Daily News columnist William Hammond reminds readers that if they want things to change in Albany, to show up at the voting booth on primary day.

New Yorkers itching to clean house in Albany, be forewarned: The moment to act is coming sooner than you think.

Voters who wait until Election Day in November to vent fury at their notoriously dysfunctional and corruption-riddled state government are liable to miss the boat - especially if they’re Democrats living in New York City.

As a practical matter, the last, best chance to dislodge deadwood state legislators from seats in the five boroughs will be the Democratic primaries on Sept. 14.

That’s just two weeks from today, folks.

Mark your calendars in red. Figure out where your polling place is. Look up the names of your local senator and Assembly member. And exercise that voting finger.

Because Sept. 14 is the election that really counts when it comes to bringing much-needed change to state government, especially the Legislature.”

To read the rest of Bill’s column click here.

Jimy Vielkind of the Times Union reports - ” A month after an independent counsel concluded Gov. David Paterson and several members of his administration made “errors of judgment” in contact they had with a woman pursuing domestic violence charges against a gubernatorial aide, Paterson said no disciplinary action is planned against any of his aides.

The report, by former Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye, documented contacts by Clemmie Harris, a special assistant to Paterson, and published details of a confrontation between David Johnson and Sherr-una Booker. Johnson is facing criminal charges stemming from that incident.”

To read more click here.

LoHud.com is providing access to a database that will show how much tax-payer money is being spent on travel and other per-diem expenses.

For example:Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, D-Mount Vernon, has spent $182,559 in per-diem and travel expenses over the last decade, which is the highest amount among the members of the Lower Hudson Valley state delegation. In the state senate, Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, D-Mount Vernon, led the local delegation with $154,267 in travel and per-diem expenses.

To see how much money your local legislator has spent click here.

Jorge Fitz-Gibbon writes on LoHud.com - “Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch brought his reform revolution to the city Monday, proclaiming that his upstart movement is about to reshape Albany politics.

The former Big Apple boss, 85 and feisty, said New York Uprising, the grass-roots group he founded this year, has gotten 301 state legislators and candidates — both Republicans and Democrats — to sign a pledge to support the movement’s reform-minded agenda…

According to New York Uprising, 50 out of the 61 current members of the state Senate have signed on, as have 63 others seeking Senate seats. In the Assembly, the group said, 162 legislative hopefuls have signed on, including 73 incumbents.

An additional 12 candidates for statewide office have signed on, including all six candidates for attorney general, the group said.”

To read more click here.

Joseph Spector writes in the Democrat and Chronicle that even with more than 6000 vetoes by the Governor millions in pork spending still handed out.

“Gov. David Paterson’s veto pen hasn’t ended spending for legislative earmarks, state records show.

In July, the state signed off on $12.5 million in member items for lawmakers’ hometown projects — including $438,000 for a senior center in Queens, $100,000 for a group opposed to a major power line in central New York and $7,500 for the Rochester Crime Stoppers program.

In all, 609 member items were authorized by the state Comptroller’s Office last month, a review by Gannett’s Albany bureau found. An additional 57 projects totaling nearly $1 million were approved in just the first few days of August.”

To read more click here.

The Times Union reports today - “A giant Malaysian gaming and resort entertainment firm with worldwide clout is in line to turn over $380 million to the state and gain the rights to build and operate the long-delayed video slots parlor at the state’s Aqueduct Race Track in Queens.

The state Lottery Division on Tuesday recommended the gaming consortium Genting New York LLC to develop a 4,525-machine video lottery terminal facility that is expected to feed hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the state and tens of millions a year to the cash-starved New York Racing Association, which runs the state’s three horse tracks.”

To read more click here.

Bill Hammond writes in his column in the Daily News, that Ed Koch is right on the money when he points to Senate Dems as villains.

“State Senate Democrats crying foul over former Mayor Ed Koch’s New York Uprising campaign should stop their whining.

They think it’s unfair that Koch’s group branded their Senate leadership as “enemies of reform” while all 29 members of the Senate GOP were hailed as “heroes.”

But Koch’s labels, though a bit harsh and simplistic, were issued fairly and honestly.

And if Dems don’t like his judgments, they have no one but themselves to blame.

Like every other candidate for state office, the Senate’s top leaders - including Democratic conference chief John Sampson, Temporary President Malcolm Smith and Finance Committee Chairman Carl Kruger - were challenged to pledge support for Koch’s three-point reform plan.”

To read more click here.

To send a message to Albany telling them that you have had Enough Already click here.

In an investigation conducted by New York Post reporters Tom Corrigan and Susan Elelman found that the City of New York payed out more than $5.7 million in dinning fees with your tax dollars.

“While most New Yorkers brown-bag it or buy their own sandwiches, a Post review of records found that municipal employees don’t always dig into their own pockets.

With few exceptions, city workers are not allowed to expense their meals. But the Post probe found hundreds of unexplained tabs, from a few bucks up to $25.

The city Department of Education was at the top of the food chain — with workers spending $1.5 million on meals hidden under the obscure category “non-overnight travel expenses.”

The review of city comptroller data found:
* The City Council kept from nodding off by quaffing $5,256 worth of coffee on the taxpayer tab.
* Under the category of “instruction and school leadership,” the staff at MS 385 sank $2,000 into the Brooklyn’s Fish Eye Bar & Grill.”

To read more click here.

In an Op-ed in the Daily News former New York City Mayor Ed Koch names names in his crusade to fix Albany. Here is some of what he has to say.

“The leaders of our state Legislature are not well known. The two I worked with over an extended period were Speaker of the Assembly Stanley Fink, a Democrat, and Majority Leader of the Senate Warren Anderson, a Republican. Compared with today’s leaders, Fink and Anderson were giants devoted to the public’s needs.

Regrettably, the two current leaders - Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, and Majority Leader of the Senate John Sampson, also a Democrat - are not in the Fink-Anderson tradition of public service. Indeed, at this moment, New York Uprising, a political action committee - in which I have a leadership role - is dedicated to cleaning the Augean Stables known now as the dysfunctional Albany Legislature.

New York Uprising has designated Silver and Sampson as “Enemies of Reform.” Their names and many others are posted on our Web site, www.nyuprising.org.

About six months ago, along with Dick Dadey of Citizens Union and Henry Stern of New York Civic and others, I decided to undertake this crusade. We are taking on the state Legislature, which almost every New Yorker sees as a disgrace, shaming us with its antics and its inability to adopt a state budget.

As we speak, adoption of the budget is more than three months late. That lateness is not simply a delay without consequences. Municipalities dependent on state funding, as well as nongovernmental agencies similarly dependent, are suffering and have to privately or publicly borrow monies to keep operating - paying interest on loans. Commentators now compare New York with the bankrupt and equally scorned state of California.”

To read the entire op-ed 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.