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Albany Reform In The Next Two Weeks
January 22nd, 2007

An editorial in the New York Times entitled The Reform Window explains why reform of the political process in Albany is more likely within the next couple of weeks than it has been for years, praises the reforms proposed last week by the reining triumvirate such as itemization of member items and the legal requirement that the legislature (not just the governor) propose a balanced budget — and suggests there be several more: an independent budget office (such as New York City has), a later deadline for the budget, and the use of generally accepted accounting principles.

In Newsday, former Assemblyman Nelson Denis offers several reasons why reform will be difficult, and then makes several suggestions of his own: Dismantle the Albany politburoImpose term limitsMove the legislature to New York City Convene a state constitutional convention and create investigate bodies with subpoena power to look into Medicaid, public authorities and member items.

By Jonathan Mandell on January 22, 2007, 8:49 am
In category: Albany, Governing, Public Finance | 1 Comment »

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Randalls Island -- A Public Park For Private Schools?
January 22nd, 2007

An editorial in
the New York Times explains the pending deal with Randalls Island exclusive use of two-thirds of the 480-acre public park by 20 of Manhattans wealthiest private schools for 20 years, in exchange for some $80 million in upgrades. The Times thinks there should be a greater proportion of the park opened to the public, and agrees with the suggestion that there be better public transportation to the island.

By Jonathan Mandell on January 22, 2007, 8:41 am
In category: Gotham City, Parks | 1 Comment »

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State of the City: Tax Breaks
January 18th, 2007

The Times is skeptical of Mayor Bloomberg’s tax cuts, questioning whether he is putting political calculations ahead of the city’s fiscal prudence by choosing them as a major focus of his State of the City address.

But the Daily News said the mayor is simply seeing that money gets back to its “rightful owners“, by sharing the surplus with homeowners, and also by helping low-income New Yorkers who are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit but have not been collecting to navigate the bureaucracy.

Temporary tax cuts won’t have as great an effect as permanent ones would have, writes Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute in the New York Post. Because Bloomberg has made clear the property tax break is only for one year, she says, property owners will be likely to put their money away in case the rate goes back up, rather than spending it.

By Joshua Brustein on January 18, 2007, 8:28 am
In category: Public Finance | No Comments »

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State of the City: Education
January 18th, 2007

The New York Post has kind words for the education reforms that Bloomberg laid out in his speech, which, it writes, “may be the most sweeping changes in education since [the mayor] bludgeoned Albany into handing control of the schools to City Hall.”

The Daily News also praises “reforms that will eliminate gross inequities in school funding and raise the quality of the teaching corps” in an editorial. It also gets John Podesta of the Center for American Progress to explain Bloomberg’s proposal for “fair student funding“, a program he advised the city on.

Podesta insists that fair student funding is not simply a back door way towards school vouchers, but the New York Sun writes that the plan could “lay the groundwork for vouchers [which would] be an achievement in and of itself.” The Sun does chafe a bit, however, at Bloomberg’s constant tinkering with the school bureaucracy.

Eva Moskowitz writes on Room 8 that “our public schools are still not remotely customer service oriented. Parents have to fight as hard as ever to get their kids a good education. Mayoral control of the school system was a golden opportunity to get these things right, but time is running out.”

By Joshua Brustein on January 18, 2007, 8:27 am
In category: Education, Gotham City | 1 Comment »

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Clinton on Iraq
January 17th, 2007

New Yorks junior senator and one of the states several presidential contenders –went on news programs this morning to issue her latest statement on Iraq following the presidents speech last week calling for more troops and her own visit to Iraq over the weekend. As the Daily Politics notes, Hillary Clinton opposed Bushs escalation (her word) and instead wants to cap the number of U.S. troops in Iraq at the January 1 level, impose more conditions on the Iraqi government for continued assistance and eventually (no timetable here) redeploy our troops out of Baghdad and Iraq so they will not be in the midst of a civil war. This afternoon, CNN reports that Clinton will introduce a bill setting a limit on troop levels in Iraq and setting conditions on funding for the Iraqi mlitary.

In refusing to set a timetable or support efforts to block funding for the deployment of additional troops, Clinton distanced herself from positions taken by many antiwar Democrats who are expected to be a force in the presidential primaries, and by at least one likely rival in 2008, former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the New York Times notes.

All for the good, according to Take Back the Times, which praises Clinton for a reasonably centrist position on Iraq. She does not favor a withdrawal from the Middle East and has adopted a realistic position toward the Maliki government and its persistent support of sectarian violence in Iraq, the blog says.

But such praise was rare. Say Anything charges, Clinton is willing to have the troops currently in Iraq fight and die for our mission there, but shes not willing to send in more troops to back them up so that we can actually complete the mission. And Newsmanbook sees trouble for Clinton in her support for the war unlike Edwards, say, she has never renounced her support for it or said it was a bad idea from the get go. The [Democratic] base is definitely against the war in Iraq. The polls and the last Congressional election show that the vast majority of the American people are against the war now, he comments. Writing on the Huffington Post, Robert Scheer complains, The fact that Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, the leading Democratic candidate, still can’t or won’t take a clear stand on the occupation is insulting to the vast majority of voters who have. MetaDC agrees: Clinton is rapidly losing her chance to win the Democratic nomination for president. Without a coherent strategy for getting us out of the Iraq quagmire, she simply is not a credible candidate.

For more on Hillary Clinton and the other presidential contenders from New York, see Gotham Gazettes Hillary, Rudy, And George, But Not Mike ( Or So He Says).

By Gail Robinson on January 17, 2007, 4:41 pm
In category: Electoral Politics, Gotham City | No Comments »

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State of the City
January 17th, 2007

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has delivered this years State of the City speech (see transcript). It has, as NY1 commented after the address, lots of things to make New Yorkers feel good, including $1 billion in tax cuts. Bloomberg called for an array of new initiatives, a smorgasbord as NY1 put it. No single sweeping vision emerged from the address, which included praise for development projects (including Atlantic Yards, not far from the site of the address), calls for a reorganization of the mayors previous school reorganization, and the announcement that people would now be able to submit cell phone photos of crimes or unsafe conditions. And the mayor called on other levels of government to take action, urging Congress to do more to keep illegal guns off our streets. He endorsed many of Governor Eliot Spitzers proposed reforms and called on the state government to stop giving away the store getting no productivity in return and saddling our children with costly pension giveaways. After all, The Politicker notes, even now You can’t lose, it seems, by bashing Albany.

While the council, which has already been urging tax cuts, seemed likely to embrace much of the plan, some blog postings expressed skepticism. Commenting on the Daily Politics, Patrick looks at the mayors plan to eliminate the 10 schools district regional offices that the mayor himself created. Why did they go through the disruption and expense of creating regions only to eliminate them now? Nothing about class size reduction, resources like labs, computers, libraries, Patrick writes. And Bugg disputes the mayors rosy picture of the city: The schools remain a mess. Welfare rolls are again expanding.
Real estate development is willy-nilly with no care for impact on services…. Crime is up, and not paying the cops a decent wage is causing a fleeing to other departments.

By Gail Robinson on January 17, 2007, 3:39 pm
In category: Albany, Crime & Safety, Education, Electoral Politics, Gotham City | No Comments »

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Cronies Need Not Apply
January 17th, 2007

With the unofficial campaign for state comptroller heading up, the
New York Times
sets out its qualifications for the job: fearless independence, financial expertise and a record as a reformer. And, noting that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver will play the key role in selecting the replacement to Alan Hevesi, the editorial says whoever wins the position should not be someone who goes easy on Mr. Silver and his colleagues in return for getting the job. Meanwhile the list of those bidding for the powerful position grows, and the applicants are ratcheting up their campaigns in this odd race where only the legislature officially gets to vote.

By Gail Robinson on January 17, 2007, 8:15 am
In category: Albany, Gotham City, Governing, Public Finance | No Comments »

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Choosing a New Comptroller
January 16th, 2007

New York ended 2006 under a cloud of scandal. The states Comptroller resigned under pressure for misusing taxpayer dollars. Coupled with previous investigations, indictments and prison sentences for other officials, the resignation by the Comptroller meant that in the year 2006, New York reached a new ethical low.


But now the state must choose a new Comptroller. The Comptroller plays an important role in New York State government. The Comptroller is the states chief fiscal watchdog. The Comptroller invests the public employees pension funds, reviews and approves state spending, and monitors the spending of governmental agencies. The Comptroller is charged with examining state agencies and in some cases reveals problems with the way in which these entities run their programs.


The Governor runs the state agencies and, inevitably, the watchdog activities of the Comptroller can lead to conflict. Thats why the Comptroller is a separate, statewide elected official. The drafters of the state constitution wanted the executive branch to be monitored by someone who was independent of the Governor. In doing so, they hoped that the Comptroller would be willing to independently and accurately review agencies activities, even if it incurred the wrath of the Governor.


If the Governor appointed the Comptroller, the drafters felt that he or she would not have the independence necessary to monitor the spending of taxpayers dollars.


And thats why the constitution charges the Legislature with appointing the Comptrollers replacement in the event of a resignation. The framers wanted to make sure that the Legislature was in the dominant position to approve a replacement in order to maximize the new Comptrollers independence.


Under the state constitution, the Legislature meets in joint session to collectively vote to approve a replacement Comptroller. As a consequence, Democrats who have an overwhelming majority of the 212 state legislators will control the choice a new Comptroller with the lions share of the Democrats in the Assembly majority. Thats why you are hearing so much about how individuals interested in applying for Comptroller are jockeying for the support of the Speaker of the Assembly.


So what should be done? The Legislature should consider the following factors in choosing a new Comptroller:


Integrity. Given the circumstances of the previous Comptrollers departure, the new Comptroller must be widely viewed as a man or woman of integrity.


Independence. Given the Comptrollers watchdog role in state government, the replacement must clearly be independent of the Governor. But he or she must be viewed as independent of the Legislature as well. How can this be assessed? The new Comptroller must have a track record that shows that she or he is willing to stand up to the legislative leaders as well as the Governor.


Reform-mindedness. The former Comptroller was widely viewed as being innovative in monitoring programs run by state and local governments. The new Comptroller must continue to follow that path of innovation.


Keen understanding of state government. Through practice and under law, the Comptroller is deeply involved in the state budget process. Over the past few years, the Governor and the legislative leaders have stated that in the event that they cannot agree on how much money that state has to spend, they will agree to the Comptrollers estimate. In addition, the Comptroller must agree that the final budget is balanced. If he does not, legislators do not get paid.


Knowledge of the financial services industries. The Comptroller is the sole trustee of the $140 billion pension fund. And while the Comptrollers staff has extensive expertise in investing these monies, the Comptroller him- or herself must have a background in financial services since that is where much of the state pension monies are invested.


Of course politics will play a role, but New Yorkers must watch the process for choosing the new Comptroller to make sure that political considerations are not the major factors in the choice.

By Blair Horner on January 16, 2007, 8:58 am
In category: Eye on Albany | 1 Comment »

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Protect The Children -- And Adults
January 16th, 2007

Marking the anniversary of the death of Nixmary Brown (as editorials in other newspapers have done previously), an editorial in the New York Times calls for fixing the dysfunctional family court, by increasing the number of judges and decreasing the caseload for the Legal Aid lawyers. Gov. Eliot Spitzer should put the Family Court high on his judicial reform agenda. The Times also approves of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaums call for a childrens public advocate.

Meanwhile, an editorial in El Diario endorses another report by Gotbaum calling for an improvement in the agency known as Adult Protective Services, a division of the citys Human Resources Administration, which provides services for some 6,000 mentally or physically incapacitated adult New Yorkers who have nobody else to care for them. With the aging of the population, there is urgency for improving the quality of service at an agency where 60 percent of caseworkers have caseloads way above the recommended cap of 25.

By Jonathan Mandell on January 16, 2007, 7:20 am
In category: Gotham City, Law, Social Services | 1 Comment »

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Nothing Personal, New York (Or Not For Everybody, Anyway)
January 13th, 2007

When Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean announced the choice of Denver over New York City as the place for the Democratic National Convention in 2008, the analyses were numerous. Some didnt make much sense.

For example,
The National Journal
wrote: NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg was once enthusiastic about the prospect of a DNC convention, even opening City Hall for meetings of top Democratic financiers. But Bloomberg turned soured [sic] about the prospect the more he dealt with the DNC.

New York City would have been the safe choice, logistically and financially. But it would have been a political nightmare and set Dean apart from his Netroots allies and virtually every strategist, presidential candidate and office holder in the party. But Dean aides have said that he was not prepared to risk holding a convention in a city that was not prepared to handle it.

How could it have been a safe choice and a nightmare at the same time? (And, as one of the commenters on the blog pointed out, “since when do all Democrats hate NYC?”)

A little more clearly, the Daily Kos wait Phew. Among the hundreds of comments on that blog were some negative about New York, e.g.:
I’m sick of NYC being the staging place for conventions
New York would be (1) a logistical disaster, (2) a boring, ho-hum choice, and (3) politically no advantage at all.
NYC was the choice of the old dem party.

But the conventional wisdom seemed to see the choice as having more to do with the advantages of Denver rather than the disadvantages of New York.

The widely-held consensus seems to be that the Democrats, having made notable gains in the West, want to send a signal that they will not take any of the fifty states for granted, wrote the blog Politics Now. The site selection becomes even more significant as the DNC ditched New York City, a traditional Democratic stronghold. In a way, Denver represents the Democrats desire to present themselves as the party of common sense liberal values (implying that New York is the center of irrational liberal values.)

The blogger of Captains Quarters wrote: Democrats in New York fit the Nancy Pelosi/Hillary Clinton model quite nicely. The media center of the Big Apple would have amplified the messages of the convention, and the facilities are second to none. I attended the Republican convention in 2004, and I can attest to New York’s ability to stage an impressive event, and to provide equally impressive security.

However, the Democrats hardly need to woo New York. The Democrats have a lock on the entire state and certainly the city. With a new Congressional majority to protect and to expand, the Democrats need to engage on the frontier of their popularity, and Colorado makes perfect sense for that effort.

By Jonathan Mandell on January 13, 2007, 12:35 pm
In category: Gotham City, Governing | 1 Comment »

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Nixzmary Brown, One Year Later
January 12th, 2007

A year after seven-year-old Nixzmary Brown died, the alleged victim of child abuse, an editorial in
El Diario La Prensa explains that reports of abuse have gone up (65,000 by December of 2006 compared to 48,000 in all of 2005), but so has the budget and training of the Administration for Children Services; parents who feel they are on the brink of hurting their children can get help. Now whats needed, the paper says, is a citywide outreach and prevention campaign, that addresses the cultural stigma attached to asking for help and the differences in how corporal punishment is interpreted.

By Jonathan Mandell on January 12, 2007, 7:29 am
In category: Crime & Safety, Gotham City, Social Services | 4 Comments »

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Security Should Not Be Peanut Butter
January 12th, 2007

An editorial in the New York Times today essentially repeats what was in the Daily News three days ago blasting Senator Joseph Lieberman, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, for wanting to spread around federal anti-terrorism funds throughout the country rather than concentrate the money on the places where the risks or threats are the greatest. The Times even extends the food metaphor begun by the News. The News wanted Lieberman to stop treating anti-terror money like pork. The Times editorial, entitled Pork, Peanut Butter and Security quotes approvingly of Bloombergs testimony that money to defend against terrorism should be divvied up based on an assessment of risks, not spread across the country like peanut butter.

By Jonathan Mandell on January 12, 2007, 7:18 am
In category: Crime & Safety, Public Finance | No Comments »

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Rudy: Lessons From New York Can Help Save Iraq
January 12th, 2007

Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich share bylines in an article in the Wall Street Journal today suggesting that there are many lessons from the successful welfare reforms in New York City that can be readily applied in Iraq. Workfare required able-bodied welfare recipients to work 20 hours a week in exchange for their benefits, thus reasserting the value of the social contract, which says that for every right there is a responsibility, for every benefit an obligation. Workfare, the authors say, resulted in a visible improvement in the quality of life of the city (cleaner streets, less graffiti, etc.), and helped reduce crime. A similar model can work in Iraq an Iraqi Citizen Job Corps. Subsidizing unemployed Iraqis with a meaningful wage in exchange for meaningful work rebuilding their society is well within the means of the U.S. and its allies. The entire effort will help stabilize and grow the Iraqi economyOne word of caution: The program should be overseen by the U.S. military, not private contractors, to avoid unnecessary delays in deployment or accusations of cronyism in the bidding process.

By Jonathan Mandell on January 12, 2007, 7:03 am
In category: Community Development, Gotham City, Social Services | 2 Comments »

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Iraq Reaction
January 11th, 2007

With so many New Yorkers in the political spotlight these days, their reactions to President George W. Bushs speech on Iraq last night have received a fair amount of media attention.

Senate Charles Schumer, now a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, expressed skepticism over whether there was much support for the presidents plan to send some 20,000 additional troops to Iraq. At a press conference yesterday before the speech but when most of its content was already pretty well known Schumer said, “an escalation” alone is “not going to bring any kind of safety or calm” in Iraq and, according to War Room, predicted that if the Senate were to hold an up-or-down vote on Bush’s surge plan today, the opposition to the plan would be overwhelming. The blog explains, Schumer was an early Iraq hawk, but his experience as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has probably left him with a pretty good sense of where the American people are on the war.

New Yorks other senator, Hillary Clinton, also expressed opposition to Bushs proposed escalation of the war in Iraq. In a statement reprinted by The Politicker, our junior senator called for a strategy that places pressure on the Iraqi government to resolve the political crisis through phased redeployment of U.S. troops, establishes an Iraqi Oil Trust to end the stalemate over oil, and pursues an aggressive diplomatic strategy.”

Clinton, though, still has not called the war a mistake instead it is a policy marred by incompetence and arrogance. And many bloggers reacted skeptically to her latest statement. Clinton, according to Its My Right to Be Left of Center, has jumped from the hawk party wagon. Hillary Clinton, in a great show of courage (cough, cough), came out against the surge, comments Lehigh Valley Common Sense. And Deborah White predicts Senator Clinton’s intentionally vague stances on the various Iraq War viewpoints … will cost her the 2008 Democratic nomination for the presidency.

Bush did pick up support from at least one key state Republican former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. John McCain’s position of supporting the president’s troop increase in Iraq isn’t a lonely position anymore, reports the Politicker. In a statement put out by his spokeswoman, Rudy Giuliani said he supports boosting troop levels too.

New Yorkers who thought that, as mayor, Giuliani treated parts of our city like an occupied territory may note that he thinks techniques that worked in East New York could help Iraq. Along with the increase in troops Giuliani said he would add a heavy emphasis on measuring results and having the flexibility of adapting our strategy to make certain we restore security as quickly as possible.”

In addition to giving the former mayor another opportunity to trumpet Compstat and cutting crime, his position may score points with conservatives, writes CBS News Producer Steve Chaggaris. Chaggaris says, “The Republicans who are comfortable with their standing among conservatives are the ones bucking the president, while those who feel the need to burnish their conservative credentials including Giuliani — are coming out in support of the troop escalation.

Far less attention is being paid to the New Yorks other presidential contender former Governor George Pataki. But Emboldened writes, Pataki and [Kansas Senator] Brownback seem to be against a surge, though I wouldnt characterize their opposition as exactly Kucinich-like.

As far as we can determine, Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who after all says he is not running for president anyway) has not issued a statement on the surge. These seeking to divine his stand though may note that Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, whose independent candidacy for the U.S. Senate this fall Bloomberg enthusiastically supported, remains one of Bushs most enthusiastic supporters on Iraq calling the presidents latest moves correct and courageous.

By Gail Robinson on January 11, 2007, 12:50 pm
In category: Electoral Politics, Gotham City | No Comments »

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Rebutting the Council's Bat Ban
January 11th, 2007

George Heppner, owner of DePhillips Sports in Bayside, argues against the City Council’s proposed ban on aluminum baseball bats in high schools in the New York Sun today.

Heppner gives a rigorous history of the rise and subsequent vilification of the aluminum bat, and concludes that they might actually be safer than wooden bats. Then he suggests that debating the relative merits of baseball bats might not be the best use of the council’s time.

“If City Council wants to get involved in our schools, there has to be a more pressing need than baseball bats,” he writes. “If City Council wants to get involved in the national pasttime, improving fields, building more practice space, and providing equipment and uniforms should take priority.”

By Joshua Brustein on January 11, 2007, 7:28 am
In category: Education | No Comments »

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Comptroller Consensus
January 10th, 2007

The possible brawl between Governor Eliot Spitzer and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver ( forecast by the New York Times on Monday) seems to have been averted at least for now. In what Michael Gormley of the Associated Press calls a sign of unusual bipartisanship for Albany, a bipartisan group of former comptrollers will determine whether a person holds the qualifications to be the states top fiscal officer and to oversee its huge public employee pension fund. The state legislature, which has the ultimate responsibility for choosing the new comptroller, will select only a candidate who passes muster with that group. Republican Ned Regan and Democrat H. Carl McCall will be on the panel, with the third member likely to be former New York City Comptroller Harrison Goldin, a Democrat, reports Rick Karlin in the Albany Times-Union.

The plan was developed by Spitzer, Silver, Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and the minority leaders of both houses of the legislature. “We have tried to remove politics from this process . . . to breed confidence from the public,” Spitzer said.

The comptroller job became vacant when Alan Hevesi was forced to resign following his admission that he defrauded the state government by using a state employee to chauffeur his ailing wife. Reports have said that Silver wants a Democratic member of the legislature to take the job, while Spitzer favors an outsider, probably with financial experience. Today, Capitol Confidential reports on another theory that Spitzer will push for a member of the legislature, but a Republican. This would further chip away at the slim GOP majority in the Senate and be in the tradition of comptrollers belonging to a different party than the governor.

By Gail Robinson on January 10, 2007, 1:28 pm
In category: Albany, Gotham City, Public Finance | No Comments »

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Another School Shakeup?
January 10th, 2007

The mayors annual State of the State speech is a week away but already reports are circulating that part of it will concern public education in the city and some people do not like what they are hearing.

In todays Daily News, lJuan Gonzalez writes that the mayor will announce a major push to turn over more management functions in the school over to private companies. The plan will include some fancy footwork to enable Bloomberg and his schools chancellor Joel Klein to get around a state law requiring that only public employees supervise public school principals. ”They are going to say these private companies are ‘advising’ or ‘consulting’ or ’supporting’ when they’ll really be in charge,” Gonzalez says one school official told him.

The plan has already drawn criticism from teachers union president Randi Weingarten who reportedly said, ”This is so reckless. We’ve been hearing all sorts of rumors about privatizing the system and a radical restructuring. How many more of these restructurings must we go through?”

But a dissident union blog, NYC Educator, says Weingarten will not have much impact: She’s rendered herself (and the UFT) irrelevant by consistently declining to provide substantive opposition or creative leadership.

By Gail Robinson on January 10, 2007, 8:37 am
In category: Education, Gotham City | 1 Comment »

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Calling Rights
January 10th, 2007

Officials in other states should follow New York Governor Eliot Spitzers example and stop gouging convicts and their families for collect calls made from prison, the New York Times says in an editorial. The paper hails Spitzers decision to renegotiate its contract with the company that provides the phone services but calls on the state to go further and introduce a cheaper, debit calling system like the one used in federal prisons, where inmates use computer-controlled accounts to pay for calls.

By Gail Robinson on January 10, 2007, 8:21 am
In category: Gotham City | No Comments »

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Security Should Not Be Pork
January 9th, 2007

An editorial in the Daily News urges Congress to allocate security funds based on risk, not on pork. It explains that
Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be the first witness at a hearing today of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman about federal implementation of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. It would be the height of gall for Lieberman to go for all of the panel’s 41 measures but the one that’s perhaps the most important: risk-based funding. The News says that Lieberman owes Bloomberg for supporting his re-election.

By Jonathan Mandell on January 9, 2007, 8:00 am
In category: Crime & Safety, Gotham City, Public Finance | 1 Comment »

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Six Achievable Goals For NYC In 2007
January 9th, 2007

An editorial in the New York Times lays out what it calls achievable goals for the city officials this year:
1. Improving the local campaign finance law, especially the loophole that allows candidates without real competition to collect public funds for campaigns
2. Reducing traffic congestion, including by giving serious thought to congestion pricing.
3. Making the police more responsive to civilian concerns
4. Applying the surplus toward future obligations (not reducing property taxes and unnecessary spending)
5. Winning Albanys approval of a city law that forces developers to build more affordable housing.
6. Providing food stamps to more of those who are eligible.

By Jonathan Mandell on January 9, 2007, 7:49 am
In category: Crime & Safety, Gotham City, Governing, Housing, Public Finance, Social Services, Transportation | No Comments »

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