Fair Share Tax Effort Needs Your Help Now!

The chances of the state budget having a fair share tax added to it just diminished last night when the Senate met last night. Malcolm Smith has apparently decided to go with more cuts and no tax increases for the wealthy despite a large contingent of Democrats supporting the Fair Share plan. Instead, it looks like the Majority Leader is more comfortable siding with a few in his caucus and the Republican side of the aisle instead of what the people voted for overwhelmingly in the November elections. With that, the unions and all those that support less cuts to the budget are reaching out to us so that the Senate is inundated with messages to support a tax increase on the wealthy as opposed to more burdens placed on the working class.

From The Times-Union:

Dear XXXXX,
We need your urgent help!
The New York State Senate is about to vote on a budget bill that would make devastating cuts to important services our state’s families and children rely on — services like education, health care, and community services.
There’s still time to keep these cuts from happening. But we’re down to the wire and need your help to tell Democratic state senators to speak out against these cuts. It will only hurt our communities during a time when New Yorkers need to rely on services more than ever.
Please take a moment to write your state senator and urge them to support a fair solution to the budget crisis — Fair Share Tax Reform:
http://www.fairsharereform.com/senatebill
This solution would ask our state’s wealthiest taxpayers to contribute their fair share to close the state’s budget gap — so that our state’s working families don’t have to bear the brunt of the burden.
We need additional revenue to help close the state’s $14 billion budget gap — not cuts that would hurt everyone.
Write your senator now:
http://www.fairsharereform.com/senatebill
Thank you so much for your urgent help.
In solidarity,
George Gresham
President, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East

As the article by Irene Jay Liu prefacing the letter states, what the Senate decides on tomorrow isn't binding, but it does set the general direction of how they want the budget to look. The important thing to note here is that if both the Assembly and the Senate have some form of tax increase on the wealthy, the compromise will look a lot better than if one chamber has only cuts and the other has the increase. So get to the Fair Share website and then call and/or email your Senator so we get a budget that is fair to all New Yorkers.

Unions Get Busy To Fight Gov's Budget

Now that the budget is out, let the lobbying against it (both public and private) begin:

Paterson Takes On NY GOP, Unions Take On Paterson

Tomorrow is the day that the special session in Albany begins, but from the way things are going thus far, it may not be a pleasant place between opening and closing gavels. Governor Paterson is lashing out at the current GOP majority for dragging their feet on spending cuts (though the Assembly is doing just as much). Meanwhile the big unions are attacking the Governor for his proposed cuts where it hurts the most.

From The Daily Politics:

A source close to 1199 said officials of the health care workers union met Friday to discuss Paterson's cuts and reports there was "a great amount of displeasure about whether the governor has forgotten where he's come from so quickly and has lost his moral compass."

The union is particularly unhappy about what it see as Paterson's "constant willingness to victimize low-wage healthcare workers" while steadfastedly ruling out raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers - the one area where the governor finds himself in agreement with the Senate Republicans.

Might 1199 and the GNYHA, which have a history of running successful multimillion-dollar ad campaigns to block significant Medicaid cuts proposed by Paterson's predecessors, Republican Gov. George Pataki and Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer, be gearing up to do the same this time around?

I certainly hope they are. The Governor will be feeling considerable pressure from unions like 1199/SEIU and GYNHA as well as many others that believe health care for the disadvantaged should come before keeping the tax rate low for the wealthiest New Yorkers. Until he begins to change his position and look into tax increases for the few thousand that can afford it, he can kick and scream all he wants but there will have to be a compromise at the end of the day or nothing will be done this week in Albany.

David Paterson should be ashamed of himself for the way he is conducting himself with the budget. These are tough times I agree, but much tougher for the middle class and those that live in his former Senate district. It is sad to see he has forgotten the neighborhoods from where he was raised. The reformer New York used to know has wedded himself to the status quo, at least for the budget's sake.

Newell Slams 1199 And GYNHA For Pay-To-Play Tactics With Shelly Silver

When it comes to New York politics, corruption and all-around shadiness persists in every nook and cranny. If someone comes along and tries to challenge the status quo, the powers that be will do whatever they can to quash the "problem." Gobs of money will be spent and all aspects of the dictionary will be used to make that person go away. G.Y.N.H.A. and 1199 give tons of money to people like Joe Bruno and now they are helping Shelly Silver stave off two primary challengers in his own district. Staying silent about these practices helps them to go on indefinitely. So when I heard one candidate address the pay to play nature of Albany, I did a silent cheer.

From Paul Newell:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 1, 2008

NEW YORK, NY - May 1, 2008

Sheldon Silver is pulling out all the stops as Paul Newell's grassroots challenge gains traction. Despite having more than $3 Million in his campaign fund, Silver has already turned to third party special interests to fund his campaign.

Yesterday, 1199 and the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) filled 64^th Assembly District mailboxes with a 2-sided, full color 8½" X 11" mailer praising Silver. GNYHA and 1199, which recently gave $100,000 to Republican Joe Bruno, have long been recognized as among the savviest operators in Albany's lobbying culture.

Paul Newell responded to the piece, saying "The problem is not the mailer itself, it is the pay-to-play culture in Albany. Silver and Bruno have put the word out that the way to get something from New York State government is to spend big money supporting the status quo." Newell continued, "No amount of special interest money will hide the fact that Sheldon Silver has been failing the people of Lower Manhattan for decades."

The highly unusual timing of the piece - more than four months before Silver's first contested primary in 22 years - is clear proof that Silver is concerned about community organizer Paul Newell's campaign. Evan Hutchison, Newell's Campaign Manager reacted, saying "We knew that Sheldon Silver's millions in special interest money would come into play, we just didn't expect him to start calling in favors so early in the campaign. They are obviously scared". Newell has already knocked on over 4,000 doors and distributed over 10,000 flyers to voters in the district.

In another sign of concern, Silver recently hired high-priced campaign consultants BerlinRosen to manage his defense against Newell's aggressive grassroots campaign. The hire is Silver's first such move in over 20 years.

It is great to see Silver's anxiety about the race front and center. It will definitely make itself even more apparent as the primary election gets closer. The big players that operate around the state capitol have no intention of watching one of their three men in a room be kicked out of office. That is why we must fight as hard as we can to kick Shelly Silver out for good and finally start to clean the stench up in Albany.

1199/SEIU Still Kissing Bruno's Behind

Albany is certainly a funny place. Standard thinking, conventional wisdom, whatever you want to call it, says that unions stick with Democrats by and large because....well simply Democrats have been better friends to unions historically speaking (currently too). Unfortunately since the 1199/S.E.I.U. sees Joe Bruno as some sort of savior, they are backing his quest to keep control of the state Senate and endorse Will Barclay over the Democratic challenger Darrel Aubertine.

From The Daily Politics:

The health care union SEIU/1199 has again demonstrated its loyalty to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and his GOP conference by announcing its endorsement of Republican Assemblyman Will Barclay in the 48th SD special election.

"Throughout his more than five years in the Assembly, Will Barclay has been a tireless advocate for the issues that upstate New Yorkers deeply care about – protecting quality healthcare and rebuilding the upstate economy,” said SEIU/1199 President George Gresham.

“1199 caregivers are proud to endorse Will Barclay and we’re confident that he’ll be an excellent addition to a Senate Majority that has consistently protected access to affordable quality healthcare for all New Yorkers.”

SEIU/1199 has long been a Bruno ally, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the senator himself, as well as his fellow Republicans, and the majority's campaign committees.

Not only is health care screwed up in general, but the local union is as well, supporting a candidate that is no good for unions and certainly not New York as a whole. Can anyone tell me why a union would support a union-buster?

Anyone, Bueller? Bueller?!?

Spitzer Appeals To Hospital Trustees

The Steamroller is not taking the challenge to his cuts from 1199 S.E.I.U and the Greater New York Hospital Association lightly. On Friday he hit them with the powerpoint presentation and then Sunday went to the NY Post and wrote a great editorial on his plan to reform the health care system in New York. Today he is moving forward by looking for support from the trustees of over 1000 of New York's hospitals. By effectively manuevering around GYNHA and 1199 who represent the hospitals, he is talking directly to those in charge.

The letter starts of by acknowledging that he was once a trustee himself and cares deeply about the state of our health care system. He reiterates that we pay too much into a system that provides far too little for people that deserve decent medical care in New York.

Here are some key points that Spitzer lays out in the letter:

• New York spends the most on Medicaid in the nation, twice the national average
• New York is #1 in the nation in combined state and local taxes, which as studies have shown, has largely been driven by soaring Medicaid spending
• That spending has gotten us bupkis, specifically 2.6 million uninsured including 400,000 children and that we are #1 in the nation for percentage of deaths from chronic disease, #3 in the nation in per capita deaths from coronary disease

After addressing the problems he defines the solution. Retargeting monies with relatively minor cuts will siphon much of the waste off while providing New Yorkers with what they need. By bringing in essential bureaucracies such as the departments of Health and Insurance, much can be done very quickly. Finally he asks the trustees a set of questions that common sense easily answers.

The Empire Zone does a nice job of finding the key question in the letter:

One of the more notable questions in the governor’s letter: “How can it be that the same hospitals that claim poverty and demand billions of dollars in state subsidies can afford to sustain a $65 million ‘education’ fund, contribute $22.5 million into political campaigns since 1999, and spend $12.7 million on lobbying since 2003?” He adds, “Furthermore, how can it be that those same hospitals that claim poverty and demand billions of dollars in state subsidies can afford to pay their executives multi-million dollar salaries?”

There is plenty more in the four page letter which can be found in the New York Sun. The facts show that the system is cracked and needs a serious retooling. The fiscal waste is glaring and no amount of lobbying by GYNHA and 1199 can mask the obvious fact that the budget must revamp the way health care is provided in New York.

Sharpton Takes On Spitzer

The brewing feud between Governor Steamroller and the health care unions has taken another twist this weekend. Al Sharpton has joined forces with 1199 S.E.I.U. and the Greater New York Hospital Association to fight against the new health care budget proposed by Spitzer. The Reverend has lent his name to a mass mailer and spoke for a radio blitz that claims the new plan short changes the poor and the cuts are in the worst place possible. Or are they?

From the radio spot:

“With H.M.O.’s raking in excessive profits to the tune of $5 million a day in New York alone, it’s unreal to me that Governor Spitzer would pick on underpaid nurses and health care workers in order to meet his bottom line,” Mr. Sharpton, left, said in a statement.

In the radio ad, he says nurses “are being forgotten in Governor Spitzer’s budget."

The Governor's spokeswoman Christine Anderson immediately fired back that the budget would actually provide historic increases for education funding and insurance for every child. Spitzer himself wrote a piece for the NY Post to explain his position.

From the Op-Ed:

We face this crisis because special interests - not the needs of patients - have guided health-care policy decisions in Albany.

My plan for health-care reform would transform our health care system into one that puts the needs of patients first.

I would make insurance available to every child in New York right away and reduce the overall number of uninsured by half over four years. I would not cut Medicaid benefits. I would increase public-health funding to prevent diabetes, obesity, asthma, lead poisoning, HIV/AIDS and cancer. I would use the state's bargaining power to cut the price it pays for prescription drug and improve care for seniors.

These proposals would be funded in part by holding down the growth in the bloated subsidies the state now provides to hospitals with relatively few Medicaid patients.

Not surprisingly, Big Health Care has objected to this proposal. They claim the most vulnerable patients and hospitals would be hurt.

This is nonsense. The total impact on hospitals would be less than 1 percent of total operating revenues. For the sake of comparison, hospital revenues have increased by an annual average of 7 percent over the past four years.

The Governor also proposed funding 20 more low-income area hospitals and fighting the unchecked billions of dollars that flow through the system. It seems that much like the NY state legislature, people are getting pissed off at Spitzer for shaking up the system that has been so miserably entrenched for far too long.

War Between Spitzer And 1199 Heats Up

This week Eliot Spitzer fired off an ad likening the Greater New York Hospital Association and 1199 to crybabies over his new health care reforms. He was met with a returning salvo over the airwaves. Today the battle reached new heights with Spitzer's presentation of his plan to the Association for a Better New York.

With the leaders of his opposition in attendance, he featured a powerpoint slide that claimed they were “Guardians of the Status Quo,” and continued to say that each of the Hospital Associations claims were 'flat out wrong.' The entire audience, save for 1199 and the Greater New York Hospital Association stood and applauded the Governor's presentation. Later on the ad wars resumed and Spitzer's opponents unleashed an ad with a nurse replying to Eliot, saying that she was no crybaby.

Let the wailing continue, and we'll see how it all works out in the end.