Governor Andrew Cuomo is in the New York City area with no public schedule.
It's been that way since the election.
He is said to be making plans for his second term.
I posted last week that he is sitting in his darkened room preparing to settle all Family business and dispatch his enemies and anybody else who humiliated him during the election cycle.
We know he's going to go after teachers and schools - he already told us he plans to "break" us.
I expect that he will try and revise APPR (which he has promised to do in order to add "real sanctions"), that he will try and further weaken tenure and go after seniority rights for layoffs.
And of course the charter cap will be either lifted or eliminated - that goes without saying.
Also mayoral control in NYC will be revised to humiliate de Blasio and further empower the charter school entrepreneurs.
I have heard rumors of even darker things to come, with Cuomo planning a full-out assault on unions in the state, a la Scott Walker.
There are rumors that he plans to go after the Triborough Agreement and pensions of current (and perhaps even retired) state workers, a la Chris Christie.
I have a difficult time seeing him getting the political juice to mount a major assault against the Triborough agreement or pensions, given that he won re-election by just 13%, many of the people who voted for him weren't particularly enamored with him to begin with and he's got lots of enemies in Albany who would love to stick a shiv in him.
But you never know - Cuomo's a vindictive SOB and he hasn't hidden away for the last few weeks in a darkened room with Joe Percoco and his other henchmen to throw us all a party in January.
So, whatever's coming is going to be pretty bad.
What do you expect him to try and do and what do you think he'll actually be able to do?
That second part of the question is important - Cuomo's got all kinds of evil in his heart he wants to unleash on people, but we need to remember, after spending 9 to 1 over his GOP opponent, he won the election by just 13 percentage points.
And he has a U.S. attorney looking into him.
And he has a lot of enemies in Albany and around the state looking to pay him back for his previous crimes against them.
This is not 2010 and Governor Cuomo is not some juggernaut.
He CAN be beaten in whatever fight he brings to us.
I have it on VERY good authority that Cuomo will not, I repeat, WILL NOT go after pensions. To do so would be political suicide because: 1). It would have to occur in preparation for 2017 (the next time a NYS constitutional convention comes around); and, 2). IF BY SOME REMOTE CHANCE a change in ANY public pensions was presented you can bet the farm that EVERY NYS public employee union would IMMEDIATELY call for Albany term limits. This would effectively counter any proposal to screw around with our pensions.
ReplyDeleteI would be VERY careful when discussing "rumors" and causing folks to panic. I do not think that the governor nor the NYS legislature wants a blood bath on their hands. In the end, they all want to keep their cozy jobs when they're re-elected with their own pensions and free health care for life!
There's nothing wrong with discussing what Cuomo might possibly try to do - that's not rumor-mongering nor trying to incite a panic. It's simply laying out what the governor could look to do and what he can reasonably do, given the political realities As I wrote in the piece, I don't think he has the political juice to go after pensions.
DeleteNot faulting you for your speculation but, it is important to counter such statements with facts ... Cuomo still has many detractors in Albany and while he is still very powerful, his 2nd term will be under a microscope as he seeks to try and repair his image for a national run. How about speculating more about the results of the Moreland Commission investigation? The "Teflon Guv" could really take a serious hit but why is it taking so long?
DeleteHave you seen how many posts I've written saying he doesn't have the power now that he had back in 2010? Please take a look at the Oct/Nov posts - been at least a half dozen of them. That, in fact, was the point of this one too - at this moment, this guy's weaker than he's ever been as governor
DeleteAs a 10 year NYS teacher I am WAY more concerned with Cuomo making an attempt to retool the teacher evaluation system. There is no way in Hell he will be able to get away with messing with pensions. (There are too many male dominated unions that would fight tooth and nail against this) However, as the majority of teachers in NYS are women, I truly think he is going to try to stick to them by messing with teacher evaluations. But the literal billion dollar question is: "What will Cuomo do to the teacher evaluation system"? Will he require more observations? Mandatory student portfolios? Link 100% of evaluations to student test scores? Any and all possibilities scare the crap out of me. What say you?
ReplyDeleteI think he'll look to get rid of the locally negotiated measure and make 40% based on state tests. I think he'll look for SED to rig the algorithms. I don't think he'll force more observations - hard to argue 4 a year aren't enough.
DeleteTo your point about Cuomo's failure to "juggernaut" himself, this from Capital NY: "Cuomo Draws Less Support Than Any Governor in the US."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/11/8556955/cuomo-drew-less-support-any-governor-us
He is a man to be feared but he is no longer some Olympian god. He has three good friend in Albany, Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein, in the Senate, and Merryl Tisch, Regents Chancellor and three blood enemies, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and AG Eric Schneiderman.
If our "leaders," Weingrew, wanted to they might be able to build an effective coalition to oppose some or all of what Cuomo and the Senate want to do. If Weingrew don't want to do it some of us will have to figure out how to do it ourselves. Look what Barbara Madeloni and the Massachusetts Teachers Association just did to force off the table a proposal to link performance evaluation to LICENSING. I'm not a great believer in the electoral process as a way to save ourselves but if Weingrew would stop spending millions of COPE money on lost causes and mobilize a mutual defense pact with the state unions, PEF and CSEA, we might be able to pick the right fight and find that we have a few allies willing to work with us.
Harris,
DeleteIf you are waiting for Weingrew to do anything for teachers, you are wasting your time.
Yes, I saw the Cap NY piece. More great reporting from them that supports my assertion that this is not 2010 anymore.
DeleteBut as you point out, Harris, this would mean Weingrew would have to fight against Cuomo.
That may be a Bridge Too Far.