associations and nursing-home groups spent $10 million in the first half of 2010. And that figure doesn’t include political contributions or lobbying expenses posted by individual hospitals.

People familiar with the project say it won’t have any official connection to Mr. Cuomo and that its agenda of fiscal restraint won’t necessarily be lock-step with the incoming administration.

But Mr. Cuomo has kept a close eye on its progress. And a number of allies of Mr. Cuomo are also advising the group, including investment banker Felix Rohatyn, a co-chairman of the governor-elect’s transition team.

Organizers have also reached out to Bill Cunningham, a managing director at DKC, a public-relations firm founded by Dan Klores, a longtime friend of Mr. Cuomo’s.

Mr. Cunningham, a former communications director for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a veteran of Mario Cuomo’s administration, said he’s discussed working with the group as a media consultant. “It’s going to be representative of the entire New York state community, Upstate, Downstate, businesses large and small, community leaders, and labor,” said Mr. Cunningham.

Mr. Cuomo was briefed about the plan recently at a gathering of the Partnership’s board of directors in Manhattan, according to people present.

Girding for a brutal budget battle next year, he has asked business executives and other wealthy donors to put political muscle behind his fiscal agenda, which includes a cap on local property taxes. In his appeals, Mr. Cuomo has pointed to the frustrating experiences of his predecessors.

Initially, former Gov. George Pataki and business groups forged a united front, but they later sparred over policy and strategy. Aides to Mr. Pataki, defending the former governor’s alliance with the state’s major health-care union, often complained that business groups failed to shield him from political heat when he tried to cut Medicaid earlier in his administration.

To defend cuts to Medicaid, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007 spent $3 million of his campaign money and $500,000 of his personal wealth on TV ads. But his popularity plummeted after the union and a major hospital association financed an even larger campaign attacking his budget.
—Eliot Brown contributed to this article.

Write to Jacob Gershman at jacob.gershman@wsj.com