Pedro Espada on The Huffington Post

Brian Keeler: New York's State Senate: A Story of Fallen Leadership and Vision

2010-03-09T16:54:20Z

A quick glance into the history books about New York State reveals how far our government in Albany has fallen.

Our state government, which once had the vision to build the Erie Canal, set aside the Adirondack Park as "forever wild," and connect our far-flung state by constructing the Thruway, has fallen into such a funk of dysfunctional paralysis that it can no long perform even the most basic tasks of government.

How far have we fallen? This past summer, during the Senate "coup," the legislative process was reduced to, "Gavel in... Gavel out," where nothing was accomplished while the state's economy crumbled.

Later, headlines screamed about the conviction of the former Senate Majority Leader, Joe Bruno, on two felony counts, Senator Hiram Monserrate's domestic violence trial and the AG's investigation into the present Majority Leader Pedro Espada's campaign violations.

In 2004, the archaic rules of the Senate forced the Brennan Center of Justice to conclude that our legislature was the nation's most dysfunctional, more ineffective than Mississippi, Louisiana and California. Despite the Senate's making a few cosmetic rules changes, the Brennan Center reiterated its verdict in 2006.

FDR, who once served in the Senate chamber in Albany, must be turning in his grave.

A group of New Yorkers who believe that an ethical state government has an important role to play in our lives, have come together to create RebootNY (www.rebootny.org). RebootNY is a PAC dedicated to electing Senators who will make fixing our government through reforming the rules of the Senate, reforming the redistricting process and reforming the way our elections are funded in New York their top priorities.

The electorate is rightfully angry, but the public needs to funnel that anger for the public good. We can start by Rebooting the State Senate and electing reform minded people who will restore leadership, vision and dignity to the Senate Chamber.

Espada Photobomb: Protestor Embarrasses State Sen. Pedro Espada At Press Conference

2010-02-17T18:31:41Z

A well-crafted press conference featuring State Sen. Pedro Espada, a Bronx Democrat, nearly was upended by opponents representing tenant rights groups.

Espada was flanked by nearly a hundred people on the steps of City Hall Wednesday as he announced a proposal to freeze rent for many tenants of rent-regulated apartments. But not everyone in the crowd was a supporter: One held up a sign reading "Beware of this bill: Like Espada It is a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing." The enterprising protester stood right next to Espada as TV cameras were rolling.

Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter May Challenge Pedro Espada

2010-02-08T14:48:06Z

Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter, a Bronx activist who became the face of last year's strong community push for living wage jobs at the Kingsbridge Armory, is exploring the possibility of making a run at the state Senate seat occupied by Pedro Espada, Jr.

In the past two weeks, in preparation for a possible run, Pilgrim-Hunter has begun assembling a team of advisors and has quietly reached out to potential donors and supporters.

Dan Collins: 10 Worst Moments In New York Politics

2009-12-31T11:06:29Z

The worst New York political moments of 2009:

10. Senator Charles Schumer calls a flight attendant a "bitch."
Schumer is just about the only national political name we have left in New York, so this was depressing even if, as he claimed later, he only muttered it under his breath. Worse, he's so impressed with his own importance that he seemed to feel health care reform couldn't survive if he was forced to turn off his cell phone on the DC shuttle.

9. Brooklyn kidney ring
An investigation into political corruption in New Jersey produced 44 arrests, including a Brooklyn rabbi who was charged with the sale of black-market kidneys. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum allegedly bought organs from hard-up people in Israel and sold them to patients in the United States. This is only peripherally a political story, but you have to like the change of pace.

8. The Caroline-Kennedy-for-Senate disaster
Some people would put this up higher on the list, as a mess that revealed Gov. David Paterson's indecisiveness and messy management style. But let's face it, Kennedy wasn't entirely without fault in this comedy of errors, and nobody was indicted. By this year's standards, it could have been worse.

7a Anthony Seminerio pleads guilty
Seminerio, 74, had been a Queens state representative for more than 30 years - one of those dreadful "colorful characters" who are known for saying insane things during legislative debates. Outside, he was a "consultant," who prosecutors said took $500,000 in payments from people that had business before the state.

7b. Efrain Gonzalez Jr. pleads guilty
Gonzalez, a Bronx Democrat, copped a plea to mail fraud after being charged with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from nonprofit organizations to pay personal expenses. In 2008 he lost the Democratic nomination (the actual race that mattered) to Pedro Espada, who we will meet higher up on the list. Weep for the poor voters of the Bronx, and the options they are offered on Election Day.

6. Charles Rangel can't handle money
The most powerful member of the New York Congressional delegation, the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has already admitted to keeping wildly inaccurate financial records, sitting on four rent-controlled apartments at one time and failing to report rental income from a home he owns in the Dominican Republic because of a language barrier with the managers: "Every time I thought I was getting through they started speaking Spanish." Rangel could well lose his chairmanship over this mess. At minimum he'll be a far less powerful and diminished presence in Washington.

5. State Senate defeats gay marriage
Never, in human memory, has the leadership of the state senate brought a bill up for a vote unless they were sure of passage. This is the issue on which they decided to roll the dice.

4. Carl Kruger, Senate Finance Committee chairman
Kruger, a Queens Democrat, was one of the "four amigos" who threatened to bolt to the Republican side of the aisle and change the balance of power unless they were made happy. The key to Kruger's happiness was the Finance Committee, and when he got it, he used it to destroy the plan to stabilize MTA financing proposed by now-lieutenant governor Richard Ravitch. So blame the fare hikes and the service cuts on Kruger, if you want. He won't care. He hasn't had a real election opponent since the most popular movie in town was "Forrest Gump." Nevertheless, he has more than $2 million in campaign funds stashed away.
.

3. Joe Bruno convicted
The former Senate Majority Leader was yet another professional "consultant," who took money from people with intense interests in matters before the legislature. Bruno intertwined his business and that of the Senate so thoroughly that his legislative secretary would endorse Bruno's consulting paychecks for him, and give them to Bruno's Senate driver to drop off at the bank. She would also call his clients to nag them if a check was late.

2. Pedro Espada, Amigo
Espada, a Bronx Democrat, was the brains behind the "amigos" strategy, although there wasn't exactly a hard-fought race for the title. Many shifts of allegiance and betrayals later he was back nestled into the Democratic fold with the title of majority leader. His son got a $120,000 Senate job, which he later had to give back after multiple calls for investigation. Espada is being investigated for failure to file campaign reports, for the finances of the large nonprofit health clinic he controls, and - oh yeah - for actually living in the suburbs.

1. Hiram Monserrate, Bad Boyfriend
Monserrate is another amigo, who switched between parties with an alacrity that confused even his allies. But what made his behavior so memorably bad this year was that it was coupled with a court trial for abusing his girlfriend, in a fight that was captured by the video cameras in Monserrate's apartment building. The senator - whose problems with anger management have gotten him into trouble in the past - was found guilty of misdemeanor assault since the girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, testified in court that Hiram had accidentally slashed her face when he fell while carrying a glass of water. But he could still be expelled from the Senate - and anyone who's gotten this far in the list can readily understand how hard it is to shock that crew in Albany.

Will Schwartz: Going Broke in Albany, Part 3: Why We're Still Screwed

2009-12-09T13:53:08Z

How bad is it up there in our capital? Are you trying to follow the story of our state budget, but find New York politics to be needlessly complex and boring? I'm writing three opinion pieces that describe what's happening in Albany with the budget, its severity, media coverage, and solutions. This is Part 3, which addresses last week's budgetary legislation in Albany, and what went wrong. For reference, here is Part 1 and 2.

I bet this Deficit Reduction Plan (DRP) won't last us through May. That's about six months before the next bout of calamity.

I figure that the last round of these cheap, politically safe and financially ineffective one-shot cuts lasted us only seven months. That was last April, when our Senate crafted the 2009-10 budget plan. That plan, pathetically similar to the deficit reduction plan (DRP) passed last week, brought us directly to our current straits. This time, however we have less money in reserve than before, and a system that continues to devour more capital than it can raise.

So why should these cuts work this time?

They shouldn't. In fact, they won't. What's worse is that now we don't have anything else to plug the leaks with, short of complete decimation of local aid.

But that's not the way the State Senate is presenting it.

The State Senators are singing their own praises wildly, gushing with Orwellian double-speak. At their helm is Sen. Malcolm Smith, who described the Senate's month long orgy of ineptitude over the budget as "deliberation." He had the gumption to spin their political cowardice and cheap appeasement into "responsibility."

Smith effused, "Throughout this budget, we held true to the principle of cutting with care. This budget achieves those goals and puts New York back on sound fiscal footing."

I wonder what he meant by, "sound fiscal footing." Shouldn't he modify that with "for the next couple months?" The Senate's DRP is largely comprised of non-recurring cuts and cuts from local assistance that were expected regardless of the surprise deficit crisis. Our state continues to spend more than it makes, and is on track to increase spending by 37% over the next for years, alongside a 3% revenue increase.

This structural instability is the real issue at hand, an issue that the Senators refuse to acknowledge.

Pernicious Pedro Espada, famed party betrayer and alleged embezzler, glibly politicized and distorted the fiscally progressive nature of the cuts with his political Eddie Haskel act: "We had to be responsible and deliberative with this DRP, making sure we didn't continue to burden people already hit the hardest by this economic recession -- the poor, the elderly, and working families. We were able to achieve that goal with minimal reductions in healthcare and completely averting mid-year cuts to school aid."

I have a hard time believing that Pedro Espada, who likely pockets state money headed for hospitals in the South Bronx, has a scrap of compassion lingering anywhere in his vicious little mind. What he's not saying is how pained those poor, elderly and working people will be when their social services are cut under unprecedented economic duress. What he's not saying, ultimately, is how the lobbies with the deepest pockets reaped the most benefit in the Senate's DRP.

Take the optimistically forecasted 200 million dollar revenue boost they listed from the "VLT Franchise Payment," a Senatorial nod to the gaming industry, which allows them to install and profit off of video gambling systems in the Aqueduct Race Track. The VLT program appears to be a pay-to-play, with the gaming industry donating over ten thousand dollars to Finance Chair Carl Kruger's war chest on its behalf. It doesn't seem like a viable revenue source while other gambling ventures in the state, like the OTB, have recently nosedived into bankruptcy.

Some groups were politically powerful enough to benefit by avoiding the axe of taxation. Albany has been bragging about the boom of the securities industry in New York State, with its combined $112 billion worth of bonuses, but not a single legislator has had the guts to go against our disproportionately wealthy financial sector to demand a tithe, or even a 5 percent tax of the bonuses (which would give our state more than enough money to bridge the deficit).

Maybe sometime next year, when we're forced to address the same fiduciary wounds that we just bandaged, we'll hold our representation accountable to correct a system that funds the private sector when they collapse, but let them reap perverse profits, unfettered, when our state is sinking.

For now, we New Yorkers have to press our local representation to clean up our messy, bloated form of management. Controller DiNapoli posted a video plea for more shared services, which is a thoughtful and realistic way to approach the budget now. The Times called for more streamlined government, less useless municipal government, which would also be cost-effective and non-dependent on the State Senate.

While these ideas are useful, and should be taken seriously, New York will continue to suffer, continue to hobble on, injured and inefficient, as long as it has a political system that harbors opportunists and hustlers like Carl Kruger and Pedro Espada in its chambers. We were brought here by an intrinsic flaw in the makeup of our state: we often appease the loudest and least responsible voice in our government because. This time, like so many times before, that voice came from the Senate's chambers.

How can we change the tone of the public conversation on Albany from resignation to righteous indignation? What can we do to hold our legislators accountable?

Will Schwartz: Going Broke in Albany, Part 1: Explaining The Budget and How We're Botching It

2009-11-23T11:20:45Z

The State Senate has our budget in its clutches.

The State Senate: home of dysfunction, bastion of corruption --
a place where most bills leave as shadows of their former selves,
battered by special interests, wearing rags and begging for spare
signatures. Unfortunatley, they’re the last division of our state government that hasn't joined the general consensus with the rest of Albany that we need painful budget cuts to ensure the future of our schools and health care. That leaves us catering to their demands.

What’s happening with the budget in Albany right now is called a “Quick Start.” The Senate, the State Assembly, and the Comptroller’s office all write mid-year reports, which basically describe the fiduciary state-of-the-state. They each submit these reports to the Department of Budget, which in turn writes a comprehensive joint-report. This way, instead of researching and presenting budgetary information on April 1, the state government starts analyzing economy, revenue and spending in November, which allows for a more thorough investigation into our budget, earlier in the year.

This time, however, the investigation uncovered some unexpectedly ugly stuff.

The Controller’s office reported a 4.1 billion dollar deficit for the current Fiscal Year, with 37% growth in spending and 3% growth in revenue over 4 years. The Assembly forecasted a 3.7 billion dollar deficit for the current fiscal year, 500 million dollars more than Governor Paterson and the DOB’s 3.1 billion dollar prediction.

The Controller, Assembly and DOB’s reports all admit a deep, fundamental flaw within our budgetary structure, and suggest its long and short term instability. All three reports admit that we can't afford our spending and we're running out of places to find dough. According to the DOB, over half of our funding has come from non-renewable resources over the last 7 fiscal years. According to Controller DiNapoli, we'll reach our cap on outstanding debt by 2013.

So while the numbers may range, all three departments stepped up rhetoric on the severity of the current deficit and the need for serious spending cuts. Over 55% of our spending goes to social services, the largest amount in the US. It’s never politically popular to admit a need for education or health care cuts in New York State, and our representation in Albany is being uncharacteristically candid, serious and effective in uniting against the largest deficit in the history of the state.

But I’m not, of course, talking about the State Senate. Their report tells us a massively different story. An irresponsible, poorly sourced, and long-winded story.

The Senate's story is 70-pages, compared to the Controller’s and DOB’s 15. It's a story of miraculous impending economic recovery, enormous enough to boost consumption and business taxes to a level that could keep our deficit in a healthy range. They predict higher gains in employment, income, wages than the Assembly, Controller, or DOB, across the board for national and local growth.

They tell us a story of wildly effective “one-shot” deals: budget adjustments that don’t alter the structure of the system, that are non-recurring and short-term. To give you some perspective, we just ran through the benefit of 9 billion dollars worth of one-shots that lasted us 9 months and led us to this current crisis. The Times reports that 75% of the Senate’s current deficit reduction plan is based on “one-shots” as well.

Their story is adorned with long-winded, indecipherable passages on irrelevant national economic data, dozens of Byzantine charts and graphs, and ultimately, only one source for the economic data in their story, the private economic forecaster IHS Global Insight. The Controller’s report uses IHS as well, along with 7 other sources, including state departments and State University research. The DOB uses every state department in addition to the three office reports to source their work.

They've created an irresponsible and potentially damaging document, just to save their personal reputations among constituents and to keep their state-funded projects alive. If the Senate gets their way, in just a few years we’ll end up having to gut education, Medicaid, and public assistance. In just a few months, we’ll have to lay off a huge percentage of state employees.

Unfortunately, they end up empowered by their short-sightedness. They hold the trump card, because they’re the only public servants left in Albany who are politically short-sighted enough to shoot down the budget proposal. They’re afraid to go back to their constituents with education cuts, and when our schools get gutted in a state of emergency once we can't borrow anymore, I suppose they'll have our unpopular governor to blame. They’re also the loudest voices, under the inflammatory and oafish financial leadership of Finance Chair Carl Kruger.

I have to give it to the Senate for their consistency; how steadfastly they disappoint and find political upper-hand through the lowest forms of political appeasement. They’re also inventive, always finding new ways to damage the state. Hopefully, this time they get held accountable before they vote on the budget, and not when it’s too late for our schools and public services.

Next up: Part 2 - Should we Panic? The News-Media and the State Budget.

Bronx News Roundup, Sept. 14

2009-09-14T14:16:18Z

Library patrons will be happy to find out that the Baychester and Morris Park branches are extending their hours.

Just ahead of the primary election tomorrow, the Daily News endorses Yudelka Tapia in District 14.

Over the weekend, the New York Times ran an article on Pedro Espada Jr.'s new-found power in the State Senate.

In other Espada news, the Senator's former Chief of Staff, Andrew Young, has accepted a job with state Republicans after he was pushed out during the Senate stalemate in late June.

Baseball fans were buzzing after Friday night's game when Derek Jeter surpassed Lou Gerig's record for the most hits in Yankee history.

Read more: Pedro Espada, Espada, Home News

Pedro Espada Jr. Seizes New Role In Senate

2009-09-14T08:51:20Z

Three months after a State Senate revolt catapulted him to infamy and power, Mr. Espada - audacious, unapologetic, a magnet for prosecutors - is seizing on his new role. His fellow Democrats, who elevated Mr. Espada to the leadership post in exchange for reversing his defection to the Republicans, privately express hope that they can contain his ambitions and sometimes outrageous behavior. But time spent alongside the 55-year-old Puerto Rico-born legislator - who has racked up as many losses as victories in two decades running for public office - makes clear that Mr. Espada will not be easily contained.

Espada Holds Court in Lofty New Office

2009-09-10T18:01:34Z

Pedro Espada Jr.'s new district office, eight months in the making, sits seven floors above the street in a swank office building on Fordham Road. It's beautiful. New carpeting, new paint job. Giant photos of the controversial Bronx State Senator adorn the back wall. One shows Espada wearing a suit and red boxing gloves.

It's a fitting image because the pugnacious Espada - his ringtone is "Eye of the Tiger," a song made famous in the "Rocky" films - literally fought his way into this office

Read more: Pedro Espada, Espada, Home News

For Espada, even giving money away becomes a challenge (News and Features Section)

2009-09-09T15:01:21Z

Please log in to read at http://riverdalepress.com.

Mark Schroeder, Dem NY Assemblyman Calls Espada Thug

2009-09-04T16:33:58Z

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP/ 1010 WINS) -- A Democratic assemblyman says Democratic Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada should quit, saying the Bronx senator who mounted this summer's coup is a thug.

Pedro Espada Finally Gets New Bronx Office

2009-09-04T08:56:06Z

Pedro Espada Jr.'s new district office, eight months in the making, sits seven floors above the street in a swank office building near Fordham Road. It's beautiful. New carpeting, new paint job. Giant photos of the controversial Bronx State Senator adorn the back wall. One shows Espada wearing a suit and over-sized red boxing gloves.

Espada: Assaults are 'Hate Crimes'

2009-09-02T19:45:57Z

This afternoon, State Senator Pedro Espada, Assemblyman Nelson Castro, and others, held a press conference on Walton Avenue at East 182nd Street, to bring attention to a spate of vicious assaults in the neighborhood these past few days.

Police say a group of men of Dominican origin have been deliberately targeting Mexican immigrants. Last Saturday, the group allegedly shouted anti-Mexican slurs at two men before attacking them. Another man was assaulted on Saturday in similar circumstances, and another on Sunday. At least one of the victims was stabbed.

"Obviously these are hate crimes we are dealing with," Espada said. "There is a tidal wave of hate crime against immigrants in the Bronx, in New York City, in New York State, and throughout this country."

Espada, the Senate's majority leader, said he offering a $1,000 reward - "my personal money" - to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved. He also talked about setting up a "task force" involving clergy, community leaders, youth, and police, to help correct the perception some people have of immigrants.

"Our Mexican brothers and sisters have earned the right to be respected and to be protected in their homes and in their community," added Rev. Katrina Foster, pastor of nearby Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church. "They have come here to contribute and not to take away."

Angelos Cabrera of the Mexican-American Students' Alliance (MASA) said it was important the people reporting crime to the police, and that they shouldn't be afraid of doing so, even if they're undocumented.

PHOTO: Pedro Espada (talking) and Nelson Castro (left)

Pedro Espada Hires, Fires Slumlord

2009-09-01T11:31:18Z

Interesting how this man's entire history managed to escape Espada until a newspaper mentioned it.

Read more: Pedro Espada, Espada, Home News

Pedro Espada Hires, Fires Slumlord

2009-09-01T11:31:17Z

Interesting how this man's entire history managed to escape Espada until a newspaper mentioned it.

Pedro Espada Fires a New Aide, Onix Sosa, Over Real Estate Scandals

2009-09-01T08:43:48Z

Pedro Espada Jr., the majority leader of the State Senate who is already at odds with tenant advocacy groups, appointed a new deputy chief of staff last month who in recent years managed dozens of low-income buildings with chronic housing code violations.

The aide, Onix A. Sosa, supervised operations at about 35 buildings in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx as of late 2006 that had nearly 7,400 unresolved violations, including nearly 1,100 deemed immediately hazardous, according to city officials.

Next! Espada Punts Another High-Ranking Staffer

2009-09-01T08:06:13Z

The Senate Majority Leader is now bidding adieu to a second appointee in less than a month. At least this one isn't family.

Read more: Pedro Espada, Espada, Home News

Espada's Nonprofit Clunkers Raise Eyebrows

2009-08-30T09:31:20Z

State Senate Majority Leader Perdo Espada Jr.'s Bronx charity, which is under investigation by the state Attorney General's Office, is reportedly also facing scrutiny over the nonprofit group's gas guzzling vehicles.

Read more: Pedro Espada, Espada, Home News

Attorney General's Office Investigating Espada For Submitting False Statements On Grant Application

2009-08-27T09:35:28Z

ALBANY --- The attorney general's office is investigating if Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. submitted false statements in a grant application seeking $3 million from the state for his health care company.

Some Good Press for Espada -- No Joke!

2009-08-25T11:21:05Z

In its editorial today, the Daily News gives State Senator Pedro Espada rare props for confronting an agribusiness company, Hudson Valley Foie Gras, which reportedly force-feeds ducks and subjects its workers to "horrendous conditions."
The Daily News has long campaigned for giving farm workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. The right to organize, though apparently enshrined in the state constitution, does not apply to farmworkers
Espada showed up at the farm on Friday and cell phoned the owner to berate him for the conditions on the farm and to tell him that the state was going to pass a law making his life more difficult.
The News and other of the city's daily media were on hands when Espada told the owner that the legislature was going to ge Fair Labor Practices Act on the Sept. 10 legislative calendar.
The News still calls Espada the "traitor who flipped the Senate twices this summer," adding, "But on this issue, on farmworkers' rights, Espada is on the side of the angels."

Read more: Pedro Espada, Espada, Home News

Espada Power Grab a Ploy for Pork: Report

2009-08-23T13:51:14Z

The New York State Senate coup that cost taxpayers millions was spurred by Sen. Espada's desire to get money for groups he controlled, a report says.

Read more: Pedro Espada, Espada, Home News

The Senate Makes It Up to Pedro Espada

2009-08-19T11:51:01Z

And Espada makes it up to someone who funneled money meant for AIDS patients into his campaign.

Read more: Pedro Espada, Espada, Home News

Senate Democrats Authorized $350,000 For Espada New Hires And Pay Raises

2009-08-19T08:33:14Z

As Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. fended off scrutiny over his son's short-lived Senate job, the chamber's Democrat leaders authorized $350,000 in pay raises and new hires for their new majority leader.

Dan Collins: Little Gordon Gekkos

2009-08-18T20:59:12Z

It's hardly a surprise that 58 percent of New Yorkers said their state government was "the worst" or "among the worst" in the country in a new Quinnipiac poll. The real shock was that 28 percent said it was "among the best." Perhaps instead of "New York state government" they heard "New York's great firmament," and thought they were applauding the topsoil.

The 2 percent who told Quinnipiac that New York has the "best" state government in the nation are easier to identify. I'm betting they're the state legislators' relatives - or at least the ones who are on the state payroll.

You may have heard the story about Pedro G. Espada, son of state Sen. Pedro Espada - the man who keeps changing parties and bringing majority control of the Senate along with him. When Sen. Espada switched back to the Democrats in July, Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson celebrated his party's new opportunity to impose reform by hiring Pedro G. as the Senate's "deputy director of intergovernmental relations."

No one seems to know exactly what a deputy director of intergovernmental relations does, but it pays $120,000. And - here's the good news -- when Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that he was investigating whether the hiring was legal even by the state legislature's shaky standards, Pedro G. swiftly resigned. If any readers feel ready to assume the burdens of intergovernmentally relating, please contact John Sampson.

(Don't worry about the younger Espada. He's apparently gone back to his old $90,000 job as "director of environmental care" at the non-profit healthcare center in the Bronx run by his father. No further information was available on whether the job involves caring for the environment, teaching the environment to care for others, or just being an all-around caring guy of the green persuasion.)

Meanwhile, Danny Hakim of the New York Times uncovered another interesting twist in the Albany way of doing business. It turns out that some of the more veteran members of the legislature have taken advantage of a loophole in state law that allows them to retire for one day between terms of office, qualify for their legislative pension, and then come back on the payroll as elected double dippers.

For instance, Harvey Weisenberg, a 75-year-old Long Island Democrat, "retired" last year, put in for his $72,000 a year pension, and then miraculously returned to the fold the next day as a $101,500-a-year Assemblyman. The grand total of the cost of keeping Weisenberg in his part-time legislative job is now $173,500. Plus expenses.

"Double dipping? I don't see this as that. This is something I earned," Weisenberg told the Times. He should know, since as the Times noted, he was the chief sponsor of legislation "aimed at cracking down on double dipping by local governments."

The respondents in that Quinnipiac poll agreed by a 77-19 percent margin that New York's state government is "dysfunctional." That does suggest that some of the folks who felt we have one of the best governments in the nation are either confused or think "dysfunctional" is a synonym for "better-than-useful."

But what they probably suspect, and what all these other stories confirm, is that the worst news from Albany is that things are exactly what they seem. With the obvious exception of a virtuous minority, the people who serve are there out of greed, and greed of the most depressingly base nature. They may be voting about budgets, health care, civil rights, education. But their eyes are on the real prize behind Door Number One - an extra $50,000 here, a job for their brother there.

(The brightest bit of news from the folks at Quinnipiac was that only half of all New Yorkers said they felt "personally embarrassed" by the mess their elected officials had put the state in, compared to 65 percent of the people who felt that way in New Jersey.)

Last week, after his son was forced out of his exciting new career in intergovernmental relations, Sen. Espada told the Daily News that he was going to turn into a crusader against nepotism in high places. It was time, he said, for everyone to start "cutting out all the nonsense about relatives, girlfriends. It's over. It's over."

Not hardly. Not hardly.

Irate Espada: "It's Personal, Damn Right"

2009-08-15T09:36:12Z

Days after his son quit a cushy three-figure Senate job amid allegations of nepotism, Majority Leader Pedro Espada has added a new title to his own position: Hiring cop.