Dean And Adam Skelos Schemed To Go After Sandra Lee As Leverage Against Cuomo

Ken Lovett in the Daily News:

The governor's girlfriend and even his daughter were fair game for former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, according to court transcripts.

Facing a nagging corruption probe, and looking for a leg up in budget negotiations, the embattled Republican floated the idea of raising a stink over the outside income of Democrat Cuomo’s live-in girlfriend, Sandra Lee, and using it as leverage, transcripts of wire-tapped conversations between Skelos and his son Adam reveal.

In the March recordings, Skelos apparently outlined a plan to make an issue out of celebrity chef Lee’s income and use the political swipe as a bargaining chip.

“Later today, I’m going to go after (the governor) and I want him to disclose, you know (the governor’s significant other), and all this other stuff,” Dean Skelos is heard saying.

“Keep sticking with that,” his son replies. “You guys are smarter and just more experienced. “So, you know, you flip it on him. Then (the governor) goes crazy and then he comes back and he negotiates.”

“That’s exactly right,” Skelos said.

“I love it, though,” Adam Skelos said. “I think it’s hilarious.”

More:

Prosecutors argue that the recordings should be admissible because they show how Dean and Adam were discussing ways to pressure the governor as lawmakers tried to pass legislation that would benefit Adam.

“[The phone calls] involve discussions between Dean Skelos and Adam Skelos about the ways in which Dean Skelos can maximize his leverage with the Governor during the budget negotiations — the same negotiations during which the Government alleges Dean Skelos attempted to insert legislation that would benefit Adam Skelos and the Environmental Technology Company in the charged schemes,” prosecutors say in the court filings.

These Skelos wiretaps keep yielding gems.

Shelly Silver's fighting his charges, but given the wiretap transcripts we've seen already of conversations between Dean and Adam, I can conceive of a strategy where they say "You know, maybe a plea deal isn't such a bad idea..."

Cuomo Hits Low In Approval Rating In Siena Poll, 41%-59%

Just as the last Marist poll released two weeks ago showed Governor Andrew Cuomo hitting the lowest job approval numbers of his governorship, a Siena poll out today shows Cuomo hitting bottom on job approval.

His job approval/disapproval number is 41%-59% - and his favorability rating fell too:

“Cuomo, while still viewed favorably by a small majority of voters, has his lowest favorability rating since he's been governor. While his statewide favorability rating dropped by a net eight points in the last month, it fell by a net 19 points with New York City voters and a net 25 points with Republicans,” said Steve Greenberg, a spokesman for the Siena poll. “Similarly, Cuomo's job performance rating is also at an all-time low. More than twice as many voters say he's doing a poor job as compared to those who say he's doing an excellent job. Even Democrats are evenly divided, with 50 percent giving him a positive job performance rating and 49 percent rating him negatively. His job performance rating is significantly under water with Republicans, independents, downstate suburbanites and upstaters.”

I thought all the publicity Cuomo was garnering ministering to his partner, Sandra Lee, both pre-and post-cancer surgery might have turned around his numbers a bit.

But the Siena poll was taken May 18-21 - right during the height of the Sandra Lee PR (see here and here) - and Cuomo's ratings do not appear to have been affected positively by the pictures of Cuomo in a hospital gown ministering to Lee.

It will be interesting to see if there's a positive effect on Cuomo's numbers next time around.

In any case, Cuomo's not at lows in both the Marist and Siena polls - New Yorkers clearly do not like the job this governor is doing and more and more, they don't even really like him despite the PR attempts to humanize him.

Caught In Hypocrisy Over Cancer Screening Cuts, Cuomo Administration Goes On The Attack

David Sirota and Matthew Cunningham reported in the International Business Times that the Cuomo administration has cut cancer screening for thousands of New Yorkers even as Andrew Cuomo has used Sandra Lee's cancer as an opportunity to point out the importance of cancer screening:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his partner Sandra Lee have in recent days become high-profile public faces in the fight against cancer. Tweeting out hospital photos after Lee’s double mastectomy this week, the couple has cited her breast cancer diagnosis to, in Cuomo’s words, “speak openly about her illness in order to remind women of the potentially lifesaving power of early detection.”

That public education campaign about the value of cancer screening, however, contrasts with what health advocates say are Cuomo’s repeated efforts to cut funding for a major cancer screening program in New York. Only a few months ago, in fact, the American Cancer Society sounded the alarm, slamming Cuomo for pushing an initiative the group said could end up eliminating cancer screening services for more than 16,000 New Yorkers who do not have insurance that fully covers such screenings. In February, cancer survivors and public health advocates testified before the New York legislature, begging lawmakers to reject the governor’s proposed cuts.

“Who here wants to tell that mom, dad, brother or sister they can’t be screened for cancer?” asked the American Cancer Society’s Bill Sherman at a state senate hearing. Of Cuomo’s budget proposal, he said it would lead “to thousands of New York residents failing to get life-saving cancer screenings.”

The Cuomo's administration response?

Why, attacks of course:

In response to International Business Times' questions about the American Cancer Society's criticism of Cuomo's budget proposals, the governor's spokesman, Richard Azzopardi, said, "Get your facts straight, then try again." He provided no new data or facts to refute the group, nor did he respond to IBTimes’ questions about whether Cuomo's experience with Lee’s illness has changed the governor's views on state funding for cancer screening.

And:

Somehow the end of my reax was cut off: Exploiting current circumstances for a cheap hit is tasteless, but not unexpected from the @IBTimes.

— Rich Azzopardi (@RichAzzopardi) May 22, 2015

Why not just say, "You know, you're right, now that we see the importance of cancer screening for everybody, the governor has decided to change his proposal to cut screenings for more than 16,000 New Yorkers who do not have the coverage to fully cover such screenings"?

That's never the modus operandi of the thugs in this administration or the head thug running it.

It's always attack, attack, attack...

Cuomo has used the Lee cancer to try and "humanize" himself - they've sent out tweets of him in a hospital gown while ministering to Lee and other photos that show him supporting Lee.

But this cancer screening story, if it makes to the mainstream media where Lee was doing interviews when the cancer was first announced publicly, will undercut all that and expose Cuomo as the hypocrite he is.

They may get lucky with that - it's a holiday weekend and the story will probably blow over by Tuesday.

But it's just another example of what disgraceful human beings inhabit the Cuomo administration, from the flying attack monkeys in the press office to the head attack monkey in the governor's mansion.

Andrew Cuomo's Gonna Love This Unauthorized Biography Coming Out Next Week

Michael Shnayerson's biography of Andrew Cuomo (The Contender) is coming out later this month and it promises to be a fun read.

So far we've learned from excerpts of the book that Cuomo may hate Attorney General Eric Schneiderman because Cuomo may have been schtupping Schneiderman's ex-wife and saw Schneiderman (who was still friendly with the ex-wife) as a rival.

And we've learned that Cuomo so much despised the family of his ex-wife Kerry Kennedy that he may have purposely played "Sympathy for the Devil" at his informal launch for governor in 2002 in order to embarrass them:

The “Cuomolot” union was on the skids by the time the ambitious son of Queens geared up for his abortive 2002 run for governor. Still, Kennedy agreed to stick by him during the campaign.

There was no shortage of tense and painful moments: At the Manhattan party considered the informal launch of Cuomo’s campaign, the Kennedy clan was aghast to hear “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones played at “rousing volume,” Shnayerson writes.

The Kennedys, who had lost two of their loved ones to assassins’ bullets, listened, “disbelieving,” Shnayerson details, as the sound system spewed Mick Jagger’s famous lines: “I shouted out, ‘Who killed the Kennedys?’ / When after all, it was you and me.” They wondered if Cuomo had chosen to play it, the bio says.

The book also puts forth the idea that Cuomo may have pushed to have his ex-wife prosecuted after she was arrested for "drugged driving":

“The Contender” suggests the bad blood between Cuomo and his ex continued to manifest itself long after the divorce, including when Kennedy got pulled over for drugged driving in 2012 and was prosecuted by Westchester County DA Janet DiFiore, described as a Cuomo ally.

Although Kennedy was acquitted in the incident, in which she said she’d gotten behind the wheel after accidentally taking Ambien instead of her thyroid meds, Shnayerson quotes Kennedy’s brother, Douglas, as opining that Cuomo would spend the rest of his days “trying to take her down.”

No wonder Cuomo allegedly tried to get Shanyerson to write with him instead of writing on his own.

The book is coming out on March 31 (the release was delayed a bit) and that's unfortunate, because it's coming right at the budget deadline.

The portrait that is going to emerge from this unauthorized Cuomo biography is that he's even a bigger sociopath than has been so far publicized and he's going to be on the defensive for awhile after the release.

This book is certainly not going to help him politically.

For example, in the battle over ethics reform, Senate Republicans are trying to include disclosure of partners of both legislators and statewide politicians as part of the reform package.

This is aimed at Cuomo's paramour, Sandra Lee, who has some business deals with companies that lobby the state government on issues but doesn't have to disclose her income or business dealings publicly.

In pushing back against that proposed Senate reform, Cuomo flacks have twice suggested that if the Senate wants to add girlfriends to the ethics reform package, Cuomo will happily add the girlfriends of married legislators to the mix.

The Shnayerson book looks like it's going to detail multiple instances of Cuomo's own extra-martial dalliances so the next time Cuomo's flacks attempt to pushback on the Senate's Sandra Lee proposal, they're going to have to find a different insult - it's not going to work to insult Senate pols as adulterers when Andy Cuomo himself is concurrently being revealed as an adulterer.

In any case, this unauthorized biography is just one more gift coming if you're a Cuomo-hater in a year of gifts for Cuomo-haters.

First, Preet Bharara has seemingly thrown Cuomo off his game and has Sheriff Andy rocking on his heels over the Moreland mess and ethics reform.

Next, Cuomo's been slammed by teachers over his education proposals and his poll numbers are dropping.

Finally, there's the battle between some pols in Albany (particularly Senate Republicans) and Cuomo that has seen Cuomo have to fight for what he wants rather than just have everybody cave to him.

Now we have the Cuomo biography coming out that looks like it's going to expose Cuomo as the sociopath he is and put him further on the defensive even more than he already is.

Good times these days every time you google the name "Andrew Cuomo" and the word "news".

Unlike Assembly Dems, Senate GOP Refuses To Cave To Cuomo So Far

In case you missed it, Governor Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Heastie are pals on ethics reform - you can tell by the hug.

Senate Majoirty Leader Dean Skelos and the Senate GOP?

Not so much:

The framework agreement on ethics legislation should include more measures aimed at disclosure for the executive branch and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos told reporters on Wednesday night.

“I was shocked to see a lot of reforms that apply to the executive branch were not part of that agreement,” Skelos told reporters outside of his office at the Capitol. “We feel very strongly that if you’re going to reform the legislative branch, there should be strong reforms for the executive branch.”

Skelos met privately for several hours with his GOP conference to discuss the state budget talks and the package of ethics measures that Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie have agreed to include in the state budget.

...

Skelos said there should be more disclosure aimed at the governor’s office, including the reporting of travel expenses, disclosure of state contracts for vendors who have contributed campaign money and requiring domestic partners to disclose their finances.

The measures have all been introduced by Senate Republicans in recent weeks, including the bill that is seemingly aimed at Cuomo’s girlfriend, Food Network personality Sandra Lee.

Cuomo’s top legal counsel, Alphonso David, said that measure is not under negotiation.

Ethics reforms that apply to Cuomo?

That's like Moreland subpoenas to Cuomo's donors.

Both need to be "pulled back."

Silly people of New York: Ethics reform only applies to the legislature, not to the governor.

Remember When The Governor's Secretary, Larry Schwartz, Tried To Fix The Sandra Lee "Permit" Problem?

Through a PR rep, Sandra Lee said that she has no business before the state and therefore should not have to disclose her financial information:

ALBANY — State Senate Republicans may want her to publicly disclose her finances, but Gov. Cuomo’s celebrity chef girlfriend, Sandra Lee, insists none of the companies she owns has business before the state.

“None of the companies Ms. Lee owns lobby or have business before the state,” a Lee spokeswoman said Saturday.

“Ms. Lee and the governor fully comply with all current disclosure laws.”
But the spokeswoman did not respond to a question about deals Lee might have with companies she doesn’t own but do have business before the state.

Cuomo and Lee have lived in her Westchester County house together for years, but because they are not married, she does not by law have to publicly disclose her financial information like the spouses of public officials must do.

Okay - great.

Then Sandra should have no problem disclosing that information and her paramour, Sheriff Andy, ought to have no problem with the disclosure too.

After all, if there's nothing to hide, there's nothing to be afraid of, right?

Except maybe there is something they're afraid of.

Last year it was revealed that Lee and Cuomo refused to get building permits for improvements they made to their house and property and refused to allow the tax assessor to enter the premises to see just how those improvements would affect their property taxes.

The person who pushed back on the press was the governor's secretary, Larry Schwartz, not a Lee PR person:

An email message to Lee at the Food Network was answered by Larry Schwartz, Cuomo's secretary in Albany. He said any work performed at the Lee-Cuomo residence as noted in the USA Today article was "all decorative renovations and they don't require building permits. ... It was retiling, painting, wallpapering. It's like her line of work — decorative. I'm not aware of any rooms that were combined."

And what of the basement remodeling noted in the New York magazine article?

"Again, the key word is decorative," Schwartz wrote in an email. "Window treatments."

Here we have a state employee - one who is paid for more than Governor Cuomo and is the second most powerful figure in the executive branch after the governor himself - responding to Lee's email messages sent to the Food Network.

Gee, how did Larry Schwartz, a state employee in the Cuomo administration, get involved in this matter and doesn't that represent a conflict of interest?

Schwartz is currently still raking in his $181,000+ salary a year in a new position specifically created for him after the administration said he was stepping down from the secretary position to pursue a job in the "private sector."

Schwartz is also the Cuomo administration official who had subpoenas to Cuomo donors from the Moreland Commission "pulled back" during the anti-corruption panel's heyday.

He went in front of federal prosecutors investigating alleged tampering into Moreland by the Cuomo administration in August and is said to be "toxic" now as a result of rumors he will be indicted for corruption.

After the Dicker column reported Schwartz was still on the payroll, Cuomo said he is just cashing in his vacation days and will be gone sometime in March.

Now maybe it's perfectly legal for Lee to have used Schwartz, Cuomo's "fixer," to respond to emails to her at the Food Network even though she's not a state employee and the matter did not touch on state business.

But it certainly smacks of hypocrisy to claim that Lee has no business with the state when she's using the governor's secretary to respond to queries from the press that pose a political problem for her paramour, Sheriff Andy.

Also, you have to wonder, if Andy and Sandy used Larry Schwartz to put out the fire around the Lee permit business, what other items did they use him or other Cuomo admin officials or state employees for?

Cuomo wants to play like he's above politics and corruption in this ethic reforms battle, but the truth is, he's above neither and the citizens of this state need some sunlight to see just how compromised he is or isn't.

Just as Cuomo keeps saying that if teachers are so great at teaching, then they shouldn't worry about being evaluated by his "toughened" evaluation system, I say "If Andy and Sandy have nothing to hide in their finances, then they should have no problem revealing those to the citizens of the state."

Cuomo, Legislature Fight Each Other On Multiple Fronts

It seems the legislature is not happy with Governor Cuomo.

Three bills were introduced last night that all take aim at Cuomo:

Senate GOP pushes back on ethics: New bill would require financial disclosure by members of Cuomo's economic councils http://t.co/Bdi1q8YtwW
— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) February 27, 2015

Another new ethics bill from Senate GOP: State agencies would be required to post travel expenses online http://t.co/iHnX7WMWun
— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) February 27, 2015

New ethics proposal by Senate GOP would require Cuomo's girlfriend, Sandra Lee, to disclose her finances: http://t.co/4mhbHuFWdD
— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) February 27, 2015

These bills come on top of the beating Cuomo's IT shill took yesterday over the Cuomo policy of deleting all government email older than 90 days:

ALBANY—Maggie Miller, the state's chief information officer, faced a barrage of questions from lawmakers at a budget hearing Thursday afternoon about the Cuomo administration policy of automatically deleting emails of state workers that are more than 90 days old.

...

Asked again if she had any concerns that the email deletion policy would decrease transparency, Miller said, “I fully support the policy.”

“I think if the New York Assembly announced tomorrow they were going to pick up this policy, [U.S. Attorney] Preet Bharara would be at the court door making sure it did not,” Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell said, to nervous laugher from lawmakers and members of the crowd.

Also yesterday, Cuomo ratcheted up his efforts to privatize the public school system in New York State by releasing a report that ties "failing" schools to individual lawmakers:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo dropped a political bomb on state lawmakers Thursday — linking their names to chronically failing public schools in their districts in a provocative move to win support for his education reforms.

The governor issued a 200-page report outlining the performance of 178 low-performing schools around the state, including 91 in New York City.

The list includes the names of the state senator and Assembly member who represent each school in an implicit challenge: What are you going to do about it?

I'm not sure how effective this confrontational strategy Cuomo is pursuing on mutliple fronts is going to be.

He's shoved lots of policy proposals into 30 day budget amendments, forcing the legislature to either agree to the proposals or strip them from the budget, he's taking a "My Way Or The Highway" approach to ethics reforms that will only affect the legislature while leaving statewide pols like himself alone and now he's trying to publicly embarrass individual lawmakers by connecting them to his "failing" school list (a list that mirrors the one devised by Families For Excellent Schools, the hedge fund-backed pro-charter group, btw.)

He's pissing a lot of people off and he's got few friends to begin with - adding to his enemies list seems like a short-sighted strategy to me.

More and more Cuomo is coming to resemble Richard Nixon - nearly friendless, besieged on all sides, barricaded in his office and lashing out at everyone and everything.

It would be one thing if Cuomo was just taking on the teachers and the teachers union and cozying up to everybody else.

But that's not what he's doing.

He's made nice with a couple of private sector unions and of course he's very close with his hedge fundie/charter school friends, but other than that, can you think of any other groups that he isn't at war with?

I mean, can you think of another time when 15 different towns began pursuing a secession strategy for leaving New York and joining Pennsylvania?

No wonder Cuomo's going to Cuba.

They don't know him there yet.

Back here in New York, he may win some of these battles, so short-term, this strategy may work.

But there's four more years in his second term, barring something unforeseen, and I can't imagine things are going to get much better for him in the next couple of years after starting out the first year of the second term balls to the wall like this.

Tax Deadbeat Andrew Cuomo Vows To Go After Tax Deadbeats Like Himself

How's this for chutzpah?

Tax deadbeat Andrew Cuomo, the man who won't let the tax assessor into his house to assess the semi-homemade improvements Sandra Lee made to it that would raise his tax bill, is going to go after other tax deadbeats:

ALBANY— Tax scofflaws owing the state as little as $5,000 could have their driver’s licenses suspended if Gov. Cuomo gets his way.

Cuomo in 2013 successfully pushed a law to suspend the licenses of those owing the state at least $10,000 in back taxes.

Since going into effect, nearly 14,000 delinquent taxpayers have forked over more than $125 million to the state taxman to get their driving privileges reinstated, officials say.

Cuomo estimates that lowering the threshold to $5,000 would impact another 11,000 people and result in $9 million in new revenue and $3 million annually after that.

 “Those who fail to play by the same rules as everyone else place an undue burden on hardworking, law-abiding taxpayers,” he said. “These reforms send a simple message: either pay the taxes they owe, or face real consequences.”

Let's review the "Cuomo refuses to let the tax assessor into his house" story from last year:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed the controversy over whether he and his live-in girlfriend, Food Network star Sandra Lee, dodged property tax increases on their $1.2 million New Castle home for the first time Thursday but claimed not to know too much about the process.

The governor said he was unaware that New Castle assessor Phil Platz was barred last month from entering his 4 Bittersweet Lane home to determine the taxable value of its interior. He said he thought that exterior inspections were all that was necessary.

"I think that's how it works, isn't it?" Cuomo asked.

Platz paid a visit to the six-bedroom, five-bath home on three acres May 27 after a Tax Watch investigation found that Lee did extensive work there without building permits and without triggering any increase in the home's taxable value. Lee bought the house she calls Lily Pond for $1.2 million in 2008 but the assessed value had since dropped to $936,000. The renovations she undertook were widely reported in profiles of Lee in USA Today and Vogue, among other publications.

Platz followed up on the newspaper's reporting and increased the assessment by 29 percent, to $1.2 million, but had to guess what was inside the home because he was denied admittance.

Cuomo says he wants to go after “Those who fail to play by the same rules as everyone else" and send them a simple message: either pay taxes or face consequences.

Swell - he ought to start with himself and his girlfriend Sandra Lee.

A Birthday Gift For Andrew Cuomo From His Future Great Granddaughter

Matilda Sandra Lee Cuomo reflects on her great granddad's legacy, as a politician and great grandfather, on the occasion of his 57th birthday.  Matilda Sandra Lee Cuomo will be born in the year 2064 and currently resides in the ether of the universe.

On Dec. 6, my entire future family celebrated my future great granddad's 57th birthday together.  While I, alas, could not join them at the celebration, since I have not been born yet and won't actually exist until 2064, I was fortunate to celebrate my future great granddad's legacy here in the ether of the universe where all matter exists before it actually exists.

The admiration that the not-yet-born have for my future great gandfather, Andrew Cuomo, is so profound that it cannot be overstated. Just the other day as we were having our traditional Sunday sausage and meatballs with pasta dinner, many of my fellow yet unborns expressed their wonder at how Governor Cuomo (D) could have won re-election by an extraordinary 13 percentage points when so many other Democrats across the country went down to defeat this year.  I chalked up his historic victory to his common sense approach to governing that saw him champion legislation that included provisions to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons and potentially dangerous mental health patients, and ban high capacity magazines and assault weapons, yet still respect the first amendment rights of law-abiding citizens and law enforcement officers.  In addition, I said that my future great grandfather's promoting marriage equality for LGBT people both born and unborn shows the great humanity that exists in this man.  All of this comes on top of all the on-time budgets he has gotten the past four years after years and years of gridlock and paralysis in Albany. He truly is one of the greatest visionaries of both his time and any time and the voters of New York State have clearly demonstrated they know this by giving this Dem an historic victory in a year when most Democrats lost their elections.

But my future great granddad isn't just the most effective and best governor the State of New York has ever seen - he's also the best future great grandfather any unborn could ever have. Somehow he manages to handle each natural disaster that befalls New York, from seven feet of lake effect snow falling on Buffalo to flooding from the superstorms and hurricanes that come from a Global Warming my great granddad is wise enough to know is not human-caused, yet still deal with all the dramas his family members, both born and unborn, contend with.  His guardian angel, Clarence Percoco, says only an extraordinary man, a governor of historic gifts, could handle all of these challenges, while still remaining true to himself and his guiding principles.  Clarence Percoco also says if anybody doesn't believe that, he'll come around to have a discussion with said unbeliever and make sure they undergo a change of opinion.

In any case, I wanted to take this opportunity, 50 years before I'm actually born, to express my admiration and love for the man who is not only the best governor that New York State has ever had, he's also the best husband, father, uncle, future granddad and future great granddad that any family could have.  Happy birthday, great grandfather, and may you have many more so that both the Cuomo/Lee Family and the Family of New York can enjoy your wisdom, leadership and guidance for decades to come!

Cuomo Says He'll Go After Tax Cheats - He Should Start With Himself

From the Poughkeepsie Journal News:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office on Thursday announced it will seek legislation to let the state recoup millions in school tax breaks paid to high-income New Yorkers who did not qualify to receive them.

The announcement came five days after an investigation by The Journal News found an estimated $28 million in school property-tax subsidies since 2011 were granted to households ineligible to receive them because they earned more than $500,000 a year. And it came 10 weeks after the administration said it was the responsibility of local assessors to recover the state's ill-spent STAR tax dollars.

Assessors had roundly panned that plan.

"We'll be pursuing legislation to empower tax and finance officials to directly recover STAR benefits previously granted to ineligible property owners and to increase penalties for STAR fraud," said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.

Three candidates seeking to oust Cuomo — Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout and Green Party hopeful Howie Hawkins — last week had called on Cuomo to act.

"It's unfortunate that it took a newspaper expose to convince the governor to take action," said Astorino campaign spokesman Bill O'Reilly. "By doing nothing he was driving property taxes even higher for those least able to afford them. We are hopeful that the governor will have a real change of heart now and allow the tax assessor into his own home to determine how much he, himself, has been underpaying the Town of New Castle for the past four years."

O'Reilly was referring to another Journal News investigation in May, which found that extensive renovations had been done at Cuomo's $1.2 million home in 2008 and 2009 without building permits or an increase in its taxable value. In June, the New Castle assessor hiked the assessment by 29 percent but based that on an inspection of the outside of the house. Cuomo and his partner, Food Network star Sandra Lee, would not let the assessor inside.

Two things to say here.

First, is it a surprise that the Cuomo administration had to be shamed by public expose in a newspaper to collect taxes owed by people making more than $500,000?

Second, how hypocritical that Cuomo is going to go after these tax deadbeats while sparing himself and his consort, Sandra Lee, from paying the taxes they may rightfully owe on their Westchester home.

Alas, since Cuomo refuses to allow the tax assessors into his home to see what upgrades he and Sandra Lee made to it, we'll never know whether he owes those taxes or not.

Westchester Residents Demand Tax Deadbeat Governor Cuomo Submit To Tax Assessment

Tax deadbeat Governor Cuomo and his consort Sandra Lee have refused to let the tax assessor into their Westchester home in order to avoid a property tax increase.

That move is not playing well around Westchester - so fellow Westchester residents have decided to follow suit and refuse to let the assessor into their own properties:

Westchester County residents joined gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino outside New Castle Town Hall on Thursday, calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to open his home to the town assessor so he could better determine the taxable value of its interior.

New Castle Assessor Phil Platz was denied entrance to Cuomo's home on May 27 when he came for a scheduled inspection, which was sparked by The Journal News investigation of renovations done at 4 Bittersweet Lane since Cuomo's girlfriend, celebrity chef Sandra Lee, purchased it in 2008. The investigation found that the renovations, detailed in numerous national publications, were conducted in 2009 and 2010 without building permits, which would have alerted the assessor of taxable improvements.

The news conference followed the Astorino campaign's robo-call campaign to 1 million homes, accusing Cuomo of getting "caught cheating on his property taxes."

Yonkers homeowner Ralph Volino said he would refuse to let revaluation data collectors from Yonkers into his home until Cuomo opened his door to the New Castle assessor.
Yonkers is moving forward with a citywide revaluation, and data collection could begin later this year.

"I think Governor Cuomo is hiding something," Volino said. "If he's not opening his door, I'm not opening mine."

Yonkers Assessor David Jackson acknowledged that the decision by homeowners to bar data collectors will hurt efforts to obtain accurate assessments, which lead to a fairer property-tax system. Homeowners have the right, however, to deny access to assessors.

"We hope that resonates and those property owners appreciate that the foundation for attaining a fairer property tax in the City of Yonkers is accurate data," Jackson said.

The Cuomo campaign says this is all just about politics:

Cuomo campaign spokesman Peter Kauffmann dismissed the news conference as an Astorino political gambit.

"It's now totally clear what we said all along — this is Mr. Astorino's Republican small town politics and what every real Westchester homeowner is saying to Rob Astorino is stop playing politics and lower my taxes," Kauffmann said.

They don't seem to realize that Cuomo's refusal to let the tax assessor into his home is not going to play as "politics" and come back to bite GOP opponent Astorino.

Rather, it's the kind of thing that is going to build resentment against Cuomo - and not just for 2014.

He runs for president in 2016 or 2020, you can bet this tax deadbeat story will come back to haunt him.

How Crooked Are Andrew Cuomo And Sandra Lee?

From Fred Dicker at the NY Post:

State Republicans want to know if Gov. Cuomo’s live-in girlfriend, “Semi-Homemade’’ celebrity chef Sandra Lee, is subsidizing his living expenses with income from companies doing business with the state, a possible “gifts law’’ violation, The Post has learned.

Republicans — who recently accused Lee, owner of the $1.2 million, six-bedroom, Westchester home where the First Couple lives, and Cuomo of failing to pay their fair share of property taxes — are combing public records for the names of Lee’s clients to see if they’re doing business with the state or trying to influence state policy, sources said.

“License! Global,’’ a trade publication, reported in 2012, for instance, that Lee, a Food Network star, author of numerous cookbooks and a magazine publisher, had “teamed up” with TV Guide magazine for a new magazine with “high-profile corporate sponsors’’ such as Verizon and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s Web site shows that the companies together have hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with New York.

“Companies that hire Lee surely know she’s the governor’s girlfriend and that could be a factor in their decision to pay her,’’ said a GOP operative involved in the research.

Lee is also frequently paid to speak before food and other industry groups, although the names of the companies are generally not publicly disclosed.

Celebrity Talent, a booking agency, says online that Lee charges a minimum in the range of $25,000 to $50,000 for speeches.

She gets from $50,000 to $99,999 for speaking overseas, the agency says.

If Lee and Cuomo were married, Lee would be required to disclose details of her income to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), which would then check for possible conflicts of interest.

But JCOPE, in an April 2013 decision, held that Lee, despite her relationship with Cuomo, doesn’t have to make any disclosures.

“The governor should be disclosing how much if anything he is contributing to the household costs,’’ said Jessica Proud, a spokeswoman for GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino.

“If his household is benefitting from businesses that have business before the state, that should be disclosed by the governor, who said he was going to have the most transparent administration in history,’’ Proud continued.

Cuomo’s office repeatedly refused to provide any information on what, if any, cost-sharing arrangements the governor has with Lee.

Cuomo’s aides have said in the past that the governor kicks in for household costs including property taxes. But the governor’s publicly disclosed income-tax returns don’t show him making property-tax payments that could be tax-deductible.

Cuomo is paid $179,000 a year as governor and, according to a financial disclosure filed last month, will be paid $700,000 to $900,000 by HarperCollins for a forthcoming memoir.

If they dig, they will find something.

Let Us Count The Ways Andrew Cuomo Is A Despicable Human Being

Yeah, I know - technically this is Sandra Lee that was hit with a lawsuit for being a deadbeat, but don't forget who shares that home with her:

Food Network star Sandra Lee has made good on an $800 overdue bill from a Putnam company that removed snow from the roof of her $1.2 million home earlier this year, a court clerk said Tuesday.

Lee had been scheduled to appear in Town Court last Thursday after The Honey Do Men Gutters and Roofing Corp. of Mahopac sued her for $800 plus interest, claiming she paid only part of a $4,000 bill after company workers spent two hours clearing snow from her roof in February.

But the matter was settled prior to Thursday evening's court date, which was then canceled, the clerk said. The company's attorney, Francis J. O'Reilly, confirmed Lee paid.

A message left through the website of Lee, 47, seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Lee is known for her "semi-homemade" cooking method in which she primarily uses prepackaged products along with fresh products. She shares the New Castle home with her boyfriend, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo,

In the lawsuit filed in Town Court, the company claimed a representative of Lee, a woman named Irma Martinez, called them Feb. 20 to remove snow from the roof of Lee's home at 4 Bittersweet Lane.

Honey Do Men said it did $4,294 worth of work but that Lee only paid them $3,494 after they contacted her three times for payment.

Now if only Deadbeat Cuomo would let the town assessor into his home to do a proper assessment of improvements he and Sandra Lee had done to it:

Lee's home has been in the news in recent weeks after lohud.com Tax Watchdog David McKay Wilson reported that Lee had made many improvements to the property without town approval.

By improving the home without proper permits, Lee likely had avoided paying higher taxes because town officials had not been aware of any changes that could potentially increase its value, Wilson concluded.

In the wake of Wilson's reporting, a town assessor visited the house and came up with a tentative reassessment raising its value by 29 percent. The value was based on an exterior inspection of the home because the assessor was not allowed inside. Cuomo later told Wilson he was not aware the assessor was not allowed inside.

Can you imagine what the Cuomo campaign would be doing if his GOP challenger, Rob Astorino, were as big a deadbeat as Sheriff Andy Cuomo and Sandra Lee are?

Hell, Cuomo sent David Paterson out after Astorino yesterday to dredge up some political corruption Astorino's father was involved in over 20 years ago.

I noted the following in a comment on State of Politics:

Wait, so Paterson calls the girlfriend of his aide who's filed domestic abuse charges to get her to drop the charges against his aide, but he's bringing up a 20 year old criminal conviction of Astorino's father?
 
Seriously?

I'm a Democrat, been one since I could first vote, but I have to tell you, the criminality and sheer gall that comes out of the Democratic Party leadership in this state makes me sick.

David Paterson should be in jail for witness tampering.

Had there been a real attorney general at the time and not Quid Pro Cuomo in that office, maybe there would have been a real investigation into Paterson.

Hey, you know what? Maybe you folks at State of Politics can ask Paterson where he gets the nerve to let these statements go out with his name attached after he barely got out of Albany without a perp walk?

There's just so much to despise about Andrew Cuomo and his consorts, both political and otherwise.

Sleazy, nasty, criminal deadbeats.

That's Cuomo and Company.

And yeah, I'm including Sandra Lee in that mix.

Cuomo: I Am Not A Tax Deadbeat

From Politics on the Hudson:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today he didn’t know that an assessor wasn’t allowed into the Westchester County home he shares with TV cooking star Sandra Lee.

“I don’t know how the town system works itself,” Cuomo told reporters this afternoon in Peekskill, Westchester County. “But generally the way it works is the town does an assessment, the homeowner then reviews the assessment, if the homeowner wants to question the assessment, they do, and that situation would apply here.”

Republican gubernatorial foe Rob Astorino today accused Cuomo of potential tax evasion after the Journal News reported yesterday Lee’s property taxes on their New Castle, Westchester County, are set to jump by 29 percent after the assessor increased the value of the Bittersweet Lane home from $936,000 to $1.2 million.

The re-assessment came after The Journal News reported Lee, the owner of the home, didn’t obtain building permits for renovations inside the home, which were detailed in USA Today and other outlets.

The Journal News reported that the assessor wasn’t allowed in the house to do a full accounting of the upgrades to determine the home’s value.

Cuomo said he was unaware that the assessor wasn’t allowed in.

“I don’t know that the assessor wasn’t allowed in,” Cuomo said. “I think that’s how it works, isn’t it?”

He later added that,”In terms of local rules, I’m not all that familiar with it.”

As for Astorino’s criticism, Cuomo said “I have no response.”

Cuomo was asked what’s in the home’s basement because it is believed to have been remodeled, but apparently is not on the assessment records.

“Last time I was there, nothing,” Cuomo responded.

Can you imagine what Cuomo would say to the media if one of his political enemies were pulling the same jive about tax assessments?

If I'm Astorino, I keep going at Cuomo over this, calling him a tax deadbeat, reminding voters that if they pulled the same jive Cuomo and his consort Sandra Lee pulled, they'd be in big trouble.

One set of rules for the rich and powerful in this state.

Another set of rules for everybody else.

And that's how Andrew Cuomo and Sandra Lee like it.

That would be the ad I ran over and over on Cuomo, tying it to Moreland, tying it to his campaign finance hypocrisy, tying it to all the other shady stuff Andy has done as governor.

You bet that would ring a bell for a lot of people out there.

Cuomo Will Win Working Families Party Ballot Line

WFP/Cuomo summary: Cuomo gets line, will do a video rather than show up, de Blasio coming to speak soon, Teachout won't rule out Dem primary
— Blake Zeff (@blakezeff) June 1, 2014

Heard earlier from Kos that  

Cuomo having to kiss Bill de Blasio's butt in public, along that of the WFP. That base humiliation alone might be worth the price of admission.

Not much base humiliation in recording a video in his backyard and having it replayed at the WFP convention.

Of course Andy couldn't make it because Sandra Lee had just made dinner and I dunno if you've had her baked macaroni and cheese, the kind with the breadcrumbs on top, but it is just delicious and Andy didn't want to run up to Albany and miss all that yummy yummy dinner...

What a joke the Working Families Party is.

Should rename the party Whitney Tilson's Family's Party.

Take A Tour Of Sandra Lee's House With Jenna Bush

Tried embedding the code, for some reason, doesn't want to embed right, but here's a must watch video with Jenna Bush taking us on a Christmas tour of the house Sandra Lee and Governor Andrew Cuomo share together.

Do not watch on a full stomach - it's that nauseating.

Just gives you some context for the "Sheriff Andy and Sandra Lee didn't get building permits so they could stiff the tax man" story we learned about earlier - a story dangerous enough to Sheriff Andy that he had his secretary, Larry Schwartz, respond to inquiries to Sandra Lee at the Food Network over it himself.

Is it just me or are the Cuomo scandals starting to mount?

Why Is Cuomo Henchman Larry Schwartz Defending Sandra Lee Over Charges Of Building Permit-Fudging?

LoHud reported this morning that Andy Cuomo's partner, Sandra Lee, has had extensive work done to her house but failed to get the needed permits - and thus property value reassessments - needed for that work:

Lee enjoys what might be considered a more unattainable lifestyle at the six-bedroom, $1.2 million house she shares with Cuomo at 4 Bittersweet Lane. She has done much in the past six years to improve the three-acre property she calls Lily Pond, but along the way, has run afoul of town Building Inspector Bill Maskiell.

Maskiell said he had to hound her for six months in 2012 to obtain a building permit for a gazebo and shed she'd installed. Now he says Lee needs permits for interior renovations conducted over the past several years and much touted in the press.

 Without a building permit, the town assessor hasn't reviewed the work to decide whether the improvements would merit an assessment hike, and higher taxes. The 2013 tax bill for Lee and Cuomo — who has made taming New York's notoriously high property taxes a cornerstone of his administration — was $28,312.

...

 Keeping one's assessment from rising — or getting it reduced — is all part of suburban living in high-tax Westchester, and there are plenty of homeowners who do work to their homes without a permit. It's also a county where most municipalities have not revalued their real estate for decades, leaving thousands of homeowners with houses assessed and taxed at less than what they are worth. Absent building permits, the main purpose of which is to ensure safe construction, assessors have nothing to flag when work is done so they can decide whether it's increased a home's taxable value.

Much of the work Lee has had done to the property has come sans permit - and thus sans tax reassessment.

LoHud emailed Lee at the Food Network to get her response to the story and guess who replied?

An email message to Lee at the Food Network was answered by Larry Schwartz, Cuomo's secretary in Albany. He said any work performed at the Lee-Cuomo residence as noted in the USA Today article was "all decorative renovations and they don't require building permits. ... It was retiling, painting, wallpapering. It's like her line of work — decorative. I'm not aware of any rooms that were combined."

And what of the basement remodeling noted in the New York magazine article?

"Again, the key word is decorative," Schwartz wrote in an email. "Window treatments."

Couple of things to say here:

First, why is Larry Schwartz responding to an email to Lee at her Food Network account?

Schwartz works for the governor's office and is paid by taxpayer money.

Was Schwartz's defense of Sandra Lee's basement work the business of the people of State of New York?

Doubtful to me - it was simply doing the political business of Andy Cuomo to defend him and his partner Sandra Lee over what could become a campaign issue.

Which brings me to my second point:

I bet LoHud got tipped off to this Sandra Lee/permit story by Rob Astorino, Cuomo's GOP opponent:

Another public official, whose home improvements did not result in assessment hikes but did get a permit, is Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Cuomo in November's governor's race.

In 2011, Astorino obtained a building permit for $10,000 worth of work to his already-finished basement at 281 Pythian Ave. in Hawthorne. A drop ceiling was installed, along with a half-bathroom. The four-bedroom house has two baths, 1,518 square feet of living space and sits on a quarter-acre lot.

The property, assessed at $606,000, was purchased by Astorino for $705,000 in 2004. Town Assessor James Timmings said the assessment was raised significantly under the home's previous owner.

"Assessment is all about equality," he said. "Whenever a project is done, we review it, based on its contributory value."

Astorino said he obtained the building permits to make sure there were no repercussions.

"I wanted to make sure everything came out right," he said. "A problem with the project was the last thing I needed."

Just another example of how politically savvy Astorino is, managing to have his "i's" dotted and "t's" crossed for the permit story while Cuomo has to have his henchmen Larry Schwartz create some ruse about the much-covered improvements to the Lee home being nothing more than "decorative."

Sorry, Sandra, When You Date The Governor And You Get Involved In Politics, You Can't Duck

Sandra Lee was holding the "world's largest bake sale" at Grand Central Station to raise money for food banks to feed hungry people.

Her boyfriend, Little Andy Cuomo, has just gotten a budget deal that slashes aid to food banks and cuts services for old people and children.

Sandra was asked how she felt about that, but she would have none of it

She stonewalled:

Sandra Lee, the Food Network personality and best-selling author, was surrounded by butter-cream-frosted cupcakes and mini pecan pies, poised to kick off what she was billing as “the world’s largest bake sale” to raise $50,000 for the Food Bank for New York City.

Ms. Lee certainly proved a passionate advocate for ending childhood hunger, able to attract 30 New York restaurants and food shops to Vanderbilt Hall inside Grand Central Terminal on Tuesday morning, and rattle off facts and figures — “Every dollar that’s raised can turn into four dollars of food at the food bank,” she said.

But she became much less vocal when asked about the effect Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s new budget would have on food banks throughout the state. Ms. Lee is the longtime companion of Mr. Cuomo, and food banks and advocacy groups have asked the governor to increase state financing for hunger programs.

So far, they have been unsuccessful. Mr. Cuomo’s budget, which must be approved by the Legislature before Friday, provides $29.7 million in state funding for hunger programs, the same amount as last year. Officials at food banks say that allocation would effectively be a cut, given that demand is increasing and wholesale food prices have risen sharply over the past year.

“I am not here to talk about the governor’s budget,” Ms. Lee said, smiling, as she cut off a reporter’s question about the budget. “Thank you.”

But what about how Mr. Cuomo’s budget will affect food banks specifically?

“I am not here to talk about politics, but thank you for asking,” she replied, as polite as ever.

The food banks, however, have been far less reticent. The Hunger Action Network of New York State, an advocacy group, distributed thousands of postcards for people to send to Mr. Cuomo and legislative leaders asking them to increase funding for hunger programs.

“We had a lot of hope for him as governor, and he seems blind to the fact that we’re in a recession,” the group’s executive director, Mark Dunlea, said. “The demand at food pantries has skyrocketed, and he hasn’t really responded to that.”

The Cuomo administration did not immediately respond to the complaints about the financing.

...

Pressed one more time by a reporter, Ms. Lee wanted nothing of the issue.

“I’m not here to talk about politics,” she said, turning on the charm her fans have come to love. “But if you want a great recipe for cream cheese icing, I’ve got that for you.”

You can shove the cream cheese recipe up your ass, Sandra.

When you get involved in raising money for food banks in such a public way even as your consort HAMMERS poor people and old people around the state with his budget cuts and lowers taxes on millionaires at the same time, you've got to answer the questions about the budget.

And if you don't, well, then we're justified in telling you to your face that you are full of shit and you can keep your cupcake recipes...and your boyfriend.

Sandra Lee - today's worst Food Network personality.

And given the shit Ina Garten is in for refusing to meet with a child dying of cancer to cook one last meal, that's saying something.