John Flanagan Rakes In $150K In Outside Income Despite Claims To The Contrary

Go get him, Preet:

ALBANY — Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan earned up to $150,000 last year from a Long Island law firm despite claims that he was giving up his outside legal work, according to documents made public Tuesday.

Flanagan's 2015 financial disclosure statement showed that he earned between $100,000 and $150,000 from Forchelli, Curto, Deegan, Schwartz, Mineo & Terrana in Uniondale — the same amount he reported earning in 2014.

After he became majority leader in May of 2015, Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) told reporters that he’d stopped working for the firm to fully concentrate on his legislative job.

Flanagan spokesman Scott Reif insisted that Flanagan has not done any “active legal work” since becoming majority leader.

Must be nice to do "no active work" and still make an extra $150K a year.

According to the DN, Flanagan's disclosure claimed:

that he did not provide “direct services” to clients in 2015. Instead he provided “indirect services to the law firm in the areas of corporate trusts, tax certiorari, wills and estate, land use and planning.”

I bet if somebody with subpoena power were so inclined, he/she could look to see just how much "indirect service" Flanagan provided for the $150K.

John Flanagan Is Nothing But Cuomo's Flunky

Fred Dicker in the NY Post:

As the 2016 session of the Legislature wrapped up last week and came to a typically ugly end in the wee hours Saturday morning — with bleary-eyed lawmakers forced to vote on measures they didn’t even have time to read — The Post asked several lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists to assess the first full year’s performance of Democrat Heastie, a key ally of Mayor de Blasio, and Flanagan, the most powerful Republican in the state.

...

“It’s clear that Carl lacks Shelly Silver’s strengths — keen intelligence and tough negotiating skills — while possessing his own weaknesses of indecision and a lack of clear strategy,’’ said the influential lobbyist.

“While Carl took on [Gov.] Cuomo on behalf of the mayor, he wasn’t very effective in doing so because he’s basically afraid of the governor, and hence you wound up with just that one-year extension [of mayoral control of the city schools],’’ the lobbyist continued.

As for Flanagan, “It’s clear that to an embarrassing degree Flanagan is Cuomo’s flunky, his most loyal ally in the Legislature, a guy who will abandon the supposed fundamental positions of his own Republican Party in order to hold on to power,’’ said the lobbyist, a Democrat who has worked with both leaders.

Nothing to add here except this:

As corrupt as he was, when Silver was taken out, the only check to Cuomo's power was removed from Albany.

Now the governor essentially gets whatever he wants and makes sure that what he doesn't want - like real ethics reform - doesn't happen.

About the only possible check on Cuomo's power resides in the Southern District of New York, but it remains to be seen if and when that power will act to take down Cuomo.

New York Legislature Creates "Parallel System Of Charter Schools" In New York City

In the middle of the night, John Flanagan shoved through an extension of mayoral control of NYC schools that essentially frees charter schools from having to follow any rules:

ALBANY — State lawmakers on Friday reached a long-awaited deal to conclude the 2016 legislative session that included a modest ethics package, state funding for supportive housing for the homeless, and a one-year extension — with major caveats — of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s control of New York City schools.

...

Bowing to demands from the State Senate majority leader, John J. Flanagan, a Republican who is not disposed to be helpful to a mayor who has openly worked to flip control of the chamber to the Democrats, the mayor and his allies in the Democrat-dominated Assembly agreed to disclose more information about city school districts’ spending and to accept a change to the oversight structure for more than half the city’s charter schools.

A one-year extension, with few or no caveats, had seemed all but cemented when lawmakers went to bed on Thursday evening. But the morning found Mr. Flanagan pushing for the funding transparency requirement, followed by the charter-school provision in the afternoon. It would effectively create a parallel system of charter schools within the city, allowing “high-performing charter schools in good standing” to switch to join the State University of New York umbrella or the Board of Regents of the State Educational Department.

More - italics mine:

There was concern within City Hall that the charter school provision would significantly change how such schools in the city run.

Charter schools can be authorized by three agencies — the State Education Department, the city’s Education Department and SUNY — but all operate according to the same state law. Although the announcement of the agreement did not offer details, the Senate’s proposal would exempt SUNY schools from the usual state standards and free to set their own rules, two officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations said.

There are 111 charters authorized by SUNY in the city. Another 55 are authorized by the city’s Education Department, and 39 by the state department.

Going to repeat the italicized part from above:

Although the announcement of the agreement did not offer details, the Senate’s proposal would exempt SUNY schools from the usual state standards and free to set their own rules, two officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations said.

Wheee - let's all switch to charter-friendly SUNY, where we can set our own rules and be free from the usual state standards!!!

Quite a midnight passage.

Flanagan Suggests De Blasio Should Lose Mayoral Control Of The School System

From the NY Times:

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s prospects of getting the Legislature to renew his control of New York City’s schools were thrown into doubt on Thursday, when the leader of the State Senate issued a statement harshly criticizing Mr. de Blasio’s performance at a hearing on the issue.

“Too often, the mayor showed a disturbing lack of personal knowledge about the city schools,” the Senate majority leader, John J. Flanagan, a Long Island Republican, said in a statement. “In addition, he has left too many unanswered questions and failed to provide specifics on many of the issues raised by my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.”

“Until that occurs,” Mr. Flanagan added, “I will not entrust this mayor with the awesome responsibility of operating the New York City school system.”

According to the Times, de Blasio was asked a question about our back pay which he did not have a ready answer for.

That, along with the political animus state Senate Republicans have for de Blasio, may be the underlying rationale for the letter from Flanagan yesterday, which the Times described as a "sneak attack" since there were few fireworks at the hearing in Albany between de Blasio and state Senate Republicans.

In any case, before you get excited thinking de Blasio will lose mayoral control of schools and Farina's going to be shown the door the way she has her administrators showing the door to veteran teachers, understand that John Flanagan takes a lot of money from the ed deform lobby, including StudentsFirstNY.

Whatever scheme Flanagan and Cuomo cook up to replace mayoral control (or even tweak it), it will not be to our benefit but rather be some kind of change that benefits the charter school sector and Eva Moskowitz in particular.

John Flanagan "Advisor" Caught Signaling To Witness In Dean Skelos Trial

Nice:

A top-level state Senate staffer scurried out of the corruption trial of former Majority Leader Dean Skelos on Monday after being accused of coaching a witness on the stand.

Welquis “Ray” Lopez, 61, was summoned to the bench during a break in the proceedings and threatened with ejection by Manhattan federal Judge Kimba Wood.

“You’ve been nodding your head up and down and back and forth in what looks like a signal to the witness,” Wood said during testimony by a former Long Island politician who admitted serving as the bagman for an alleged payoff of Skelos’ son and co-defendant, Adam.

“If you nod your head one more time, I’m going to have court security escort you out of the courtroom.”

Sources described the former Rockville Center Republican chairman as “very close” to Skelos (R-LI), who gave him a $140,000-a-year “special adviser” job in 2011.

Despite Skelos’ resignation following his May arrest, Lopez remains on the state payroll as a $162,750-a-year adviser to interim Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-LI).

The last five state senate majority leaders have been indicted and several are already in jail - looks like John Flanagan, with these kind of shenanigans, wants to be the next.

Cuomo Puppet John Flanagan Is Confident Districts Will Have APPR Evaluation Plans In Place In Next Month

Rumor has it that Andrew Cuomo has his hand up John Flanagan's shirt and is controlling his mouth and his words - sure sounds that way from this nonsense:

Flanagan, meanwhile, said he was concerned with local school districts enacting new teacher evaluation measures in time for the November deadline, but remained confident they would be put in place.

“I think anyone who has been involved in this process and has chaired the committee, of course I have concerns,” he said. “I’m confident that state ed and the Regents will find a way to receive these applications, that they review them in a timely fashion and ultimately we come up with a series of plans that will pass muster.”

School districts must approve the latest evaluations next month or miss out on a boost in state aid. The Board of Regents is allowing districts that demonstrate a hardship to extend the deadline.

Keshia Clukey at Politico NY reported the following back on October 5:

ALBANY — The vast majority of school districts and teachers' unions seem to be having difficulty coming to an agreement on a new teacher evaluation system supported by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

As of the end of last week, only 12 plans had been approved, with another 47 submitted for review, according to the state education department. There are 674 districts statewide.

The new evaluation system was put into place last session. It puts more emphasis on students' state test scores, and has been met with criticism, including from the state Board of Regents, which put in place a waiver system to delay the implementation.

The districts have until Nov. 15 to have their plans in and approved by the state or risk losing state aid. Those that believe they can't meet the deadline can instead apply for a waiver, which can extend the deadline up to September 2016.

So as of nine days ago, only 12 plans had been approved, 47 others had been submitted and were awaiting review, and 615 plans had yet to be submitted.

Gee, if I were John Flanagan, I wouldn't be so "confident" that that NYSED, the Board of Regents and the 600+ districts without evaluation plans will "come up with a series of plans that will pass muster."

But you know, that's me.

I'm not a guy who's words and actions are rumored to be almost wholly controlled by Andrew Cuomo.

John Flanagan Admits State Intervention In School Districts Doesn't Go So Well

State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan over the East Ramapo monitor:

As the state Education Department moves to oversee the East Ramapo school district, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan on Tuesday urged caution in taking away local control of the district.

“When we move in any way shape or form to usurp local control, we have to be extraordinarily judicious,” Flanagan said. “I’m not suggesting for a moment there aren’t extraordinarily acute issues on that district, because there are.”

He added: “It’s important to recognize that in the state of New York where we’ve directly intervened in school districts, our track record isn’t very good.”

That's an interesting admission since the state is set to take over 144 schools in the next year or two if they don't "improve."

Flanagan's sending a message to Dennis Walcott and his East Ramapo monitoring team to not upset the Hasidic men who sit on the school board for the school district that serves a largely black and Latino population of students.

And I get the politics of that - the Hasidic community knows how to use political donations to make sure that politicians take care of them.

Witness the Kiryas Joel/Cuomo relationship.

Nonetheless, Fanagan has unwittingly also admitted that state ought to be careful in how it administers the school receivership program pushed by the governor and approved by the state Senate and Assembly in the last budget.

There it is, in plain language from John Flanagan, former head of the education committee in the state Senate, current state Senate Majority Leader (at least until he's indicted like the last five):

“It’s important to recognize that in the state of New York where we’ve directly intervened in school districts, our track record isn’t very good.”

Carl Heastie Acknowledges Even A "Super Teacher" Can't Break The Ravages Of Poverty, Mental Illness, Outside Issues

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie suggested to the Times-Union that success in school may be a little more complex than "It's the teacher's fault!":

In a wide-ranging interview with the Times Union editorial board on Monday, Heastie said it's high time lawmakers and others looked at students' lives inside and outside the classroom when it comes to addressing education.

"I really think that we shouldn't be looking at education alone anymore or mental health alone anymore or poverty alone anymore. I think that we have to look at the total family structure and see why it is that students are going into school not prepared for these challenges," the speaker said. "And I think a lot of it has to do with what's going on at home and their neighborhoods. Even super teacher may not be able to get through to a student whose life outside of school has issues."

...

"It's anti-poverty legislation, mental health, social services, minimum wage, all of these things that can change the outcome and plights of families," he said.

Heastie's allied with the teachers unions, so it's not a surprise that what he said to the Times-Union sounds like it could have been said by Randi Weingarten or Michael Mulgrew as they pushed for community schools that offer social and health services to students.

Nonetheless it is good to have one of the three men in the room state this publicly, though you can bet the other two men in the room (Cuomo, Flanagan) won't acknowledge any such thing.

Not that Heavy Heart Carl will do anything about it - last legislative session was heavy on the "Blame The Teachers/Blame The Schools" items, with standardized tests now counting for 50% of a teacher's evaluation, tenure gutted by two consecutive "ineffective" ratings, and the state getting receivership powers over "struggling" and "persistently struggling" schools.

The governor and his education reform donor pals wanted that legislative and that's exactly what they got it.

The only thing Heastie and his Assembly Heavy Hearts held on were Cuomo's beloved school voucher program that would have allowed him to steal even more money from public schools and give it to private schools.

As it is, Cuomo still managed to steer hundreds of millions of extra dollars the way of the private school sector and of course none of the new "accountability measures" for public schools count for charters.

So what Heastie says about taking a holistic approach to education, that's nice to hear, but in reality, it will have no bearing on our teaching or students' learning.

This coming school year will be another "Blame The Teachers/Blame The Schools" year thanks to Governor Cuomo, State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Heavy Heart Heastie.

Cuomo Plays Games With SAFE Act

From Rich Karlin at Capitol Confidential:

It was initially touted as a key component of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s SAFE Act gun control law, but a statewide ammunition registry, which was supposed to begin in January 2014 has never been triggered and is being laid aside, according to an agreement announced late Friday between the Republican-led Senate majority and the Administration.

...

Shelving of the data base was memorialized through a memorandum signed by GOP Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Jim Malatras, Cuomo’s state operations director.

Timing of news about the deal was notable — just before 5 p.m. on a July Friday.

Ah, yes, sending out news of the MOU at 5 PM on a July Friday - must be something Cuomo is quite proud of.

Cuomo Watch had some analysis on twitter last night:

@TomPreciousALB Yes we do. Because the MOU did nothing. It was an illusion to help GOP senators facing primary threats.

— Jake Palmateer (@Tahawus506) July 10, 2015

Cuomo spox @RichAzzopardi: “No provision of the SAFE Act -- including the ban on Internet ammunition sales has been rolled back or altered"

— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 10, 2015

Updated X2: @RichAzzopardi says SAFE Act isn't being rolled back. @billnojay doubts impact http://t.co/fPiXskNFoe

— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 10, 2015

ASTOUNDING: Cuomo & Flanagan-State Senate agree to block parts of SAFE Act that can't be blocked b/c they don't exist http://t.co/hiobPd1Ue9

— Cuomo Watch (@CuomoWatch) July 11, 2015

Radio listener:"Cuomo just agreed not to enforce an unenforceable section of the 'Safe Act' to help the Senate GOP in the 2016 elections.''

— Fredric U. Dicker (@fud31) July 10, 2015

There you have it - an unenforceable part of a paper law rolled back as a political ploy to help some of Cuomo's Republican allies in the state Senate.

Flanagan Echoes Cuomo, Says De Blasio Must Show Improvement In City Schools To Maintain Control

This sets up an interesting fight next year when mayoral control comes up for renewal:

Flanagan also previewed what kind of changes Senate Republicans may make to mayoral control next year, when the program comes up for renewal again.

“I say this time and time again, I'm going to be guided by Senators [Andrew] Lanza, [Marty] Golden, and [Simcha] Felder in particular,” he said, referring to the three members of his conference who represent districts in New York City.

And he also reaffirmed a statement Cuomo made Tuesday about mayoral control, suggesting that if de Blasio wants continued authority over the city’s school system, he must demonstrate that the schools are doing well under his stewardship.

“I think the administration has to demonstrate what actions they are taking. What’s been the byproduct of that? Has it worked? Is it not working?” he said.

“The mayor wants control, or permanent mayoral control. He originally, when he was on the [New York City] Council, opposed mayoral control. So I’d love to have a discussion about that. What was the transactional nature of that?”

Flanagan, as usual, sticks a lie into his statements - de Blasio never opposed mayoral control of schools when Bloomberg had it, he simply was critical of the way Bloomberg ran the system.

So right off the bat, we have Flanagan setting up a political battle between de Blasio and Senate Republicans and Cuomo over mayoral control of NYC schools next year that's framed with some dishonesty.

Then we have this part about the “the administration has to demonstrate what actions they are taking. What’s been the byproduct of that? Has it worked? Is it not working?"

It will be interesting to see just how they try and quantify that.

None of this is about actually policy differences or making public education work better for students, btw.

This is simply a political battle between Cuomo and his state Senate Republican allies and de Blasio, with Cuomo and the GOP looking to humiliate de Blasio as much as possible to extract revenge for the actions he took to try and help Democrats win the state Senate outright in 2014 and warn him about any actions he might try and take in 2016.

A commenter here at Perdido Street School explain this battle a but further:

The Senate GOP conference is already sweating about the November 2016 elections, when a far different electorate is expected to show up at the polls compared to last November's off-year elections.

The one year extension is meant to send a message to deBlasio that he has to stay out of the state Senate elections or face the consequences all over again.

DeBlasio needs to be very involved and let the mayoral control chips fall where they may. The WFP should not endorse any of the traitor Dems led by Jeff Klein and NYSUT needs to hire professional political operatives to strategically target weak GOP senators for defeat.

Andrew Pallotta is a dope and has wasted tens of millions in VOTE COPE contributions. Make the money count. Bring in a pro and eliminate Flanagan's majority.

That's what this battle is about, but the consequences of that battle are going to play on the public education system in NYC.

Don't be surprised if a "Metric For Student and/or School Success" doesn't show up in the near future that allows Cuomo and state Senate Republicans an excuse to further humiliate de Blasio in the mayoral control battle, snip away at his mayoral control and make him come, hat in hand, to Albany as a supplicant.

And don't be surprised if all of that doesn't go away in 2017 if and when de Blasio is dispatched by some ed reformer ally like Hakeem Jeffries or some ed reformer herself like Eva Moskowitz.

De Blasio's Office Calls John Flanagan Out For His Bullshit

Man, I am so sick of state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan already.

Politicians by nature are full of shit but Flanagan is fuller than most:

After Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan accused Mayor Bill de Blasio of not lobbying forcefully enough on extending mayoral control of city schools, de Blasio’s team says that wasn’t the case.

Instead, it was Flanagan who failed to return personal calls made by de Blasio on the issue.

“The mayor and his team conducted a great deal of outreach with Senator Flanagan, his team, and Senators in his conference, especially those from New York City, throughout the legislative process,” said spokeswoman Karen Hinton. “At a certain point Senator Flanagan simply stopped returning the mayor’s personal calls. The mayor also repeatedly offered to attend a hearing in Albany and testify on the merits of mayoral control. The mayor always welcomes the opportunity to remind individuals of the broad, bipartisan support mayoral control has historically enjoyed in New York City, as well as its proven track record of success.”

Good for de Blasio having Hinton call Flanagan out for this bullshit.

Flangan and Cuomo tag-teamed up on de Blasio, which is fine - that's how it goes in politics.

But Flanagan doesn't get to act all sanctimonious about the tag team match.

Clearly neither Flanagan nor Cuomo wanted de Blasio to get more than a year extension of mayoral control of schools in NYC - this despite pretty broad support from the business leaders who send an awful lot of money both Flanagan's and Cuomo's way.

Flanagan and Cuomo wanted to stick it to de Blasio, humiliate him with the one year extension, and force him to come hat in hand next year when the extension is up.

That's why Flanagan stopped returning de Blasio's calls.

That's cool - but it's also cool for de Blasio's office to call bullshit on Flanagan.

Common Core Test Question Release Stipulation Allows NYSED To Hide True Quality Of Tests

Buried in Jessica Bakeman's Capital NY piece about how swell new state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan is on education issues is this:

ALBANY—The first major piece of legislation approved under new Senate majority leader John Flanagan included funding for an obscure state Education Department priority and nuanced changes to policy regarding state-administered standardized testing.

...

For example, while the bill requires the education department to release more questions from state exams, the language doesn’t specify a certain percentage of questions that must be made public. Rather, addressing officials’ arguments that releasing too many questions would threaten the validity of future tests, the bill requires the department to release “a significant amount of questions.” The bill says, “The commissioner may limit the number of questions and answers released only to the extent necessary to avoid hindering or impairing the validity and/or reliability of future examinations.”

“It strikes me as careful, and that suggests an attention to not creating problems,” Lowry said, referring to the language. “He has been very engaged with these issues, and the broad benefit is just having a grasp of how schools work and how state education policies affect schools and potential problems that arise with changing state policies.”

So instead of requiring a specific number of percentage of questions be released, Flanagan gave NYSED the leeway to release “a significant amount of questions."

NYSED is given the power to release as many - or more likely, as few - test questions as they want.

The way to show the quality (or rather, lack thereof) is to release the whole tests so that the public can see exactly what timed duress children are up against with these tests.

But Flanagan and the Legislature didn't come through with enough money to do that and they've given NYSED enough cover to release just enough to make the tests look good without releasing enough to give the public a true understanding of how badly designed and unfair these tests are.

In short, the part of the omnibus bill that requires NYSED to release more questions from state exams is bullshit, devised to make it look like the state education apparatus is open about the Endless Testing regime when they are anything but.

You can bet the hacks at SED do not want enough money to be able to release the Common Core tests in their entirety but rather want to be able to release just eough of the tests to make themselves and the tests look good.

They do not want the curtain drawn back on the Endless Testing regime any more than the test companies who develop these garbage tests do.

John Flanagan, through political manipulation, enabled NYSED to continue to avoid scrutiny and accountability for these tests.

Few Details On Common Core Test Transparency For Parents, Teachers

The Buffalo News on one of the items in the still-not-written "framework" between Cuomo, Heastie and Flanagan agreeing on end-of-the-session business:

Details also were fuzzy about a tentative agreement calling for more transparency for teachers and parents about state tests based on the Common Core Learning Standards. Flanagan said more information on the tests will be provided to teachers and parents.

Fuzzy details on transparency.

That's Cuomo's governing style in a nutshell.

Want to see the details?

You'll have to wait until after it's law.

Cuomo transparency.

Charter Cap Raised, Education Tax Credit Not In Legislative Agreement

State of Politics reports that Cuomo and the leaders of the respective houses in the legislature have a framework agreement "in concept" that extends rent control and the property tax cap for four years while it extends mayoral control of NYC schools for just one year.

In addition, there is this:

The cap on charter schools will be raised by 50 in the city and 130 elsewhere in the state.

And this:

The education tax credit — which was being pushed by private and parochial school backers, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan — was not agreed to, either. Instead, lawmakers and Cuomo announced a $250 million reimbursement program for mandated services at private and parochial schools.

More as we get it.

Cuomo Looking To Make It Easier For Charters To Reject Or Kick Out Students?

From Zack Fink, writing at State of Politics, over the end-of-session logjam between Governor Cuomo, the Assembly and the state Senate:

The Governor and Flanagan also want to make it even easier for charter schools to reject, and even kick out, students who don’t do well academically and might tarnish the pretty statistics charter schools often paint to suggest they present a much better alternative to traditional public schools.

But I thought the miracle workers at the charter schools had so much to teach the "failing" public schools about student "success."

If the governor and the senate majority leader want to make it easier for charters to reject or kick out students who don't do well academically, then it seems all the "success-meisters" at the charters have to teach us in public schools is that the key to success is attrition and a gatekeeping admissions policy.

Anybody else out there hearing that Cuomo and Flanagan want to give charters more freedom to dump or keep out students they don't want?

Carl Heastie: Senate Republicans Love Charters - Just Not In Their Own Districts

State of Politics:

Heastie on Friday reiterated the Assembly’s reticence to support lifting the cap on charter schools, which Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan has linked to an extension of mayoral control in New York City.

“For the most part, the Assembly conference are not big supporters of charter schools,” Heastie said. “Charters are something Senate Republicans like to support. They never want them in their district.”

Indeed, John Flanagan loves charters - and charter school money.


How many charter schools are there on Long Island, where Flanagan is from?

Just five.

Flanagan and his fellow Senate Republicans from Long Island sure do love their charters - just not in their own districts.

John Flanagan Introduces Bill To Raise Charter Cap

From State of Politics:

Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan has introduced a stand-alone bill designed to raise the charter cap by 100 and remove geographic distinctions between the statewide and citywide limit for those schools.

The bill would allow potential charter schools to choose which entity authorizes them: Either the Board of Regents or the State University of New York.

Flanagan’s measure would allow charters to re-enter the “pool” of available charters should a school close.

Based on the number of schools that have closed or are closing, one analysis shows 184 new charter schools could be authorized by the bill.

No match for the bill in the Assembly, but given the great linkage of bills that is expected soon, with rent regulation, the education tax credit, the 421-a, et al. all possibly thrown into one mish-mosh and passed, it's pretty conceivable the charter cap will see an increase as part of the mish-mosh too.

We're told Assembly Dems are still resisting the tax credit, but I don't put too much hope in the heavy hearts to hold the line any more.

As for the charter cap, I have even less hope they'll hold the line on that.

But we'll see.

John Flanagan Double Dips On Car Reimbursements

From Newsday, via Albany Project:

The campaign committees of at least 12 Republican senators statewide, including four from Long Island, pay to lease or purchase automobiles for the legislators while the senators collect state mileage reimbursement under a legally murky practice.

This nexus of campaign-paid vehicles and taxpayer-paid travel reimbursements for trips to and from Albany for legislative work has prompted an investigation within Nassau County by the acting district attorney and drawn criticism from good-government groups and a state corruption commission.

The practice appears largely confined to the State Senate’s Republican majority. State records didn’t show similar spending by Senate Democrats, and Assembly members aren’t allowed to collect reimbursement for vehicles funded by their campaigns.

Flanagan hits taxpayers up for $584 a month .

Albany Project puts it into persepctive for us:

Your campaign buys or leases a car for you. As we learned yesterday’s analysis Carl Heastie’s super shady campaign spending, you can have the campaign pay for all maintenance on that vehicle. Then you can bill taxpayers $.56 per mile for driving it.

Not bad if you're looking to stick it to taxpayers.

Flanagan doesn't seem to be doing anything specifically illegal here but it certainly feels less than ethical.

To be fair, as the NY Times report showed on Heastie, the Assembly Speaker isn't any different when it comes to taking every financial advantage he can.

Given that the US attorney took out Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos this legislative session, you'd think these guys would try to play on the up-and-up - especially so for Flanagan since the last five senate majority leaders have ended up under criminal indictment.

But it seems the more things change in Albany, the more they really don't change.

Protesters Plan To "Move In" To John Flanagan's Office Over Rent Regulations

Tenant-rights groups are getting aggressive in their push on rent regulations:

A day after affordable housing advocates protested outside of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Albany office, a tenant-rights group plans to push Senate Majority Leader John Flanangan on the issue as well.

Housing advocates and demonstrators plan to demonstrate at Flanagan’s Long Island office later today and call for stronger rent-law protections as regulations are due to expire June 15.

The demonstrators will plan to “move in” to the office if they aren’t assured rent control regulations will be protected, according to one of the event’s organizers.

At the same time, the Alliance For Tenant Power plans to release a letter knocking Flanangan (and really the Senate GOP at large) for the power wielded by developers like Glenwood Management, which has played a role in the indictment of former Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

Here's a blueprint for targeting Flanagan on education issues as well.

New York State Senate Education Committee Chair Under Investigation

Wow - you just can't make this stuff up.

Just last week, State Senator Car Marcellino was named to replace State Senator John Flanagan on the education committee.

Tonight NBC4 reports he's under investigation:

The Nassau County District Attorney's office has opened an investigation into whether a powerful local state senator improperly billed taxpayers for nearly $20,000 in car expenses, sources close to the probe tell NBC 4 New York's I-Team.

Republican Sen. Carl Marcellino of Syosset, who represents the Fifth Senate District, spent more than $20,000 of his campaign funds on automobile expenses between 2010 and 2013, according to campaign finance records.

Because those expenses were paid for by his campaign, it would be against the law for him to bill taxpayers for the same expense. According to records provided to the I-Team, the state reimbursed Marcellino for $18,500 in auto expenses during the same period.

The I-Team called Marcellino's office for comment several times over three days. Those calls have not been returned.

 Marcellino, first elected to the New York State Senate via special election in 1995, of the senate Investigations Committee, Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee and was recently appointed head of the Committee on Education.

NBC4 reports Marcellino was one of ten lawmakers looked at by the Moreland Commission for auto expense propriety, i.e. double dipping.

In perhaps unrelated news, Marcellino wrote the following earlier this year about Governor Cuomo's education policies:

“Let’s be clear. I do not support the Governor’s education reform proposals,” he wrote. “His plan is bad policy and bad for education. If it was up to me alone, these concepts would be off the table completely, but it takes the Senate, the Assembly and the Governor to craft a final budget. We must negotiate. Our Senate one house budget did not accept his plan and clearly states our intention to modify his flawed design.”

Marcellino also introduced a bill to delay the teacher evaluation deadline for districts until June 2017 and has backed legislation to release the questions and answers to the state Common Core tests.

It's interesting to me that a guy not totally on board with the education reform agenda gets elevated to education committee chair, then is the subject of a leak that he's under investigation for double dipping.

No smoking gun there, of course, but the skeptic in me wonders why the Marcellino leak comes now, especially since he was one of ten lawmakers the Moreland Commission looked at for "auto expense propriety."

As Arsenio Hall used to say, things that make you go "Hmmm..."