From Cuomo 2010 - “Andrew Cuomo and Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano today joined together to rally support to pass a statewide property tax cap. As part of his New NY Agenda, Cuomo has proposed a property tax cap that would limit increases in property taxes, both for local government and schools, to two percent annually or the rate of inflation whichever is lower. Mangano today announced his support for Cuomo’s plan. To build public support for his property tax cap, Cuomo today launched www.capNYpropertytaxes.com, an on-line resource for New Yorkers to learn about Cuomo’s plan and to directly contact their state representatives to urge them to support the cap.

Republican Rick Lazio has proposed a 2½ percent cap and Buffalo-area developer Carl Paladino, wants state and local tax cuts but hasn’t specifically advocated a property-tax cap.

Bill Hammond writes in the Daily News about how the fight to be the GOP’s candidate for Governor is hurting the republicans chances to beat Andrew Cuomo.

“The GOP primary for governor is quickly devolving into a race to the bottom.

Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino (above) should be debating who has the smartest ideas and best credentials to fix New York’s broken government.

They should be bashing the many embarrassments perpetrated by Albany’s all-Democratic leadership over the past two years.

They should be probing for chinks in the armor of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democrat who’s crushing both of them in poll numbers and fund-raising.

Instead, they’re jockeying over who’s more willing to exploit the searing memory of 9/11 - by posturing against a proposed Muslim-oriented community center near Ground Zero.”
To read more click here.

A New York Post editorial today takes on the union-backed Working Families Party.

The paper writes: “The Working Families Party declared jihad on state Sen. Pedro Espada over the weekend, labeling the corrupt Bronx Democrat a symbol of “everything that’s wrong with Albany” and vowing to defeat him in the September primary.

Which is sort of like Boss Tweed giving lectures on political probity.

Sure: Espada, who led the Senate coup that threw Albany into chaos last year, is a bad actor — as this newspaper has thorougly documented. Post reporters have exposed how he used his Soundview Health Center as a piggy-bank, among other things.

Plus, he’s under state and federal investigation — that is, an easy target for dubious players intending to deflect attention from their own misdeeds.

But pretending that Espada is the biggest problem with Albany is either naive or cynical — and the union sock-puppet WFP is anything but naive.”

Read the full editorial.

Cuomo brings state reform message to Mahopac crowd, Rockland students

Andrew Cuomo was in Mahopac yesterday where he met with students and supporters. Brain Howard writes on LoHud.com -”In an appeal that might have resonated as well among Tea Party supporters as it did among his own backers, state Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Cuomo called on voters of all stripes to put partisan politics aside and fix what’s wrong with New York.

“This is a time to come together and do what’s right for the people and what’s right for the state,” Cuomo told a packed room at the Mahopac Library on Thursday. “We haven’t had a functioning state government, and it has to change. It has to change now, and it has to change radically.”

The campaign stop was to be among the first to kick off an 11-day tour of the state. Cuomo was joined by two of his daughters, Michaela and Mariah.”

To read more click here.

Lazio’s visit to Calspan latest stop on business tour
Rick Lazio was in western New York where he made a stop at Calspan Corp., in Wheatfield. The Buffalo News writes - “Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio visited Calspan on Thursday afternoon, meeting with reporters prior to a private tour of the facility.

Lazio said he was continuing his tour of businesses across the state, as well as to “demonstrate support for the Greater Niagara region.”

“We just want to make sure that the investors, the business leaders, they don’t feel taken for granted,” he said. “That they look at their state and they say that this is a state government that is getting its act together. . .”

For audio of the question-and-answer session with Lazio, visitthe Buffalo News Live blog.

Cuomo’s campaign for governor said on Thursday that it had raised more than $9 million in the first half of the year and had $23.6 million on hand. Lazio did not release a summary of his figures on Thursday, suggesting the likelihood of a disappointing showing. He had $637,000 on hand at the beginning of the year. Carl Paladino has raised $1.7 million since March for his uphill gubernatorial campaign—but $1.6 million of it came from his personal fortune.

According to a Siena College poll release today, ” Nearly half of New Yorkers give the State Legislature an “F” for its work on the state budget this year, while about one-quarter say Governor David Paterson deserves a failing grade, according to a Siena College poll of registered New York voters released today. The Governor is supported by about half of voters for his vetoes of legislative member items, but strongly opposed on his veto of additional education spending.

Over the last month, there was little change in the general election match-ups for Governor, both United States Senate seats and State Comptroller. The Democratic candidates for each of those positions maintain comfortable leads over their potential Republican opponents with less than 16 weeks until Election Day. With less than two months until Primary Day, Rick Lazio maintains a two-to-one lead over Carl Paladino among Republicans, while two-thirds of Republicans still have no choice among the candidates in primaries for both Senate seats.

Moderate Support for Gov’s Member Item Vetoes; Stronger Opposition for His Education Veto

“A majority of men, Republicans, downstate suburbanites, and older voters support the Governor’s vetoing of member items in the budget, as do a plurality – 49% – of all voters, however a sizable minority of 37 percent oppose those vetoes, including a plurality of younger voters and African Americans,” Greenberg said. “His veto of the additional school aid funding added to the budget by the Legislature was opposed by a majority of statewide voters, 58-38 percent, and by a majority of voters from every party and every region of the state.
”

To read more click here.

Jon Campbell discusses the three candidate’s positions on Marcellus Shale drilling in today’s Ithaca Journal.com. Cuomo appears to have a cautious approach while remaining non committal as stated in his New NY Agenda. Lazio wants drilling with additional study and restrictions. And, Paladino is anxious to see drilling happen yesterday and wants the NYS legislature to get out of the way and let development and resulting economic recovery begin.

The article further discusses landowners’ desire for drilling to begin as soon as the DEC finalizes the sGEIS and that the landowners are watching their legislator’s moves on this issue carefully and will vote accordingly. Landowner coalitions represent thousands of New Yorkers and millions of acres of land and are advocating strongly for drilling to proceed. They are a constituency that should not be ignored.

To read Jon’s story in the Ithaca Journal click here.

Carl Campinile reports in The New York Post on a bill that would damage the ability of businesses to make their views known in the political process.

He writes:

Legislative leaders have agreed on a bill that would require corporations to get shareholder approval before making political donations to influence policy or elections.

Business leaders immediately slammed the proposal, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Democratic leader John Sampson, as a violation of the First Amendment.

“It’s a blatant attempt to muzzle the business community. It does not apply to unions in the same way. I’m stunned,” said Heather Briccetti, vice president of the NYS Business Council.

The story is available here.

The Business Council strongly opposes provisions of this wide-ranging legislation that would require corporations formed under the laws of New York State – including the business corporation law, the limited liability corporations law, the banking law and others - to obtain approval of a majority of shareholders before making any political donations in New York.  This same proposal was previously proposed as a standalone requirement in S.7083-A. 

These restrictions are described as a response to the United State’s Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United v. Federal Election Commission. 

Using this Supreme Court decision as a rationale for this legislation is misplaced and indicates a misunderstanding of Citizen’s United, which overturned restrictions on independent campaign expenditures by corporations, and did not create a change in New York Law that necessitates placing a new restriction on the ability of business entities to make any political expenditure. 

Corporations are affected by political regulation and should continue to have the right to participate in the political process. 

Read The Business Council memo in opposition.

Sally Goldenburg of the New York Post writes - “Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo sided with Gov. Paterson in his battle with state lawmakers yesterday, advising the governor to yank the Legislature’s prized pork-barrel spending as punishment for rejecting his spending plan.

In one of his strongest condemnations of the Legislature since their budget battle with the governor began, Attorney General Cuomo advised Paterson to slash pork-barrel spending, commonly known as member items, if negotiations don’t work.

“First step, negotiation and see if you can come to mutual terms. If not, Step Two is they pass their budget — you line-item veto any of the [additional spending proposals], you line-item veto the member items, because option three is shutdown and you can’t go to Option Three, in my opinion,” Cuomo said.”

To read more click here.

According to a Siena Poll released today - “Following the state party conventions, Andrew Cuomo’s favorability rating has fallen eight points, to its lowest level since December 2008, while his lead against both Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino fell by six points. Cuomo still maintains a better than two-to-one lead over both Republicans but his lead against each is the smallest it has ever been, according to a Siena College poll of registered New York voters released today.

In all match-ups between Republican and Democratic candidates for Governor and United States Senator, independent voters moved away from the Democrats and toward the Republicans over the last three weeks. Cuomo saw leads of more than 30 points among independents slip to 13 points. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand had double-digit leads among independents against each of her three potential Republican opponents and now trails each of them with independent voters. Senator Charles Schumer saw his lead among independent voters fall from 25 points against Gary Berntsen to seven points, and a 27-point lead against Jay Townsend fall to 16 points.

Cuomo leads Lazio 60-24 percent, down from 66-24 percent on May 24th. Cuomo’s lead over Paladino fell to 60-23 percent, down from 65-22 percent. In a Republican Party primary, Lazio leads Paladino 45-18 percent.”

To read more click here.