Gov. Cuomo’s All-Cuts Budget

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has rightly argued that painful spending cuts will be needed to close New York’s projected $10 billion deficit. The hard truth is that it is impossible to cut spending deeply without cutting the state’s huge outlays for education and health care. That means that New York’s most vulnerable citizens — schoolchildren, the elderly, the poor, the sick — will feel a disproportionate amount of the pain.

Governor Cuomo has vowed to make the tough decisions and not to be swayed by special-interest pleadings. But he is refusing to impose any new taxes or even continue a current surcharge on New York’s wealthiest and least vulnerable citizens.

That makes no fiscal sense. So we have to assume that for Mr. Cuomo, some special interests are more special than others. Just extending the surcharge on New York’s highest earners through 2012 would add an estimated $1.2 billion in revenue to the upcoming budget and $4 billion the following fiscal year.

Without that surcharge and other targeted tax increases, Mr. Cuomo’s proposed cuts in education and other vital services will inevitably be deeper and more painful than necessary, harming both individuals and the foundation for the state’s future economic growth.

The governor has proposed his no-new-taxes budget and is now negotiating with state lawmakers. The Legislature is required to approve a final budget by April 1. That means there is only slightly more than a week to decide these critical issues.

The Republican-led State Senate, predictably, supports Mr. Cuomo’s tax stance. The Democratic-led Assembly has proposed a partial extension of the high-earner surcharge that would ease some of the cuts in Mr. Cuomo’s budget, but would still leave a swath of vulnerable New Yorkers exposed to avoidable hardship.

The high-earner surcharge, which is set to expire at the end of this calendar year, currently applies to individuals with taxable income above $200,000 or married couples above $300,000 — the top 2.8 percent of New York taxpayers. (Note that “taxable income” is total income minus exemptions, deductions and other tax breaks, so the gross pay of New Yorkers affected by the surcharge is much higher than the stated threshold.)

If it were extended, the burden would be tolerable. A couple with $350,000 in taxable income would simply continue to pay an extra $3,500; a couple with taxable income of $1.5 million would continue to pay $31,800 more. Those payments would be more than offset by the federal tax breaks those same taxpayers got with the recent renewal of the Bush-era tax cuts.

The surcharge revenue could be used to reduce many of the proposed cuts, or to avert the worst of them. For instance, Mr. Cuomo wants to withhold a $1.2 billion payment due to poor school districts under a 2006 court order. If the Legislature agrees, it will be the second year in a row that the ordered payment is not made. And it will further widen an already unconscionably wide gap between rich and poor school districts.

Extending the surcharge would allow the payment to be made. Even then, K-12 education would still face a crushing 7.3 percent cut from last year’s spending. If it is combined with Mr. Cuomo’s wrongheaded idea for a property tax cap, many schoolchildren will suffer educational setbacks from which they — and the New York economy — may never recover.

If it were not so serious, Mr. Cuomo’s antitax crusade would be silly. His claim that New York has “the worst business tax climate in the nation, period” is based on an index from the Tax Foundation, a research group, which rates South Dakota and Alaska as the best states. New York is clearly not at a competitive disadvantage to those states. And neither is at a disadvantage to its neighbors: what Mr. Cuomo does not say is that New Jersey is ranked 48th on that list and Connecticut 47th.

More important, taxes generally rank behind education, infrastructure and other criteria when businesses decide where to locate and invest. If Mr. Cuomo were really concerned about the needs of business, he would seek to reduce proposed cuts in areas that businesses care about most.

The surcharge is not the only place to look for needed revenues. A penny-per-ounce tax on sugary sodas could raise an estimated $465 million in the first fiscal year. A review of the state’s nearly $29 billion in annual corporate tax credits and other breaks could yield hundreds of millions of dollars in credits that have outlived their usefulness.

Calling for painful spending cuts, it turns out, is the easy part. Calling for relatively painless tax increases requires real political courage, which Mr. Cuomo and state lawmakers have yet to display.

Trade Unions in City Confront a Rise in Nonunion Projects

A luxury apartment building is rising at 23rd Street and 10th Avenue, and, across town, one is being created inside an old Salvation Army building overlooking Gramercy Park. Other residential buildings and hotels are going up on 11th Avenue, West 18th Street and East 23rd Street.

All are signs that New York City’s real estate industry is clawing out of the recession. But they are noteworthy for another reason: they are being constructed without any union labor.

For most of the last century, the city’s construction unions were a symbol of labor strength in a pro-labor town, and their involvement in large projects was almost never in doubt. But just as public employees’ unions across the country are in the fights of their lives, the city’s major building unions are facing their own moment of reckoning.

While they are still a major presence, their share of the city’s $20 billion to $30 billion in annual construction work has dropped significantly in recent years. There are no official statistics; according to unionized construction companies, two out of five construction jobs in the city are now nonunion, though unions put the number at one in four. All agree that for many years, at least 85 percent of building jobs were union ones.

And the companies and unions are about to enter what may be their most tense contract negotiations in years, with the employers demanding large concessions and already angering labor leaders by taking their campaign directly to the workers with a Web site and in small group meetings around the city; subway ads may also be forthcoming.

“There’s enough pressure on everybody,” said Bobby Bonanza, business manager for the Mason Tenders District Council, which represents about 13,000 workers affected by the contracts. “We don’t need another Wisconsin in this town.”

The employers have backed off an initial demand for wage cuts, but they are still aiming for a 25 percent cut in labor costs, by reducing benefits and changing some work rules. They say these changes would allow them to better compete with nonunionized companies, which are winning jobs from developers because their costs are 20 to 30 percent cheaper.

“A combination of market erosion and the recession has permanently changed the financial structure of real estate in New York City,” said Louis J. Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers’ Association. “This is not about a race to the bottom. It’s about our common enemy: nonunion contractors.”

All told, the negotiations involve 30 different unions and as many as 60,000 steamfitters, ironworkers, crane operators, laborers and carpenters. Union leaders say they have made numerous concessions since the recession started, including wage freezes on non-Manhattan projects, that have reduced overall labor costs by as much as 20 percent. But, they say, employers are now trying to increase profits by cutting benefits and exaggerating the loss of market share at a time when the national political climate has turned against unions.

Not so long ago, starting a large construction job, particularly in Manhattan, with nonunion labor was considered a provocation likely to ignite a pitched battle with carpenters, ironworkers and laborers intent on closing down the job. But during the building boom of the late 1990s and most of the last decade, there was enough work to go around that union workers were not terribly bothered if some jobs went nonunion.

But as the cost of land and construction materials skyrocketed, some developers began to become more cost-conscious and began looking for savings in labor costs, particularly by choosing cheaper nonunionized contractors. And lenders began to scrutinize costs more closely.

The unions and unionized employers argue that union laborers are more skilled and safer than nonunion laborers, and that it is far easier to mobilize large numbers of workers when they are organized. But over the last few years, nonunion construction companies like Flintlock became skilled in putting up midsize 10- to 30-story buildings, the kind of building where, along with interior finishing and renovation, the unions have been losing most of their market share.

Unionized contractors still have a lock on megaprojects like big office towers, including those under construction at the World Trade Center. But union leaders, construction executives and developers are closely watching a project in Long Island City, Queens, where H. Henry Elghanayan, a residential developer whose company traditionally uses union contractors, is expected to select a nonunion outfit to build a large complex with 700 apartments.

“If traditional construction managers that stuck with the unions start losing nine-figure jobs,” said one executive of a union contractor, who refused to be named so as not to further anger the unions, “that’s a game changer.”

Mr. Elghanayan said in an interview that he had yet to select a contractor. But, he added, “Everyone’s pressing to get total development costs down.”

David Von Spreckelsen, vice president of Toll Brothers, said his company built the first of two towers at its Northside Piers project in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with union contractors. But as construction costs escalated in 2008, Toll Brothers turned to a nonunion contractor for the second tower, prompting unions to protest with five giant inflatable rats. The company now has three apartment buildings under construction in Manhattan with nonunion labor.

And this week, the developer of the Atlantic Yards megaproject in Brooklyn said it was seriously considering using a prefabricated method to build its residential high-rise. While most of the workers would be unionized, there would be fewer of them and they would earn less money because much of the labor would be done in a factory, where wage scales are lower than on the site.

The construction unions have long been the backbone of the city’s blue-collar middle class. A journeyman carpenter, for example, is now paid $46 an hour, with health, pension and other benefits bringing the total cost to $85. The total compensation for mason tenders, a less skilled position, is $58.

“We make a good salary, probably more than most office workers,” said Marc Spring, a union plumber for 25 years whose father was a union plumber for 40 years. “But we work harder than they do, out in the elements.”

Mr. Spring acknowledged that “times were tough,” one reason that his local had already made concessions. Still, Mr. Spring said, he resents the constant talk of givebacks. “I don’t see how the developers aren’t making money,” he said.

Besides some benefit reductions, the employers want changes in some decades-old work rules, beginning with overtime. Workers now earn double pay for overtime; the construction companies want to reduce it to time and a half.

On most jobs, the workday starts when workers arrive at ground level, but on large jobs with many men sharing a hoist, it can take another half-hour to reach the actual work site on a high floor, and another half-hour to descend at the end of the day. Employers are proposing that workers be paid only from the time they reach their station to the time they leave it, and some unions have already agreed to this change.

They also want to end a requirement by the operating engineers, who operate cranes, bulldozers and other heavy equipment, that three workers be in place to work even when only one is needed. Although they are a tiny fraction of the work force, they are the highest-paid, often earning well over $200,000 a year, including overtime.

James Conway, an official of Local 14 of the Operating Engineers, declined to comment.

The employers, however, are wary of pressing too hard, because a strike by just one union could be enough to shut down many of the city’s major construction projects.

And despite the animosity among the unions and their employers, Ruth Milkman, a sociology professor at the CUNY Graduate Center who studies unions, said they have an important common ground. “Once you allow nonunion, lower-cost bidders to undercut the unions, it threatens everybody,” Professor Milkman said. “So there is a mutual interest at work here.”

Prefabricated Tower May Rise at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards

In a bid to cut costs at his star-crossed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, the developer Bruce C. Ratner is pursuing plans to erect the world’s tallest prefabricated steel structure, a 34-story tower that would fulfill his obligation to start building affordable housing at the site.

The prefabricated, or modular, method he would use, which is untested at that height, could cut construction costs in half by saving time and requiring substantially fewer and cheaper workers. And the large number of buildings planned for the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards — 16 in all, not including the Nets arena now under construction — could also make it economical for the company to run its own modular factory, where walls, ceilings, floors, plumbing and even bathrooms and kitchens could be installed in prefabricated steel-frame boxes.

The 34-story building, with roughly 400 apartments, would comprise more than 900 modules that would be hauled to Atlantic Yards, lifted into place by crane and bolted together at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, next to the arena.

Mr. Ratner’s development company, Forest City Ratner, has been investigating modular construction for a year, but has kept its plans secret. MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner, confirmed Wednesday that the company was seriously considering the modular method, although, she added, no final decision had been made.

The company has also continued to design a conventional tower. Forest City hired Ove Arup & Partners, a prominent engineering firm, for the modular work, while SHoP Architects is working on designs for both types of buildings. The developer has also recently directed real estate brokers to scout for sites in Long Island City, Queens, that would be large enough to accommodate the modular factory.

“The company is interested in modular, high-rise construction in an urban setting,” Ms. Gilmartin said. “It’s driven by cost and efficiencies.”

But it would also infuriate the construction workers who were Mr. Ratner’s most ardent supporters during years of stormy community meetings, where they drowned out neighborhood opponents with chants of, “Jobs, jobs, jobs.”

“This is something that could be of great consequence to the building trades,” said Gary La Barbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, an umbrella group for the construction unions. “We have never been supportive of prefab buildings, for obvious reasons.” After several years of delays, Forest City is under considerable pressure because of the difficulty in obtaining financing for the building and the weak real estate market. Work on the arena began a year ago. The developer has delayed the start date for the 34-story building, the first of the 16 planned for Atlantic Yards, several times. He now says he hopes to begin by the end of the year.

Under an agreement with the state, Forest City must begin excavation by May 2013, or pay up to $5 million in penalties for every year it falls behind.

Affordable-housing advocates, who supported Atlantic Yards because at least 30 percent of the more than 6,000 apartments would be reserved for low-, moderate- and middle-income tenants, have been pressuring the company to start building. But Rafael E. Cestero, the city’s commissioner of housing preservation and development, who had already set aside $14 million to subsidize 150 units in the first building, declined Mr. Ratner’s recent request for an additional $10 million in subsidies.

In pursuit of cutting construction costs, Mr. Ratner and Ms. Gilmartin recently traveled to Europe to talk to builders involved with what is currently the world’s tallest modular building: a 25-story dormitory in Wolverhampton, England, that was built last year in less than 12 months.

Mr. Ratner has also become captivated by a YouTube video depicting the assembly of the 15-story Ark Hotel in China in a matter of days.

Modular buildings are not new to New York City. The School Construction Authority has used the technology to build classrooms. Capsys, a modular builder at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has built steel-frame, prefabricated housing up to seven stories tall in Clinton Hill and East New York, Brooklyn, and on Long Island.

Whether taller modular buildings can be built to withstand intense wind shear and seismic forces, while retaining cost savings, is another question, because the higher a structure is built, the more bracing it would require.

“At a smaller scale, prefab buildings have proven to be more efficient, more sustainable and less expensive,” said Thomas Hanrahan, dean of Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture. “The taller the building, the logistical and structural issues become much more complex.”

Tony Sclafani, a spokesman for the Department of Buildings, said city rules did not prohibit Forest City Ratner from using modular construction on the building. “There’s nothing standing in the way of a prefab building as long as they follow our regulations,” he said.

If it is feasible, Mr. Hanrahan and Ms. Gilmartin of Forest City said that Atlantic Yards is an ideal site because it is large enough for cranes to maneuver. “Industrialized and modular construction is an idea whose time has come,” said the architect James Garrison, who worked briefly on the project.

Modular construction saves time because the building components can be put together at the same time the foundation is being dug, and because the factory is indoors, weather is not a problem. Materials can be bought in greater bulk and stored on-site. More of the work is done horizontally, on the factory floor, rather than vertically, saving the time it would normally take for all the plumbers, carpenters, electricians and others to move up and down the structure every day.

But it is the labor savings that are suddenly worrying some union officials, who were repeatedly asked by Forest City to mobilize their members for years of raucous community meetings.

The state and the city agreed to provide $300 million in direct subsidies for Atlantic Yards, in part, because Forest City insisted that the project would generate “upwards of 17,000 union construction jobs.”

Not to worry, Ms. Gilmartin said, “We’re a union shop, and we build union.”

But under current wage scales, union workers earn less in a factory than they do on-site. A carpenter earns $85 an hour in wages and benefits on-site, but only $35 an hour in a factory.

And while modular construction employs a large number of carpenters, iron workers, who earn as much as $93.88 an hour in pay and benefits, could lose a lot of jobs.

One construction professional, who was familiar with Forest City Ratner’s plans but requested anonymity because he did not want to anger the company, said, “The incentive is to move as much work as possible to the factory from the field.”

‘Living wage’ gets lift in overhaul

ALBANY — Tucked into Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 30-day budget amendment is a clause that by some interpretations could greatly expand the number of counties where home care workers could be paid a “living wage,” or pay floor set by local governments.

It’s something that the SEIU 1199 health care union has long sought, say critics who point to the provision as one of several Faustian bargains Cuomo struck with the union and others in exchange for their support of the sweeping Medicaid redesign plan outlined in the proposed 2011-12 budget.

“There is a sense it’s pretty loose and could be interpreted pretty broadly,” said Joanne Cunningham, who heads the state Home Care Association, which could feel the squeeze imposed by an expanded living wage measure. Several downstate counties have living wage provisions that mandate salaries of up to $14 per hour.

Cunningham’s organization represents mostly non-profit home care organization such as visiting nurse associations. The group was not invited to serve on the Medicaid Redesign Team, which devised the cost savers.

Her concerns were echoed Thursday as members of an Assembly-Senate conference committee ran down a laundry list of items they thought were wrong with the redesign plan. The plan relies heavily on bringing Medicaid recipients into managed care plans such as HMOs.

That’s all well and good, they said, but they warned it will likely take longer than the governor envisions.

“There are big, big unresolved issues,” Cunningham said.

Sen. Kemp Hannon, R-Garden City, said placing recipients of the state’s vast array of Medicaid programs into managed care is a tall order, especially considering they haven’t yet created an organization to oversee the process, as called for in the redesign. “That is like a donut hole that needs to be filled,” he said.

“This leap to managed care is not about to happen overnight,” added Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan. “The notion that it’s going to produce these savings in this fiscal year is highly unrealistic.”

As an alternative, Sen. Catharine Young, R-Olean, suggested setting up targets or milestones for realizing savings. “I think we can get here but we just need to have an orderly approach,” she said.

Cuomo’s budget calls for $2.3 billion in savings to the state’s approximately $53 million Medicaid system. Administration officials stressed that they realize overhauling Medicaid is an ongoing process and they noted that the redesign team will continue to meet after the budget is finalized.

Some of those savings may fall on the backs of ordinary people, noted Bill Ferris, legislative director for AARP, one of several groups upset about a plan to scale back the state Medicare drug subsidy for seniors known as EPIC.

Also facing opposition is a plan to limit non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits to $250,000. The Assembly removed the limit from their version of the budget and the influential trial lawyers bar is vigorously opposed to the change.

MagnaCare’s Vice President of Workers’ Compensation and No-Fault, Steven G. Kokulak, Joins Self-Insurance Institute of America

NEW YORK, N.Y.

MagnaCare, a health plan services company with national reach, announced today that Steven G. Kokulak, vice president of Workers’ Compensation and No-Fault, has become a member of the Workers’ Compensation Committee at the Self-Insurance Institute of America (SIIA), a member-based association dedicated to protecting and promoting the business interests of companies involved in the self-insurance/alternative risk transfer (ART) industry, both domestic and international.

“Members of SIIA receive the benefit of informational, educational, networking and legislative/regulatory activities,” says Kokulak. “Being a committee member presents me with the opportunity to share my experience with the expertise and resources of other SIIA members. Being involved in this committee will help us establish ourselves as experts in the workers’ compensation marketplace.

Prior to joining MagnaCare, Kokulak served as litigation counsel for Liberty Mutual in New York City. He earned his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and his B.A. from Fordham University. His current responsibilities include oversight of all aspects of MagnaCare’s workers’ compensation and no-fault products offerings including marketing, contracting, sales and services.

As a member of SIIA’s Workers’ Compensation Committee, Kokulak will meet quarterly with other committee members to discuss and develop White Papers, schedule and line up speakers and topics for SIIA conferences, attend conferences, moderate lecture series, and contribute by-line articles. Members of SIIA’s Workers’ Compensation Committee aid in identifying various opportunities to increase membership value for companies that are involved with self-insured workers’ compensation programs.

“Steven is an important member of the MagnaCare team, and we are gratified that he has earned this position at SIIA,” says Joseph Berardo Jr., president and CEO of MagnaCare. “We are confident that he will bring significant contributions and expertise to SIIA, along with a strong sense of leadership.”

Urgent BALCONY Message from the American Cancer Society

To: BALCONY Members and Friends…

Today I learned that the New York State Assembly is proposing to eliminate funding for the NYS Tobacco Control Program. This must be a mistake!

How could the Assembly forget to fund tobacco control – a vital public program that helps smokers quit, encourages kids to live a smoke free life, and saves our healthcare system precious dollars?

The Assembly may have forgotten, but you cannot!

Make the Call

Please help to save New York’s Tobacco Control Program by making one very important phone call to your state Assembly member. Tell your legislator that Tobacco Control Program funding must be restored in the Assembly budget bill.

Visit our New York Action Center to find out who to call, how to reach them, and what to say.

Make the Call

Negotiations over the budget are underway now. Don’t let the Assembly forget about Tobacco Control Program funding. Call your Assembly member before it’s too late!

Sincerely,

Russ Sciandra, New York Advocacy Director

Senate, Assembly propose counter offers to Cuomo

ALBANY, N.Y. — The big dance, Albany style, is beginning.

The Republican-led Senate and Democrat-led Assembly on Tuesday each proposed in their versions of the state budget to restore some school aid cut in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s spending plan. But by any historical standard, they’re calling for only modest restoration to Cuomo’s proposed cuts, which would still result in a state budget that cuts spending from the current fiscal year.

The Democratic governor proposes a 2.7 percent cut in spending in his $132.5 billion budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year beginning April 1. He also seeks to close a deficit of more than $10 billion without tax increases or substantial borrowing.

New York City would receive some proportional restoration of Cuomo’s cuts in school aid and human services that could mean $100 million or more to the city. The Assembly would restore funding for the city’s senior citizen centers and for summer youth jobs.

The governor, Senate and Assembly are just a couple of hundred million dollars apart, far closer than most years, when a couple of billion dollars can separate the governor and the Legislature. That puts the process of closing a budget by the April 1 deadline on track, pressured by Cuomo’s repeated insistence that he will impose his budget if lawmakers can’t agree with him on time.

“You can see the parameters of how a deal could be made,” said Elizabeth Lynam of the independent Citizens Budget Commission. But she said the Senate and Assembly would restore some funding without clear revenue to pay for it. And she notes Cuomo appears firm in his determination not to increase spending or taxes, and to impose his budget if necessary.

“It’s going to be harder than it appears to get a compromise,” she said.

Chanting protesters who have been flooding New York’s Capitol for weeks disrupted the Assembly for about an hour Tuesday as it debated proposed cuts to higher education and health care programs.

Legislative budgets traditionally are partly responses to each chamber majority’s policy priorities, partly nods to powerful special interests, and partly negotiating strategy in crafting a budget deal by the April 1 deadline.

The Assembly wants to continue a temporary income tax surcharge on wealthier New Yorkers, but apply it only to those who earn $1 million or more a year. The current temporary surcharge is on income taxes paid by New Yorkers making over $200,000 and is due to expire Dec. 31. Democrats say extending the tax would raise $700 million during the balance of the 2011 tax year that could be used to restore funding in education and health care.

The Assembly argues that would mean a one-year extension of the income tax surcharge on just .04 percent of New Yorkers that would provide $2.6 billion in 2012-13, its final year.

Democratic Sen. Gustavo Rivera of the Bronx said the tax could ease deep cuts to children and elderly.

“If we had a bit more revenue, we could deal with it in an easier way … for the greater good,” Rivera said on the Senate floor.

The tax faces little if any chance because of solid opposition by Cuomo and the Senate’s Republican majority against any tax increases.

“By controlling spending, reducing taxes and focusing on helping the private sector create jobs, Senate Republicans have shown we are listening to the calls of hard-working, middle-class New Yorkers and their families,” said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Nassau County Republican.

Assembly Ways and Means Committee Chairman Herman “Denny” Farrell said his chamber’s proposal seeks to address the “painful reality of the continuing economic crisis” while meeting the April 1 deadline.

The Senate Republican majority’s proposal would restore $280 million more to schools while the Assembly proposes restoring $200 million of Cuomo’s $1.5 billion cut. Cuomo’s budget would cut school aid by a historic 7.3 percent, or $1.5 billion. But Cuomo says that in terms of a typical school district’s overall budget, his would average only about 2 percent.

Democratic Sen. Liz Krueger of Manhattan argued the GOP plan would provide a larger share of the restored money to wealthier, suburban schools, rather than following the state policy of directing more to high-needs urban schools like New York City, Yonkers, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo. DeFrancisco said there was no shift, but represented an effort to help schools that have suffered deeper cuts in recent years.

Neither chamber nor Cuomo proposes tuition increases for the State University of New York or the City University of New York. But Cuomo proposes another cut to operating aid for the university systems and their community colleges. SUNY says Cuomo’s $138 million cut would mean the largest public higher education system in the country would have suffered a 30 percent cut in funding over the last three years, mostly under former Gov. David Paterson. SUNY and CUNY can’t increase tuition without legislative approval.

But the Legislature would restore much of the total funding cut Cuomo proposed for the state’s teaching hospitals.

The chambers mostly accept Cuomo’s $2.85 billion saved in an overhaul of the Medicaid system for the poor that funds hospitals, nursing homes and other care providers.

One surprise is the Assembly’s proposed cut of $60 million in the state’s smoking cessation program. The Assembly, however, is reviewing that proposal to make sure it only cuts money for public service announcements and other ads, not operating funding.

The American Cancer Society says its studies show the TV spots reduce smoking and labeled the proposal “short sighted and wrong-headed.”

Next come negotiations, most of which will be behind closed doors.

The delay in the Assembly meant the first meeting of legislative leaders to begin negotiations between the two houses could be delayed until Wednesday.

JAPAN and New York’s Nuclear Power Plants

By Arthur Kremer, Chair of New York Area

As dramatic and relentless efforts continue to overcome the challenges facing three nuclear power plants in Japan, well-funded anti-nuclear activists are predictably using the disaster to again call for the closure of New York’s nuclear energy facilities, notably Indian Point. This ill-advised action would be a serious mistake to New York’s economy, environment, and even public health.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has already thoroughly evaluated seismic issues at all U.S. nuclear power plants. In fact, every U.S. nuclear plant is designed to withstand the maximum projected earthquake in the geographic area of each site location.

We should keep in mind that the Japanese earthquake, the fifth strongest in recorded history, is not what damaged the plant. Rather, it was the resulting tsunami, which swept away diesel fuel supplies for the back-up power generators and damaged water intake structures that were needed for the automatic plant shutdown relative to cooling systems. The Fukishima Daiichi plants were designed for a tidal wave up to a maximum of 22 feet high and not the 33 foot high wave that hit on Friday. The areas of New York where nuclear plants are situated do not, and in all likelihood cannot, experience similar tsunamis.

In 2008, a panel of highly renowned, independent experts evaluated 64 safety issues at Indian Point, including seismic design, and found the plant to be very safe. Under intense scrutiny, Indian Point continues to earn the highest safety ratings from the NRC.

Furthermore, since 9-11, nuclear plants including Indian Point have been upgraded to factor for many scenarios, including a loss of back-up power. New practices, protocols and equipment have been employed since then to factor for the loss of back-up power at nuclear plants.

To close New York’s nuclear power plants, which provide 30 percent of the state’s electricity, for even a few weeks would lead to serious degradation of electric system reliability and in fact create new dangers for the public. The resulting electricity price hikes, at a time when oil and gasoline prices are soaring, would be a one-two financial punch for hard working New Yorkers – including thousands of employees who work in the region. It would also lead to greater reliance on fossil fuels and higher pollution.

Like you, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan at this time of tragedy. There will be much to do to ensure the country recovers and that we learn many lessons from this disaster to better prepare and protect.

As nuclear power issues will certainly now be prominently in the news for some time, we respectfully ask that you consider the facts and not be unduly influenced by rhetoric and the political opportunism of some anti-nuclear activists in the weeks and months ahead.

Community Groups and Unions – Join Coalition

By Stephanie West

Leaders of New York’s community groups and unions launched the Strong Economy for All Coalition Tuesday to press for policies to benefit working, middle class and low income New Yorkers, including retaining the “Millionaires Tax,” job creation, fair taxation, better wages, emergency homeless services, effective government action and strong consumer protections in home foreclosures, financial services and health care.

”With shelters at the breaking point and emergency homeless services on the chopping block, this is not the time to be giving millionaires another tax break,” said Mary Brosnahan, Executive Director Coalition for the Homeless.

“The billions that this giveaway to the rich will cost New York will mean even more cuts to the services that every working family depends on. That is not shared sacrifice.” The group includes Coalition for the Homeless, Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change, Citizen Action, Municipal Labor Committee, NYS AFL CIO, SEIU 32BJ, 1199 SEIU, CWA, UFT and NYSUT.

“Working New Yorkers across the state are still feeling the deep impact of the recession yet Wall Street and the wealthiest New Yorkers have benefited from a rebound in the stock market financed by the federal taxpayer bailout,” said George Gresham, President of 1199 SEIU United Health care Workers East. “Extending the millionaire’s tax makes fiscal sense by bringing in revenue and is the right thing to do. Unemployment remains high and the middle class is facing layoffs and cuts to vital public services to balance the state budget. This is about shared sacrifice.”


The Strong Economy for All Coalition will fight to keep the “Millionaire’s Tax” in this year’s state budget to protect programs for low-income children and seniors, schools, police, firefighters and homeless services. The Coalition will continue work after the budget on a broad-ranging effort to rebuild the middle class and balance the New York economy.

 Denis Hughes, President of the New York State AFL CIO said, “It is imperative that we plan and implement a long term economic development strategy that invests in the future of our state. While creating good paying jobs would be a welcome first step, we should be focusing on providing working men and women with the opportunity for long term careers, that will provide a measure of economic stability and security for workers and their families.”

The coalition plans to continue the fight against income disparity by working to win better wages and benefits for low-income workers, stop record levels of bank foreclosures against New York’s families push for legislation to hold Wall Street accountable for losses to pension funds due to fraud and reduce record levels of homelessness and poverty.

 Karen Scharf, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York said, “We can say goodbye to what’s left of New York’s middle class if devastating budget cuts are enacted. To bring New York’s economy back, we need good schools, good jobs and good public services, not tax breaks for the wealthiest New Yorkers.

Citizen Action is proud to join this coalition to press for a state budget and economic program that protects kids and working families, not millionaires. “

Ana Maria Archila, Co Executive Director of Make the Road New York said “Everyone’s talking about the exceptionally rich fleeing the state, even though no one has left because of their tax burden over the past few years. Our leaders need to be thinking about the grave harm to our state when working, middle class New Yorkers leave, and they will certainly leave if we fail to invest in good public schools, our shared infrastructure and our vital public services.

Michael Mulgrew, President United Federation of Teachers, said, “New York is now the income disparity capital of the country, and the gap will continue to grow if the budget is balanced at the expense of working and middle class New Yorkers. The wealthy have not been asked to sacrifice at all and the last thing they need is another tax break.”

 Schools and education are a key issue for Coalition members. Zakiyah Ansari, Organizer for the Alliance for Quality Education, said, “Five years ago when the Campaign for Fiscal Equity was heard at the highest court in NYS and it was ruled that our children had been unconstitutionally underfunded for years, there was a sense of hope and elation that finally our children would have a fighting chance. Fast forward to 2011, our schools are facing devastating cuts. These cuts would completely abandoned CFE and dash many of our hopes. Protecting Millionaires does not restore faith in Albany.”

Jack Ahern, President, New York City Central Labor Council said, “We must find a new balance in New York if we expect to one day be on stable financial ground again. We must focus on job creation. Good jobs which reflect the dignity of New Yorkers. We need to focus on rebuilding the middle class, by boosting wages and increasing access to health care for all New Yorkers.”

Hector Figueroa, Secretary Treasurer of 32BJ, said, “Balancing the budget on the backs of working people undermines the middle class and widens the dangerous income gap between the very rich and everyone else. It is incumbent on our state government to balance spending cuts with more revenue so that hard working New Yorkers are not left without jobs or jobs that don’t support their families.” Chris Shelton, Vice President CWA District 1 said, “New York needs good jobs and a strong middle class, not tax cuts for the CEO of Goldman Sachs.”

Alliance for Quality Education Analysis Shows Governor Cuomo’s Budget Cuts Disproportionately Hurt Upstate Schools

For Info: Billy Easton 518-461-9171

Albany—While school districts throughout New York face significant cuts in state education funding under Governor Cuomo’s budget, an analysis released today by the Alliance for Quality Education showed that upstate communities and high and average-need schools face much larger cuts per pupil than downstate suburban and low-need districts, respectively.

Among school districts facing the largest cuts per pupil 97% are in upstate communities while 75% of those facing the smallest cuts are in downstate suburban communities. The data also shows that 98% of the districts facing the largest cuts are high or average need schools while 78% of those facing the smallest cuts are classified by the state as low need (higher income and/or wealth). The proposed cuts for school districts with the largest cuts average $1,287 per pupil, which is almost five and one half times as large as the proposed cuts in the districts with the smallest cuts. Districts across upstate, and in other regions, are proposing school closings, thousands of cuts in teachers, guidance counselors, librarians and other personnel, eliminating arts, music and sports programs, and cuts to basic educational programming. The analysis also shows that the districts facing the largest cuts pay an average of only $136,454 to their school superintendents.

“The cuts to schools across the state will be devastating, particularly in upstate communities, but the silence among upstate Senators about the needs of the schools in their communities has been almost deafening,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education. “Why cut taxes for the wealthiest New Yorkers and make school kids upstate and all over the state pay the price? It’s not that there are not downstate suburban districts that are facing damaging cuts–there are. But let’s face the facts—upstate school kids are taking it on the chin. The question is what, if anything, are the upstate Senators going to do about it?

Largest School Cuts Compared to Smallest

Governor Cuomo has proposed a record-setting $1.5 billion in school cuts. The legislature and the governor have until April 1st to agree upon a budget. School cuts are one of the major sticking points. This week two-thirds of the Assembly Majority sent a letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver calling for school aid restorations and advocating that they be paid for by rejecting Governor Cuomo’s proposal to cut taxes for New York’s highest income earners. Known as the Millionaires’ Tax, this tax raises $4.6 billion in revenues annually. A similar letter was sent to Governor Cuomo by two-thirds of the Senate Minority Democrats.

To date, the Senate Majority, under the leadership of Majority Leader Dean Skelos of Long Island, have publicly supported the Governor’s tax cuts for the highest income earners, and has not taken a clear position on the proposed education cuts. Some elected officials have said that people are leaving New York in response to the tax, but no one has provided evidence to support this claim. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, in the first year the tax was in place New York actually saw an increase by 35,000 in the number of millionaires in New York State.

Known as the “Long Island Nine,” Long Island’s Senate delegation has long dominated much of the legislative decision-making around school aid, particularly in the Republican controlled Senate. Numerous press accounts over the years have documented the fact that these Senators, with the support of their upstate colleagues, have manipulated school aid by adding funding for higher income Long Island districts even at the expense of upstate districts.

Governor Cuomo’s proposed cuts represent a reversal of the state’s 2007 commitment to fairly fund schools through a statewide settlement of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit.. Following multiple court orders by the state’s highest court, Governor Spitzer and the legislature enacted a statewide settlement to CFE that committed to a four-year increase in basic classroom operating aid, or foundation aid, of $5.5 billion. After two years of funding increases, and one year of a funding freeze, last year Governor Paterson cut school funding by $1.4 billion. Governor Cuomo’s cuts would take back the remaining funding distributed through CFE. By using an objective funding formula to distribute school aid, the CFE funding helped upstate high and average need small cities and rural districts as well as large cities statewide and high and average need suburban communities. These funds were used to reduce class sizes, expand pre-kindergarten, offer college and career prep courses and for other educational improvements.

The analysis released by AQE was undertaken with the support of the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York and was created by comparing the 100 districts facing the largest cuts per pupil with the 100 districts facing the smallest cuts per pupil. The State Education Department issues Need Resource Categories that classify school districts as high need, average need or low need, these categories were used in conducting the analysis.

CLICK HERE to download an EXCEL spread sheet with multiple tabs including: 1) Summary data table on the comparison; 2) the detailed analysis comparing the 100 districts with the largest cuts with the 100 districts with the smallest cuts; 3) the per pupil cuts on a county basis for all upstate counties (Orange and Ductchess Counties and North and West).