This Week's Stories
GG's quick takes on recent NYC news


Week of 23 April 2001:

No Punishment
According to the New York Times, Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik will not discipline the four officers who shot and killed 22-year-old Amadou Diallo two years ago. Instead, the officers will have to undergo retraining. Commissioner Kerik's decision is reportedly based on two police investigation panels that found that the officers did not violate police guidelines because they believed that Diallo had a gun and that their lives were in danger. While the officers still face civil lawsuits seeking $41 million, the decision brings the criminal investigation of the shooting to an end. Critics say that the officers should at least have been dismissed from the force.

Let the Battling Begin
As the mayor formally presented his $39.5 billion budget, political experts predicted that the fight between the City Council and the mayor over spending and taxes this year would be more rancorous than usual. The main showdowns could come over some $846 million in spending cuts and the mayor's tax reduction plan. One proposal sure to be controversial is Giuliani's bid to take $80 million from community school districts and give it to private companies to run two dozen public schools.

But this year1s unique political situation could do more than policy differences to fuel the dispute. With Giuliani and most of the City Council on their way out because of term limits and Council Speaker Peter Vallone running for mayor, "Everyone's looking for one last lick," an insider told The Post.

In one clash between the legislative and executive branches, the Council came out on top yesterday. Despite unusually heavy lobbying by the mayor1s office, the council voted by a 40 to 6 margin with 2 abstentions to override Giuliani1s veto of a bill that would have maintained the city's four to one match of campaign funds.

Showdown At City Hall
Today, Mayor Giuliani will release his $39 billion city budget that calls for $150 million less in spending on programs and $500 million in tax cuts. The City Council wants a budget that looks much different with an extra $548 million for schools, youth, and elderly programs and more modest tax cuts. The Mayor has threatened to veto any City Council budget that does not meet his proposed levels of tax reduction.

And last week, City Council postponed a vote to override the Mayorıs veto of the cityıs $4-to-$1 campaign finance program because so many Councilmembers were absent. Today, the Council will try again. Mayor Giuliani has reportedly been lobbying members and offering assistance with specific projects in their interest. The Mayor says the program costs too much, but Council Speaker Vallone has called the program a "model for the rest of the country." According to a Gotham Gazette survey, 30 Councilmembers said they would vote to override, 4 said they would not, and 17 could not be reached or would not disclose how they plan to vote. A total of 38 votes are needed to override the veto.

Raising the Bar
Test scores released yesterday raised again the question of whether the city properly places students in special education programs and then does enough to educate them. Less than four percent of the city's special ed eighth graders met state standards for reading and math, while among fourth graders, fewer than 15 percent did. All the scores for the city were lower than for the state as a whole.

Although he said he hoped performance would improve, Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said the low scores indicated that the city puts only those students with the most severe problems in special ed. But a state official disagreed, charging that scores are low at least partly because special ed students in the city have less qualified teachers and little access to a normal program.

Efforts are underway to boost requirements for special ed teachers, and the city has been trying to return as many youngsters as possible to regular classrooms. While few children actually made that move last year, the city has a smaller percentage of youngsters in special ed than the state as a whole. The testing of special ed students is part of a state effort to set higher expectations for students with disabilities.

Ticket Prices
When "The Producers," the 1967 Zero Mostel film refashioned as a Broadway musical, opened last week, the producers of "The Producers" promptly announced they were hiking their top ticket prices to $100. This made them the most expensive seats on Broadway. The immediate effect was that the producers could boast of breaking a Broadway box office record on Friday, selling more than $2.8 million in tickets on a single day. Scalpers - unauthorized ticket sellers -- were reportedly reselling tickets for $350 each.

Scalping tickets is actually illegal in New York, but the law expires in June, and last week New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer called for an end to the law. His argument is not that ticket prices would go down or that their availability would increase. It is that the anti-scalper law "is becoming increasingly pointless," thanks to legal ticket brokers in New Jersey and sales over the Internet. Besides, he said, "I believe in the market."

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