....April 23, 1:11 PM
 
 
 
Can The Governor Figure Out Which Way Is Up?

By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

I’m not going to relive the entire story of the decline and fall of Alan Hevesi, once the fair-haired boy of the Queens Democratic political establishment. I am going to reflect, shed a tear or two and see if there is something to be learned.

I first encountered the hoop-shooting star of the Queens College basketball team when my older sister got involved in politics there. Alan was not only superjock, he was also President of his senior class. The guy was exceptional.

I paid attention as Alan quickly rose through the Queens political ranks becoming an Assemblyman at the age of 31 – young for the tightly controlled Queens process.

Alan received his Ph.D. in Public Law & Government from Columbia in 1971 and was an associate professor of Politcal Science at Q.C. for his entire Assembly career.

He served in the Assembly – authoring 108 laws with as much distinction as one can in that body – until 1993 when he was elected Comptroller of NYC. After being term-limited out of office, he unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic Primary for Mayor.

After his loss, he was back the next year successfully running for NYS Comptroller, the state’s chief fiscal officer and the sole trustee of the state’s pension system.

He served as state Comptroller from 2002, and was re-elected in 2006. During his 2006 re-election campaign it came to light that he had used a State employee to chauffer his ailing wife. He repaid $82,000 (subsequently he was ordered to increase this to $206,000 because there was more than one driver and the abuse was broader than originally reported) to the State and won re-election over an unimpressive Republican foe, even though Eliot Spitzer, his Gubernatorial running mate, and others withdrew their endorsements.

But Alan was forced to resign in December of 2006 as part of a plea-bargain deal forced by an aggressive Albany DA, David Soares. He pleaded guilty to one count of defrauding the government and was sentenced to a $5000 fine and a permanent ban from holding elected office.

I remember chatting with Henry Stern, the astute columnist who usually shares this page, who then felt it wrong that Alan’s misdeeds were handled criminally. Soon Henry and I agreed there must be a lot more lurking that was not visible. We then assumed that the legal authorities wanted Alan out office but wanted to take their time on the “real” investigation.

The “real” investigation has now landed a batch of biggies and still goes on.

It seems pretty clear to this writer where it will end up and what will be the fate of that hoop-shooting, superstar politico that I admired as a teenager.

And with him, going down will be more than his close friend and arrogant campaign guru Hank Morris and David Loglisci the chief investment officer of the NYS Pension fund – the two are already under indictment on 123 counts for turning the $122 billion pension fund into a criminal enterprise. Also arrested is former longtime Hevesi political ally Liberal Party boss Ray Harding for illegally receiving $800,000 in pension fund fees for political favors including arranging a high-paying job for Assemblyman Michael Cohen in order to vacate his Assembly seat in a deal which had it quickly filled by Andy Hevesi, Alan’s youngest.

There have been recent indictments of investment firm execs with likely more to come. The latest charges clearly suggest a complex scheme operating out of Hevesi’s office and under his authority, doling out tens of millions of State Pension fund fees for friends and favors.

And then there will be the collateral damage: the candidacy of Michael Cohen for City council and the four-year incumbency of young Andrew Hevesi are both challenged. Cohen,who is cooperating with AG Cuomo, vacated the Assembly for the younger Hevesi to fill, when go-betweens got him a six-figure job at HIP. Will the Cohen deal of trading his elected seat for a bigger salary with no other wrongdoing, be sufficient to end his campaign for the City Council? Will the evidence that Andy Hevesi received his seat as part of the corrupt deal out of his father’s State Comptroller’s office be enough to send the last remaining elected Hevesi running for shelter? His older brother Daniel left the NY Senate seat in Forest Hills for a private investment firm when rumors about his Albany behavior were whispered. Jack Chartier, Alan’s longtime friend and political pal from his Forest Hills Democratic Club who served as Deputy Comptroller, and appears to be at the center of it all and the source of much of the information gathered by Cuomo, must also face the consequnces.

And Alan, the bright doctor of Political Science who I interviewed a number of times and broke bread with a few times over the past 30 years, where will he be spending his 70th birthday next January 31?

The State Comptroller is the sole trustee of the NYS Pension Fund.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton, 1887

 
 
Toll Scheme Resuscitated, But Exemptions Impractical

By HENRY STERN

Weeks after the plan to impose tolls on the big East and little Harlem River bridges was taken off the table due to substantial legislative opposition, an attempted resuscitation is under way, with sweeteners like exempting visits to doctors and certain business travel from the toll, which would start at $2 and go up with the subway fare.

In the past we have opposed the tolling of the free bridges that have linked the boroughs for a century. We have serious misgivings about the practice of imposing charges on some vehicles while exempting others. How would the authority decide the purpose of each individual trip without stopping the car and asking the driver, whose response may or may not be truthful? If the car is to be exempted, and given a sticker for free passage, how can it be assured that the car will not be used for some unprotected purpose. The issue is almost impossible to resolve logically or logistically. It is probable that the MTA would incur greater expenses and receive lower revenue because of the exemptions.

It is noteworthy that in modern times, the Staten Island Ferry, once advertised as the best sea voyage one could enjoy for a nickel, went to a quarter and then became a freebie. As costs of operating the ferry climb, the deficit grows. You probably have not noticed that no one has proposed charging even a nickel for the 25-minute ride across New York Harbor. We are NOT suggesting a tariff for the ferry. A small toll would cause more irritation than it is worth, and a large toll would be unjust. But the fact that this issue has not been discussed indicates the large role that politics play in determining transit fares.

Subway and bus fares were held at five cents through the 1940s, when the private companies running the lines were forced into bankruptcy. New York City tried to manage the lines through a Board of Transportation, which was superseded in 1953 by the New York City Transit Authority. In 1965, under the administration of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was established, and in 1968 it took over both the New York City Transit Authority and the highly successful Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority.

The MTA raises the subway fare every few years, bowing to rising costs of labor, materials and electricity, the obligation to pay debt service (interest) on the ever-rising capital program, and corrupt and extravagant construction in sites like 2 Broadway, a tower on a prime site at Bowling Green which was converted into back-office space which the MTA, after spending hundreds of millions of dollars, does not even own.

Several MTA employees went to jail for crimes related to the construction of 2 Broadway. The entire project was a grotesque example of waste and fraud. This folly goes back to the Pataki administration, which was quite susceptible to lobbying by insiders. The massive debt incurred is a continuing burden on the agency’s operating budget.

Just as the Department of Defense became a partner in the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about before leaving office in 1953, transportation agencies have sometimes become part of the transit-industrial complex, with executives shuttling (that’s a transit word) from engineering firms to public authorities and back. “Build, baby, build” is a powerful slogan, but a great deal depends on how, what and where one builds. That requires a level of judgment that has not been demonstrated consistently or convincingly by transit officials, themselves in transit.

For political reasons, the transit unions have been exempted from any serious effort to reduce transit deficits. We are not talking about reducing salaries, but such issues as changes in work rules and pensions for future employees would save hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. These issues have not even been brought to the table because of the power of public employee unions and their influence on both the Democratic and Republican parties.

It is much easier to sock it to the general public by increasing as many taxes and fees as the governor and the legislature can find. This makes New York State, already heavily overburdened with income, sales and property taxes, even less capable of attracting or retaining businesses which are free to choose locations.

Of course, the smaller the tax base, the greater the tax burden on those remaining. Eventually, the house of cards will topple, like the tulip bubble in the 1600s, the dot.coms, the savings and loans, and the subprime mortgage crisis.

But that may not occur during the tenure of the legislators currently serving, which to them is as good as it never happening.

People have spoken out about the crisis in our state; we are neither the first nor the most eloquent to raise the alarm. Unfortunately, none of us has succeeded. This year the Obama stimulus plan came to the rescue. If current trends continue, we will again rely on massive support from Washington, which may or may not come in 2010, the year of state elections.

Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato
Michael Schenkler can be reached via this contact form.