Same Old Same Old: Cuomo Rakes In Charter School Supporter Cash

Bill Mahoney at Politico NY:

ALBANY – In the first year of the 2018 gubernatorial election cycle, the list of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s largest donors is dominated by hedge funders and real estate developers.

...

This list is topped by hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller, who has written two $500,000 checks to the party that has spent a huge share of its money supporting Cuomo in recent years. In 2013, the state Democrats’ housekeeping account spent millions buying advertisements that boosted the governor’s agenda, the next year, 86 percent of its independent expenditures were on Cuomo’s behalf.

Druckenmiller has been a major supporter of charter schools. So has Paul Tudor Jones, the second largest donor to committees controlled by the governor ($10,000 to Cuomo and $500,000 to the Democrats). Tudor Jones was a supporter of a pro-charter Super PAC that helped Republicans retain control of the Senate in 2014.


Hedge fund Renaissance Technologies founder James Simons, whose $1.65 million to the Democrats’ campaign committees was enough to earn a spot as their top donor in the last election cycle, continued to financially support Cuomo. Simons, who made a $150 million gift to SUNY Stony Brook in 2011 that was contingent on tuition hikes, gave the party $300,000 and the governor $45,000 in 2015, placing him third for the year.

Other large hedge fund donors included Joel and Julia Greenblatt, who gave Cuomo $60,000 apiece, and Daniel and Margaret Loeb ($88,000 total), who hosted a July fundraiser for the governor.

Greenblatt, Tudor Jones, Druckenmiller, Loeb - all charter school supporters and education "reformers."

But there are some new reformer names to the Cuomo donation list too:

Cuomo’s new donors also include the founders of collaborative office renter WeWork, Miguel McKelvey ($50,000) and Adam Neumann ($25,000; Neumann’s wife gave an additional $25,000). Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton gave Cuomo $60,800 in November, and Jackie Bezos, the mother of Amazon’s founder, gave $15,000 in July.  

Walton is of course a charter school supporter and education reformer backer.

So is Jeff Bezos.

That Bezos' mother gave money to Andrew Cuomo - well, that is interesting, isn't it?

Not much has changed post-Silver/post-Skelos for Cuomo.

He continues to rake in the big bucks from hedge fundies and real estate developers, much of it through LLC's that allow donors to skirt individual limits.

The only change is Glenwood Management - once Cuomo's biggest donor, but since the firm and it's top political bagman wound up at the center of the Silver and Skelos corruption cases, they have given nothing to Cuomo.

Cuomo In Hiding For Eight Straight Days And Counting

Where oh where has Governor Cuomo gone?

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters on Monday morning he had a “nice conversation” with Gov. Andrew and his Republican counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader John Flanagan.

But agreements on an extension of rent control laws for New York City, as well as mayoral control of New York City schools and a real-estate tax abatement remain elusive.

“We’re talking, the governor, Senator Flanagan and I, we had a nice conversation this morning,” Heastie said after the hour-long meeting. “There’s no agreement, so for me to tell you something now, it could change.”

...

Heastie said he was unsure whether the Legislature would have to stay here for the rest of the week in order to secure a deal.

As for the governor, Cuomo has not been seen in a public venue since June 14, when he appeared at a news conference in Yonkers unveiling a $100 million struggling schools fund.

“That’s for you to ask him,” Heastie said when asked about Cuomo’s lack of visibility. “I have to represent the interests of the conference and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Why's Cuomo in hiding these past eight days?

He was so visible for a while there, hammering home the education tax credit issue.

Then came the Yonkers PR set piece where he introduced the $100 million for "struggling" schools above NYC fund, a fund that he said was not linked to his tax credit, and he hasn't been seen since.

Weird.

Anybody got any idea why he's in hiding?

Teachout: Cuomo's A Puppet For Glenwood Management

Casey Seiler at Capitol Confidential:

Zephyr Teachout, the Fordham Law professor and author who challenged Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the 2014 Democratic nomination, appeared at the Capitol at a Wednesday midday rally by New York City tenants-rights advocates calling for stronger rent regulations.

The rhetoric was almost as harsh for Cuomo as it was for landlords: Numerous signs assailed him as “Governor Glenwood” — a reference to the support he has received from the various organs of Glenwood Management, the real estate giant caught up in the federal corruption cases that prompted the downfalls of Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver.

...

“Andrew Cuomo right now likes to think of himself as a strong man,” said Teachout, who might not have seen Cuomo’s recent poll numbers. “But he’s acting like a puppet for Glenwood Management.”

Cuomo's clearly hurting on the rent regulation issue - that's why he's going to hold a "rally" tomorrow on the issue:

Governor Andrew Cuomo is planning a rally Thursday in support of tougher rent regulations, Capital has learned, even as tenant groups question his commitment to the issue.

Cuomo aides on Wednesday were reaching out to officials and groups about participating in the event, which will be held in central Harlem in the early afternoon, according to an invitation obtained by Capital. It comes 11 days before rent regulations are set to expire, and two weeks before state lawmakers are set to adjourn for the year.

...

 dozens of activists, including several sitting state lawmakers, were arrested at the Capitol during a protest that blocked the doors to Cuomo's office. Ava Farkas, executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, called Cuomo's planned rally “a load of nonsense.”

“While real estate-driven corruption scandals swirl … Cuomo sits on Albany’s biggest pile of real estate cash and holds a bogus rally in support of corrupt rent laws,” she said. “No wonder his job approval ratings are going down as fast as working families' rents are going up.”

A Cuomo spokesman declined to comment.

He fools few with his jive these days

More and more, that's clear.

Anyone for a Cuomo mash-up of the Dan Penn song "I'm Your Puppet"?

More Damning Details In Cuomo Pay-To-Play Scandal

David Sirota and Matthew Cunningham-Cook follow up on their pay-to-play piece on Andrew Cuomo last night with this:

The Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have over the past 2 1/2 years received taxpayer-financed contracts to help manage the sale of more than $3 billion worth of bonds for New York state, according to a review of state records by International Business Times. The three banking companies secured this lucrative line of business during the same period they delivered more than $132,000 in campaign contributions to Gov. Andrew Cuomo through political action committees under their corporate control.

...

• JPMorgan’s PAC gave Cuomo $15,000 April 10, 2013, and the Cuomo administration announced the firm would serve as an underwriter on a $46 million bond issue May 30, 2013.
• Citigroup's PAC gave Cuomo $15,000 May 1, 2013, and Cuomo officials named the firm an underwriter on a $61 million bond June 19, 2013.
• JPMorgan’s PAC gave Cuomo another $10,000 July 2, 2013, and the Cuomo administration named the firm an underwriter on another $36 million bond in August 2013.
• Bank of America’s PAC gave Cuomo $15,500 July 2, 2014, just after the firm had been named an underwriter on a June 2014 bond. Cuomo’s administration would subsequently name the firm an underwriter on a separate $185 million bond in March 2015.

The contracts to the banks went through a non-competive bidding process.

Can you say cha-chinggg!!!

Sony, News Corporation, REBNY, now the banks - who doesn't Cuomo hit up in the Quid Pro Cuomo game?

I dunno if the feds are looking into any of this stuff, but to be honest, the amount of money Cuomo's taking makes the Skelos stuff look small.

After Skelos Arrest, Attention Turns To The Third Amigo

Will Bharara indict Gov. Cuomo himself for interfering w/the Moreland Commission? @AndreaWNYC: "I wouldn't rule anything out."

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 4, 2015

There's the tampering and/or obstruction angle, to be sure, but there's also the plain old corruption angle too:

@ZephyrTeachout Glewood gave almost $1.5 million to Cuomo by the end of the cycle

— Bill Mahoney (@mahoneyw) May 4, 2015

Whoa! Skelos complaint shows Leonard Litwin's campaign cash bagman is cooperating w/ the feds. http://t.co/0JuJlRz1bu pic.twitter.com/qH7JWZzAQ9

— the albany project (@albanyproject) May 4, 2015

And given that, it seems that Preet Bharara has flipped Charles Dorego—a Glenwood executive—as a cooperating witness http://t.co/F3QXh10aZn

— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) May 4, 2015

.@ChrisBragg1 confirms that “CW-1” is Charles Dorego, senior VP of Glenwood Management.

— Capitol Confidential (@TUCapCon) May 4, 2015

Skelos complaint details Glenwood connection http://t.co/3wjVJgbbyK

— Josefa Velasquez (@J__Velasquez) May 4, 2015

More indictments coming? Bharara: "Implicit to any comments I make from this podium is you should stay tuned."

— Liz Benjamin (@CTLizB) May 4, 2015

Preet: "We have a public corruption unit that we have no intention of disbanding."

— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) May 4, 2015

Pro Publica reported in June 2014 that Cuomo had received $800,000 from Glenwood Management through various LLC's since 2011, but he has benefited a lot more since (as noted in the Bill Mahoney tweet above) if you factor in how much cash Glenwood president and CEO Leonard Litwin gave to not only Cuomo but the state Democratic Party and Kathy Hochul's campaign for lieutenant governor:

Billionaire real estate magnate Leonard Litwin has outspent all political donors.

The president and chief executive officer of Long Island-based Glenwood Management donated $1 million to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign. Litwin also donated almost a combined $500,000 to the state Democratic Party and Kathy Hochul’s campaign for lieutenant governor, according to data from the New York Public Interest Research Group cited by Crain’s.

The Glenwood/Litwin angle is important - especially now that Litwin's bagman is confirmed to be cooperating with the feds.

Here is David Sirota at IBTimes on the Cuomo/Litwin/Glenwood connection:

Neither Cuomo's office nor Glenwood Management responded to International Business Times' request for comment about the governor's relationship with Litwin. But documents reviewed by IBTimes illustrate Cuomo’s role in the developer's state business.

The Cuomo-run New York State Housing Finance Agency, for instance, approved a $260 million state-supported low-interest loan in 2014 to finance Glenwood’s new luxury apartment building in midtown Manhattan. At the time the loan to Glenwood was approved, the NYHFA was headed by Cuomo appointee Bill Mulrow, an executive and registered lobbyist at Blackstone, a private equity and real estate firm. Mulrow was just appointed to be the governor’s chief of staff. According to NYHFA documents, Glenwood also has had other business with the agency.

Similarly, Cuomo in 2011 signed Silver-backed legislation reauthorizing a then-expired property tax abatement for real estate developers called the 421a program. Cuomo also signed an extension of that program in 2013. Litwin’s firm used the 421a program for its Midtown Manhattan project, according to the New York Times. Glenwood has also used the 421a tax break for some of its other properties in the city.

In 2014, Cuomo shut down the Moreland Commission, an anti-corruption panel that was examining the relationship between lawmakers and the real estate industry. The governor’s top aide at time, Larry Schwartz, called commission members to stop them from subpoenaing the Real Estate Board of New York, of which Litwin is the lifetime “honorary chairman.”

And then there was this non-Glenwood-related real estate funkiness:

Another real estate developer, the Extell Development Co., has also given extensively to Cuomo through LLCs, including two donations last year that were flagged by the Moreland Commission.

Two LLCs affiliated with Extell gave the governor a total of $100,000 on Jan. 28, 2013—two days before Cuomo signed legislation that granted a tax break to Extell's One57 skyscraper in Manhattan, as well as properties owned by four other developers. Two other LLCs with ties to Extell gave Cuomo another $100,000 six months later. (The contributions were first reported last year by The Daily News.)

...

There is no evidence that Cuomo played any role in inserting the tax breaks. Without naming Extell or Cuomo, however, the Moreland Commission called out the developers' donations, saying they created "the appearance of a relationship between large donations and legislation that specifically benefits large donors."

"Our investigation continues and we draw no premature conclusions" about whether the tax breaks were improper, the commission wrote in its December report, "but it is clear that the combination of very large campaign contributions and very narrowly targeted benefits to those same donors creates an appearance of impropriety that undermines public trust in our elected representatives."

That investigation didn't continue, at least not by the Moreland Commission, because Cuomo abruptly shut it down.

But Preet Bharara and the feds picked up the Moreland files, so perhaps that investigation continued in another guise?

More from Preet:

"You should assume we are look at everything that's worthy of looking at." Bharara

— Capitol Pressroom (@CapPressRoom) May 4, 2015

Once again, Bharara tells us to stay tuned.

— Capitol Pressroom (@CapPressRoom) May 4, 2015

What to stay tuned for?

Clearly Cuomo's ties to Leonard Litwin and Glenwood Management and just what he did in return for the campaign largesse, as well as his tampering in the Moreland Commission investigations, including putting the kibosh on investigations into his donors, and finally his shutting down of the commission as part of the budget deal with the now indicted Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos.

US Attorney Preet Bharara has taken down two of the three amigos in the fabled Albany room.

Could he take down the third?

Newsday Finds A Discrepancy In Dean Skelos' Ethics Filing

The NY Post reported that the US Attorney's office is looking into State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his outside income, but not the money he's making at his law firm, Ruskin Mouscou Faltischek, but income from other sources.

Newsday found a discrepancy that may be something the feds are looking at:

Skelos' signed ethics filing reports he is an attorney in general practice from an office in his home and, in a separate line, for Ruskin Moscou Faltischek in Uniondale. But when told about the two entries Friday, Skelos' spokesman Scott Reif said the reference to a private law practice operating from the senator's home was an error made by a staffer. Reif said Skelos doesn't practice independently.

Skelos reports he receives $150,000 to $250,000 for his private law work, according to the filing with the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

The reference to Skelos operating a private law practice from his home is an error made by a staffer on the ethics filing?

Then why did Skelos sign it?

Why did the staffer think Skelos might be operating a private law firm out of his home?

And is the US Attorney's office making anything of all of this?

The Post reports "US Attorney Preet Bharara is looking at the powerful Nassau County pol’s connections to various real estate deals."

I dunno, maybe the discrepancy in the ethics filing is nothing, but it's the kind of thing that makes you go "Hmm..."

I bet it made somebody in the US Attorney's office go "Hmm..." too.

Cuomo Raked In $1 Million From Real Estate Magnate

Via State of Politics comes this doozy of an item:

Billionaire real estate magnate Leonard Litwin has outspent all political donors.

The president and chief executive officer of Long Island-based Glenwood Management donated $1 million to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign. Litwin also donated almost a combined $500,000 to the state Democratic Party and Kathy Hochul’s campaign for lieutenant governor, according to data from the New York Public Interest Research Group cited by Crain’s.

The 100-year-old investor was also the biggest donor to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s re-election campaigns. The magnate donated $240,000 to Schneiderman and $130,000 to DiNapoli, 50 percent and 30 percent more than the next largest donor, the news outlet reported.

 Litwin is also a big donor to Jobs for New York, the Political Action Committee backed by the Real Estate Board of New York. [Crain's] – Claire Moses

Those of you wondering what Cuomo will do when the rent laws come up for renewal in NYC need only look at how much cash he and his fellow Democrats have taken from the real estate interests to get an inkling of where he'll go with his policy.

Wall Street Bankers, Real Estate Titans For Cuomo

From the Post:

Gov. Cuomo is making another pitch Monday for Republican heavy hitters to back his re-election campaign.

Home Depot founder Ken Langone is hosting a “Republicans for Cuomo” event at the Harvard Club at 8:30 a.m. Cuomo will address the well-heeled Wall Street and real-estate titans and field questions.

David Malpass, who ran in the 2010 Republican US Senate primary, also was involved in planning the breakfast, sources said. Cuomo attended a similar event last month.

The Cuomo campaign wants to woo Republican backers to keep their big bucks from going to the eventual GOP nominee.

Gee, what is it about Cuomo that Wall Street bankers and real estate titans like?

Well, whatever it is, they sure are raising a lot of money for him.

Bloomberg Experiences A Major Post-Election Defeat

This will not make the Mayor of Money happy:

A plan to dramatically re-zone East Midtown has fizzled, members of the City Council announced this evening.

The plan–one of departing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s most ambitious legacy projects–was aimed at transforming 73 blocks around the Empire State Building to allow the kind of modern, soaring skyscrapers that currently dot Lower Manhattan.


But today, officials announced that they had failed to reach a deal–despite fervent, last-minute efforts by the Bloomberg administration.

“Creating new jobs in East Midtown – and across all of New York City – is essential. We can and should do more with the commercial corridor around Grand Central … However, a good idea alone is not enough to justify action today,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and local Councilman Dan Garodnick said in a joint statement. “We should rezone East Midtown, but only when we can do so properly. After extensive negotiations, we have been unable to reach agreement on a number of issues in the proposed plan.”

The pair cited a list of concerns, including questions over the price and timing of air rights sales as well as the funding of infrastructure projects–both above and below ground–that community groups say would be needed to accommodate the additional rush of traffic the expansions would bring.
“The public realm plan is aspirational, and it is unclear at this point whether some of its most visionary improvements can even be executed,” they wrote, adding: “We want to see development in the area that is both responsible and encourages growth that keeps us competitive with other cities. But, with so many outstanding issues, there is no good reason to rush the proposal through.”

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio quickly praised the decision in a statement that closely echoed the pair’s–and vowed to present a revised plan for the area by the end of next year.

“For the sake of New York City’s long-term economic vitality, Midtown East should be re-zoned to allow the creation of a world-class 21st-century commercial district. But it needs to be done right,” he said not long after the decision was announced publicly, pointing to the same concerns about infrastructure and development rights.

“I applaud the City Council for pressing the pause button in order to ensure these concerns are adequately addressed,” he said, vowing to formulate his own vision for the city after he takes office on January 1st. ”We must continue this process in earnest upon taking office, and I commit to presenting a revised rezoning plan for the area by the end of 2014.”

The NY Post wanted de Basio to back Bloomberg's plan.

They will no doubt go after him tomorrow over this.

It's a good sign that whatever Bloomberg has tried to shove through in the past few months before he left office will get a second look from de Blasio and the City Council.

In other words, the dictator of NYC will not get his way in everything he wants.

After 12 years of pretty much getting his way on everything except for the Olympics, the West Side stadium and the traffic plan, it;'s good to see a Bloomberg plan rejected for a change.

Now de Blaiso should take a look at all the education plans Bloomberg and his Tweedies have made over the last six months, including consultant and technology contracts, co-locations, and charters granted.

Real Estate Brokers Are Sad Mayor Bloomberg Is Leaving Office

Just as the Wall Street criminals are sad Mayor Bloomberg is leaving office, the real estate criminals are sad too:

Mayor Bloomberg would be crazy to try to run for a fourth term — but real estate brokers say it’s crazy to want anyone else in City Hall.

“I’m depressed at the thought that someone else will be mayor,” says Shaun Osher, president of real estate brokerage CORE. “I wish we could change term limits again.”

“I really wish he’d run again — and I’m a Democrat,” says Suzanne Hof, third-generation owner of Terrace real estate in Forest Hills, Queens.

“Mayor Bloomberg has been the finest mayor New York City has ever had,” says Brown Harris Stevens broker John Burger.

Burger was the top-selling agent in the country, and maybe even the world, in 2011 and 2012.
Does he have the mayor to thank for his industry’s booming success? Look no farther than the skyline for proof.

“Eight of the 20 tallest buildings in the city have been built in the past decade, and many of them are apartment buildings,” Corcoran Group CEO Pam Liebman says.

Many are the result of Bloomberg-led rezonings intended to spur development citywide.

Much of that development, of course, led to inflating apartment prices, higher rents, and driving middle and working class people out of the city and bringing in rich people.

The mayor turned the city into a luxury brand and the criminals in real estate and the criminals on Wall Street love it.

Bloomberg's Real Estate Policies Drive Increase In NYC Poverty

This must be the fault of schools and teachers:

The latest U.S. Census data is drawing a troubling picture of the struggles of many New Yorkers living in poverty.

It also shows the number of city residents living below the poverty level is on the rise.

According to the data, 21.2 percent of New Yorkers are in households below that level.

That includes 31 percent of children age 17 and under.

Meanwhile, 19.1 percent of those 65 years and older are also below the poverty level.

Nationwide, for a family of four, poverty is defined as living off less than $23,492 a year.

NYC is way above the nationwide average:

The Census data shows 15.9 percent of Americans nationwide, or roughly 48.8 million, lived below the poverty level in 2012.

One big reason, besides the economic downturn of '09 for the increase in poverty in NYC?

Bloomberg's real estate policies:

Nearly 40 percent of the city's landmass will have been rezoned by the end of Bloomberg's reign — probably his most significant legacy, especially considering the new construction the zoning changes enabled. The particulars vary by neighborhood, but the driving idea has been unvarying: Development equals economic growth.

Yet success drives up rents and strains the finances of longtime middle-class residents. Nearly one third of New York's renters now spend more than half their monthly income on shelter… As the proportion of millionaires climbs, so does the share of New Yorkers living at or near the poverty line. 

Bloomberg has made this city a luxury product for the wealthy.

Everyone else, as far as our billionaire mayor is concerned, can go screw themselves.

NY Post Publishes Devastating Article About NYC Economy - Never Once Mentions Bloomberg As The Culprit

Here's a taste of the Post article:

New York City is stuck in the economic misery lane of middle-class jobs flight and an unemployed and underemployed class faced with long-term joblessness and rising hunger, according to the latest economic research.

The city is emerging from the worst of the Great Recession, but this so-called recovery is nothing to write home about.

The unemployment rate is 8.4 percent and has eclipsed the nation’s average. More disturbing, the city’s “underemployment” rate surpassed New York state’s by just over 1 point.

The city’s “underemployment” rate stood at 14.8 percent in the first half of 2013.

That figure counts the underclass of workers officially unemployed, working part time, or who are no longer counted as unemployed but are willing to work, according to an analysis of New York State Department of Labor data by New York’s Fiscal Policy Institute.

“We do have an issue with lower-paying jobs coming in, and Wall Street is not back to where it was before the recession,” said Jim Diffley, regional economist for IHS Global Insight. “There have been a lot of job gains in the leisure and hospitality sectors.”

But on the whole, these jobs do not have the pay or benefits of the jobs lost in banking or other middle-class vocations.

...

“Much of the job growth that has occurred has been in jobs that will make it hard to build a stable future for working New Yorkers,” a Fiscal Policy Institute report says. “Trends have continued in which New York has lost tens of thousands of middle income jobs in manufacturing, construction and government.”

The rest of the article is just as devastating - a single mother of three who had her hours reduced from 40 a week to 20, had her benefits cuts and now must make it on just a few hundred dollars a week.

And this woman is the coordinator of the Park Slope soup kitchen Christian Help.

The article says that like 2 million other New Yorkers, she needs to get by with the help of food stamps.

The article also goes on to report that while "food insecurity" - a phrase used to denote a time when people do not have access to food - has remained stable across the nation, it has risen in New York State.

In the Bronx, 23% of households are food insecure.

The very same newspaper, the NY Post, writes glowing reviews of the Bloomberg years on their op-ed pages, slams Bill de Blasio as a "class warrior" for running a campaign that acknowledges the "Tale of Two Cities" economic divide in New York, and then publishes this devastating article about the economic "malaise" (their word, not mine) New York City is suffering through in 2013.

Who is at fault for this malaise?

Bill de Blasio?

You can bet if he's mayor in 2014, within a month or so, they'll start to blame this stuff on him around.

And yet, Bloomberg, the mayor who has done everything in his power to assuage and cajole the rich people of this city - including going down to Goldman Sachs and soothing the tears of the brain trust when a former staffer published a Times piece about how evil the firm is - gets off free and clear in the Post article.

It's not his fault he's rezoned huge swaths of the city and turned them into playgrounds for the rich, given tax deals to real estate developers to knock down tenements and build luxury apartments, refused to raise taxes on the wealthy, refused to negotiate contracts with unionized municipal workers (the core of the middle class in this city), demonized teachers as greedy, lazy scum even as he has praised the bankers and hedge fund managers on Wall Street who helped bring about the '08 collapse through their own greed and criminal activity.

Not Bloomberg's fault at all, say the Posties.

You can bet if de Blasio is somehow elected mayor in November, they'll make sure they make it his fault in February.

That is, if the Post is still in business.

As Bloomberg noted in that infamous New York Magazine article yesterday, the Post is suffering its own "economic malaise"" - it loses $100 million a year.

Andrew Cuomo Shuts Down Committee To Save New York PAC So That He Doesn't Have To Reveal His Donors

The NY Times reported yesterday that Andrew Cuomo's PAC, the Committee To Save New York, is shutting down:

The Committee to Save New York, a coalition of business leaders that spent millions of dollars supporting the agenda of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and that seemed, overnight, to become the biggest lobbying force in Albany, said on Friday that it was shutting down. 

“From our perspective, we believe our mission was largely successful,” said Michael McKeon, a spokesman for the group. He added that the decision to shut down was motivated by the election calendar, as the group did not want to be seen as interfering with next year’s state elections. 

“We decided that to avoid any suggestion that we would play in electoral politics, the time had come for us to close up shop,” Mr. McKeon said. 

The committee was formed near the end of 2010, as Mr. Cuomo was preparing to assume office, and proved to be a critical ally for him. Over the next two years, it reported spending more than $16 million to support his agenda, financing television commercials advocating his positions. The group spent more money on lobbying than any other organization in New York State in 2011 and 2012.

While it was active, the committee was not required to reveal where it was getting its money from. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, came under scrutiny last year after a report that the committee had received $2 million from gambling interests at the same time the governor was developing a proposal to expand casino gambling in the state. 

Under a state ethics law approved by Mr. Cuomo in 2011, nonprofit lobbying groups are now required to disclose the sources of their funds. The Committee to Save New York has been dormant since the disclosure requirement took effect, and Mr. Cuomo has instead used the State Democratic Party to finance commercials promoting his agenda. 

A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo declined to comment on Friday.

If you read the article carefully, you see the Times buried the lede in the fourth and sixth paragrpahs:

The committee was formed near the end of 2010, as Mr. Cuomo was preparing to assume office, and proved to be a critical ally for him. Over the next two years, it reported spending more than $16 million to support his agenda, financing television commercials advocating his positions. The group spent more money on lobbying than any other organization in New York State in 2011 and 2012

 ...

Under a state ethics law approved by Mr. Cuomo in 2011, nonprofit lobbying groups are now required to disclose the sources of their funds. The Committee to Save New York has been dormant since the disclosure requirement took effect, and Mr. Cuomo has instead used the State Democratic Party to finance commercials promoting his agenda.

Cuomo never revealed who the Committee raised money from and never revealed the level of coordination between his administration and the Committee.

We do know that that the Committee took in a couple of million in donations from overseas gambling interests right before Cuomo expanded gambling in the state.

But the rest of the money raised - millions and millions of dollars that they threw into ads hawking Cuomo's anti-union, pro-corporate agenda - we have no idea where that money came from.

And now, with CSNY closing, they'll never disclose it.

But you can bet Cuomo, who put not one Wall Street criminal in jail while he was attorney general during the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression, and his PAC took money from some pretty crooked people.

And we can assume the quid pro quo we have seen with Cuomo and the gambling industry and Cuomo and the real estate industry was a pattern followed closely with the CSNY donors.

Andrew Cuomo likes to position himself as the sheriff of Albany but in point of fact, he is one of the most corrupt politicians up there.

So far, his power and his willingness to use it to crush opposition and critics has saved him from disclosure.

But if and when he runs for president in 2016, this stuff will come out.

Andrew Cuomo will not be able to stand the scrutiny of a presidential campaign anymore than Joe Bruno or Alan Hevei could have if they'd chosen to run for president.

De Blasio's Cozy Relationship With The Real Estate Industry

Dunno why the NY Post and NY Daily News editorial boards are upset at the prospect of a de Blasio mayorality.

As Dana Rubenstein shows in an extensive post at Politicker, de Blasio was very happy to cut deals on the Atlantic Yards mess, the Gowanus Canal sell-out to Toll Brothers, and a Fourth Avenue rezoning for taller buildings that the Bloomberg administration wanted.

It's not exactly selling out the only downtown hospital to condo development, but his record on real estate development is to talk a good game but give the real estate developers what they want in the end - and have them raise funds for him.

Not all that different than Thompson or Quinn.

Be aware, those of you excited by the de Blasio surge, that de Blasio is running as a progressive this year because that was the best strategic place for him to run this cycle.

But he is no more a progressive than John Edwards or Hillary Clinton or Bill Thompson or Chris Quinn.

And you can be sure when the real estate developers come calling for tax deals or development projects, when the hedge fundies and charter operators come calling on education issues, when the Kathryn Wilde's come calling to complain about public union contracts and the like, de Blasio's office and ears will be open to them.

This doesn't mean I don't think you should vote for him or support him.

Just don't mistake him for a true progressive.

He is another corporatist politician who has managed to successfully navigate a corporatist political system to be on the cusp of being elected mayor.

Because he is running as the lefty in this cycle against two pols running as "moderates", he is the best we are going to do.

But if he is elected, we will have to watch him very closely.

His record suggests he is anything but the "man of the people" he is portraying himself this cycle.

Why Is The Daily News Going Light On Sheriff Andy Cuomo?

Following the news that Governor Andrew Cuomo received $400,000 in campaign donations direct into his account or to a Democratic Party account that his campaign could tap for ad money from a real estate developer and his affiliates in return for $35 million in tax breaks, the Daily News is kinda sorta calling for an investigation into Cuomo:

The commission investigating Albany’s outrageous tax giveaway to five luxury condo towers in Manhattan must expand its inquiry to include large campaign donations to Gov. Cuomo.

As the Daily News’ Kenneth Lovett has reported, the builder of one tower, Extell Development, and its president, Gary Barnett, gave the governor’s campaign $300,000 over the past two years — including $100,000 days before Cuomo signed the tax breaks into law as part of a larger housing bill. A few weeks later, Barnett sent an additional $100,000 to the state Democratic Party, which has been sponsoring TV ads touting Cuomo’s record.

This is not to suggest a quid pro quo between Barnett’s cash and Cuomo’s signature. But it is to state that a developer who stood to gain a $35 million tax discount delivered big checks while exploiting loopholes in state campaign finance law.

The commission Cuomo has tasked with exploring the nexus between money and power in Albany would fatally damage its credibility were it not to examine these contributions — along with money that went to the Legislature.

The law in question was first drafted last year. What began as an extension of tax protections for condo and coop owners became stuffed with other provisions in last-minute wheeling and dealing.

Among them was difficult-to-decipher legalese singling out five Manhattan projects for special access to the so-called 421a program. Who added that language has not been explained.

Cuomo initially refused to go along with the package because it was a rushed hodgepodge. The Legislature passed it in the next session, once again including the tax breaks. Cuomo signed the overall package, which had many worthy provisions. His office appears to have been among the many that missed the hidden tax breaks.

Even so, having taken up the subject, his commission has to look at all contributions made by Extell and other developers as this bill gestated — with the single most important question being: Who put those tax breaks in there?

The DN editors give Cuomo too much credit here.

There's no quid pro quo between the $400,000 in campaign donations (that we know of so far - there may have been more given through other avenues) and the $35 million in tax breaks?

Cuomo's office seems to have missed the hidden tax breaks that directly benefited the company that gave him the $400,000?

Please.

Can you imagine what the News would be saying were this Shelly Silver who took $400,000 from a real estate developer who got $35 million in tax breaks from the state?

Yet somehow the DN editors are treading lightly with Cuomo, as if these tax breaks just happened to float down from the sky into the legislation and how could Governor Cuomo's staff be taxed to actually read that legislation before Sheriff Andy got his pen out to sign it into law?

Switch the names "Cuomo" for "Silver" and the DN editors would be calling for indictments.

But they're treating Sheriff Andy with kid gloves here.

You have to wonder if the DN, owned by real estate magnate Mort Zuckerman, hasn't received similar largesse from Sheriff Andy and tax break pen.

Anti-Quinn Group Sends Out St. Vincent's Campaign Ad

Good to see Quinn get hammered over this betrayal of the people in her district:

A political committee determined to block Christine Quinn’s path to City Hall will blanket 50,000 Manhattan homes with flyers blaming the council speaker for the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital.

The group “New York City is Not for Sale,” which already funded anti-Quinn TV ads, will spend approximately $30,000 to send out a glossy mailing depicting Quinn as a magician using a wand to make the West Village hospital disappear. The hospital, which sits in Quinn’s council district, closed in 2010.

“When someone has such a powerful seat in city government and is not able to keep such a vital health care institution in her neighborhood, it speaks poorly of her,” said Arthur Cheliote of Communications Workers of America Local 1180, one of the left-leaning unions that formed the $1 million anti-Quinn coalition.
 
“They’d be getting more of the same if she’s mayor,” he said.

The glossy mailer will be sent to likely voters in the areas impacted by the hospital’s closure, including Chelsea, SoHo and Gramercy.

She helped make St. Vincent's magically disappear, and then money showed up in our magician's hat, all wrapped in a bow with the name Rudin on it.

Beware The Bubble

House prices have shot up over the last year despite a shaky economy, a stagnant job market and a whole host of other economic head winds.

Might there be another bubble?

There might:

Despite the green shoots reported by the Case-Shiller index last week that home prices rose a blistering 9.3 percent in February from 12 months ago, Edward Pinto, a former executive at the government-backed mortgage business, says another crash can’t be too far behind.

Pinto faults Uncle Sam’s housing policy of guaranteeing 90 percent of new loans in the gigantic $6 trillion market through Fannie Mae.

He goes on to say the feds are providing billions in fat trading profits to Wall Street banks and artificially — but temporarily — propping up housing prices.

Sooner or later, he says, economic reality will catch up with this fairy-tale market, which will lead to another depressing housing collapse.

The fundamentals that matter most are falling behind the latest house prices. These include job and wage growth. And that’s amidst a surprise loosening in lending standards and tightened inventory because of the snail’s pace of moving foreclosed properties to market, says Pinto, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Astonishingly, as much as 50 percent of all mortgages today are issued with zero-down payments, which includes many refinanced homes for the banks’ better clients.

In the meantime, Wall Street powerhouses reap their windfall gains, trading these complex mortgage-backed securities.

The Street makes out like a bandit. In this game, banks accumulate nickels and dimes on each side of the trade, profiting on shifting interest rates, mortgage prepayments and other variables — but not on the “real” value of the underlying mortgages.

“The Street makes millions and millions of dollars on these securities,” Pinto told The Post.

“That’s the dirty little secret. The government guarantees repayment of principal and interest payments on a timely basis, regardless of what the borrower does on an individual mortgage level.”

Borrowers also get another lift. The Fed, scrambling to lower mortgage rates, currently near 3.5 percent, buys up $40 billion monthly in these mortgage-backed securities.

But Pinto doesn’t buy it. The trends are remarkably clear, stretching back 150 years through American real-estate history.

“When interest rates go up, which they inevitably will — and we seem to be at the bottom right now — they go up gradually but deliberately over a period of 20 to 30 years,” Pinto said, noting this long-term trend.

When that occurs, the housing market will be hammered again.

By his calculations, if mortgage rates rise from 3.5 percent to 6 percent, incomes would have to rise by 33 percent, or house prices would have to drop by 25 percent, to stave off an otherwise inevitable housing disaster.

Since personal incomes have been static since 2007, that part of the equation is hardly guaranteed. So a home price bust is not far behind, says Pinto.

 Nah - I'm sure this will all end well.

Go ahead, bid up some real estate next weekend.

The market is BACK, baby!

Juan Gonzalez Reports Bloomberg Is Racing Against Clock To Get Midtown East Torn Down For His Real Estate Cronies

The Times reported the other day that Bloomberg is racing against the clock to complete his "legacy" and get the city completely remade before his Reign of Error finally ends:

The mayor appears increasingly preoccupied with his legacy, and recently hired two public relations advisers — a former Times editor, Arthur Pincus, and a former television reporter, Andrew Kirtzman — to shape the public perception of the Bloomberg era. 

Asked on Monday if he was concerned that a drawn-out legal battle over the soda limits could spill into the administration of a successor who does not favor them, Mr. Bloomberg, sounding a bit irked, muttered, “All of our time is running out,” before saying, “I don’t know who is going to be my successor.”

One piece of unfinished business for the mayor is getting some more of the city torn down, rezoned and made into a tax giveaway for his real estate buddies.

Juan Gonzalez reports he's working on that problem, however:

New York’s priciest business district — and one of the most iconic on the planet — will go on steroids, if City Hall gets its way.

Mayor Bloomberg is racing before he leaves office to rezone more than 70 blocks of midtown between E. 39th and E. 57th Sts.

His proposal, avidly backed by the real estate industry, would allow property owners in and around Grand Central Terminal and along Madison and Park Aves. to demolish their buildings and replace them with a raft of new skyscrapers — some nearly as tall as the Empire State Building.

The plan would literally transform Manhattan’s skyline while adding tens of thousands of commuters to an area where transit stations are already strained to capacity.

That’s why community leaders keep asking: Why the hurry to approve this before the next mayor comes in?

“The future of New York is too valuable to be rushed for political timetables,” said Wally Rubin, district manager of Manhattan Community Board 5.

“The rezoning of Hudson Yards (on Manhattan’s far West Side) took five years of public discussion,” Rubin said. “This is far bigger and even more important.”

Nothing is more important than a Bloomberg vanity project.

We know that Bloomberg is consumed by his "legacy" and we know that he sees all the rezoning and rebuilding that has gone on in the city during his 12 year Reign of Error as a big part of that legacy.

Clearly they want to rush this rezoning plan through before he leaves office as the crowning achievement of the Rezone/Rebuild program.

Who cares if the transit system can't handle the new commuters to the area?

This is about Bloomberg's legacy!

Nothing matters more than that.

And besides, haven't all the other rezoning plans worked out for the city?

I mean, it's not like Bloomberg has ever been wrong about his rezoning plans and how they're always a windfall for the city and its taxpayers, right?