#Broadband4all

Yesterday Governor Cuomo launched his program called #Broadband4all, which would bring high speed internet to all New Yorkers. This billion-dollar program is being called transformative but also the largest state infrastructure investment in New York State history. The proposal would grant New Yorkers across the state access to this high-speed internet by the end of 2018.

The NY Broadband Program would include many counties and districts that had broadband that, when tested, were nearly 200% below the recommended level of Mbps or Megabytes per second. In his address, Cuomo stated that the need for fast internet in schools, hospitals, and many businesses. Making New York State a competitive force is Cuomo’s ultimate goal and having this foundation will help ensure a brighter future. Some of the counties that were listed on New York States website were: Jefferson, Monroe, Oswego, and St. Lawrence. These counties preformed well below the recommended average for households, businesses and public institutions. While many people support the program to make New York more competitive, many say this is not the way in which New York should be moving.

With a price tag of 500 million dollars, the #Broadband4all program is the most expensive technological investment ever made by New York. Many people are wondering why the state is funding a program that could be fully funded by the individual companies. While internet is a main factor in education and hospitals, New York Staes money could be used in a more practical way. While the private sector would be encouraged to pay for the entirety of the program. Since 2009 Cable Vision had a net income of  $1.946 billion dollars and in 2014 Time Warner Cable had a net income of $554 million dollars. Many people are asking why is New York paying for half of the price tag when these businesses are making astronomical amounts of money.  More information is located on the Governors website including what counties would benefit most from this project.

Cuomo and the Legislature Make a Deal on Ethics

Early this afternoon, news came out about the ethics negotiations going on between the Assembly and Governor Cuomo. According to "NY State of Politics" Speaker Carl Heastie and Governor Cuomo presented a bi-later agreement on ethics and campaign finance reform. For now this is the outline but it could change based on the negotiations with the Senate. The Governor os confident that the outline is compliant to his "Five Points" which he presented at New York University in February. You can watch this speech here.

The campaign finance reform prohibits campaign funds from being used for sports tickets and fees and dues which includes clubs such as a health club or a country club. The funds can still be used for legal fees which Cuomo sees as a "...a function of the office and I believe it’s a legitimate fee." Cuomo is currently using funds to pay for legal fees for a federal inquiry into the shuttering of the Moreland Commission.The campaign finance reform also includes the disclosure of communications to independent expenditure committees two months before a general election and a month before a primary election. 

The per diem process was also restructured to have a website track the per diem expenditures for the legislators as well as having the legislator prove he/she was actually in Albany. This would be tracked by a swipe card system installed as well as the speaker having greater autonomy over who receives per diems. 

This might not be as easy to obtain in the Republican controlled Senate as they are pressuring for the application of the reforms to the executive branch as well. The Senate recently introduced a bill that would require the disclosure of income from non-family members. This is suspected to be an attempt to have disclosure for Cuomo's girlfriend Sandra Lee.

Update: The Governor has now announced that his ethics reform has been accepted by both houses without other "priorities" being "horse traded".

Syracuse loses $1.7 million a year on Streetlights

Since the first special lighting district was created in Syracuse in 1914 properly charging residence for the service has been difficult. This has become one of the issues that has been pushing the city of Syracuse into debt with $1.7 million of lighting fees uncollected. Today the Cities 134 special lighting districts charge residents $220,000 a year but pay National Grid 1.9 million in fees. This shortfall adds to a chronic budget deficit which the city will be spending $20 of it's savings to cover.

A major cause of this problem is that once created lighting districts fees are not raised for decades. In one case the fees for one district had never been raised since the district had been created in 1926. In the case of 400 property owners the simply were not billed at all. The City Council has moved to correct these discrepancies. The sudden spike in fees would be a nasty shock to many property owners who would in some cases see their bills go up by thousands of dollars and as a result these increasise are being phased in over the course of three years.

This situation has dragged on for so long due to how incomplete the city hall records are. For Beth Rougeux the Director of Administration auditing all the special lighting districts has been a two year project that stated in the City Hall's attic. With all 2,700 "ornamental" lights now accounted for Beth as purposed to merge the cities 134 special lighting districts into 6 in the hopes of making better record keeping possible.

Attorney General Wants Change

With the recent scandal involving New York State Speaker Sheldon Silver, Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing for an ethics reform to make outside income visible. Disclosure of outside income, campaign money, stiffer penalties, and reform of per diems were all main points made in Governor Cuomo’s address. 

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently gave a speech, which credited the governor for his ethics reform but stated that more was needed than just disclosure. Schneiderman is calling for an eradication of all outside jobs for New York State Legislatures. This comes soon after the issue of Sheldon Silver and his indictment. The new proposal would make it impossible for Legislatures to earn an outside income is they work part time and earn a base salary of $79,000.

Another concern the Attorney General states is the issue with per diems. Currently the per diem allowance is $154 per working day to cover lodging, food and travel expenses. These per diems are accumulated through tickets and receipts and billed to the state. Assemblywomen Earlene Hooper billed the state $36,452, more than any other lawmakers. Money not used in the daily per diem would not have to be returned and could be kept by the lawmaker. Schneiderman stated that in the new proposal, the money that was not used for the appropriate per diem, would have to be giving back to the state and can not be taken without proper approval.

Information retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/nyregion/schneiderman-issues-ethics-plan-aimed-at-new-york-legislators.html?ref=nyregion&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/nyregion/18empire.html

Cuomo Plans to Reduce Emissions

Andrew Cuomo and the State Senate plan for a major reduction in greenhouse gases in the state of New York. They plan to pull funding from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to help fund the states Environmental Protection Plan. The regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a program that was created by nine northeastern states that helps generate money. Last year the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (R.G.G.I.) helped fund $100 million to support New York State clean energy programs.

The R.G.G.I is a program in the United States that regulates greenhouse gas emissions for nine states including Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. The program puts caps on the amount of CO2 emissions can be released by electrical and industrial polluters in those nine states. The R.G.G.I gets it money from auctioning off carbon emission allowances to power plants in the nine participating states.

Governor Cuomo plans to pull millions from the key program into our own states general funds. Plans are set to pull $36 million out of the R.G.G.I program and into two of New York funds and programs. Cuomo plans to move $23 million into the general fund and the $13 million left over into the Environment Protection Fund. The Senate calls for more than half of the amount Cuomo plans to pull from the R.G.G.I. Luckily the weep of funds has raised awareness for climate change and global warming that state republicans have been reluctant to address. Having more control over the R.G.G.I fund will help direct where money is spent of environmental issues. Nothing is fin al in Cuomo’s budget and between the State Senate.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/03/8563980/cuomo-proposes-draw-emissions-program

http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/NewsBlog/archives/2015/03/13/state-budget-will-include-emissions-reductions-funding-in-some-form

Eric Schneiderman Suspends Automatic Email Purge

Eric Schneiderman current New York Attorney General is putting the email deletion policy of his predecessor current governor Andrew Como on hold. Previously as with the emails of all New York State employees it is required that emails in the Attorney Generals office be deleted after 90 days.

The policy is a major concern to those concerned about government transparency including many in the State legislature. A bill has been purposed requiring that those emails be kept for a much longer period of time. This policy is a recent adoption by the Como administration and along with the tendency of Gov. Como and his aids to avoid leaving paper trails as a matter of habit has led to the Governors office coming under fire for being secretive.

In the interim the Attorney Generals office says it will put deleting any emails on hold pending the development of a new policy.

Northern Border Security Review Act

The Northern Border Security Review Act was introduced in January 21, 2015 by John Katko (a Republican from New York’s 24^th congressional district). This bill is intended to have the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a northern border threat analysis. This analysis, “ at minimum, shall include the following, 1. An analysis of current and potential terrorism threats posed by individuals seeking to enter the United States through the northern border. 2. An analysis of improvements needed at ports of entry along the northern border to prevent terrorists and instruments of terror from entering the United States. 3. An analysis of gaps in law, policy, international agreements, or tribal agreements that hinder the border security and counterterrorism efforts along the northern border. 4. An analysis of illegal cross border activity between ports of entry, including the maritime borders of the Great Lakes” (H.R. 455: Northern Border Security Review Act).

Picture received from http://www.thetbwg.org/map-newyork_e.htm

All of these sounds like a good idea and something that should be looked into regardless. But the bill has upset the people of Akwesasne because they feel that this bill is targeted at the reservation. It doesn’t help that Katko has referred to “the Akwesasne territory as a “prime smuggling route”” (Flatley). Also, the pass accusation that the 9/11 terrorists entered the county through Akwesasne, which was later proved to be false.

“In fiscal 2014, there were 617 pounds of marijuana seized in the Swanton sector, and 506 individuals were apprehended. Along the northern border, the Swanton sector came in behind Grand Forks, Buffalo and Detroit in apprehensions of individuals, but first in marijuana seizures” (Flatley). The Akwesasne territory is located in the Swanton Sector, and the way the facts are presented leads the reader to believe that the majority of this activities stem from Akwesasne.

In fact, the Swanton sector covers a few states. “This office provides law enforcement support for the State of Vermont; Clinton, Essex, Franklin, St. Lawrence and Herkimer counties of New York; and Coos, Grafton and Carroll counties of New Hampshire”. Therefore, it is hard to compare the Swanton sector to a particular city.

“”Like many other crimes, smuggling grows at the intersection of need and opportunity”” (Flatley). and a border provide that opportunity, that is why in the bill it doesn’t make reference to any one port in particular.

The only reference to the reservation is that of “tribal agreements”. When dealing with Akwesasne, many other issues become involved because the reservation is trying to establish their sovereignty and even the identity of the people come into question. It doesn’t help that many the people of Akwesasne don’t trust the government to begin with many might see it as another law to indirectly control Akwesasne.

You can track the process of the bill at https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr455

Sources:

Flatley, Daniel. Watertown Daily Times. At Akwesasne, Mohawks are caught in the middle of U.S., Canadian border procedures.

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news03/at-akwesasne-mohawks-are-caught-in-the-middle-of-us-canadian-border-procedures-20150315.

H.R. 455: Northern Border Security Review Act. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr455

Swanton Sector Vermont. U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

http://www.cbp.gov/border-security/along-us-borders/border-patrol-sectors/swanton-sector-vermont