New York Now; Caption Master #50

We are out of money. You know how to carry out a business because they didn't get into the reorganization plan for the troubled New York City OTB fails to pass in the Senate this week. Meetings over 1000 New Yorkers are now out of a job. Merry Christmas everybody. I hope you have a good night's sleep knowing full well that these things will not even be able to collect unemployment insurance. The cost of being terminated. Also two downstate senators from this year's session find themselves in court this week both facing possible jail time. And finally we look at the legacy of Governor David Paterson when it comes to innovation economy. That's all that's in New York now. Funding for New York now is provided by need to be additional funding provided by the LEO Cox beach Berlin foundation. This is New York now.

Hi everyone and welcome to New York now on Matt Ryan and I'm coming around the turn into a new administration a plan to rescue New York City off track betting loses by a nose otherwise known as three votes. Let's get caught up on this week's headlines which unfortunately starts off more like a police blotter. Recently retired state senator in Eli Bell pled guilty Monday morning in a White Plains federal courthouse to charges of tax evasion and obstruction of justice. The FBI began investigating allegations that life Bell had demanded and received kickbacks from a lawyer who did business with his nonprofit senior housing agency in Putnam County. According to the FBI LIVE Bill told the attorney he would hold back payment of the invoices submitted if he didn't return half of the amount back. So why Bell in cash. He met with the same lawyer in June after he got wind of the federal investigation and told the lawyer quote All I know is as long as you and I are consistent I'm fine. You're fine. There was never any cash between you and

I. OK. Unbeknownst ally Bell The lawyer was wearing a microphone. The Republican who in November was elected as county executive in Putnam now faces somewhere around one and a half to two years in prison. In addition current senator Kevin Parker was found guilty of two misdemeanors Tuesday stemming from an altercation he had with the New York Post photographer in Queens back in 0 9. But he was cleared of the more serious felony charges. Parker broke the finger of the man who was taking photos and damaged his car. He'll be sentenced at the end of January and could face possible jail time. Democratic Conference leader John Sampson was asked Tuesday if he'd be taking any disciplinary action against his fellow senator in light of what happened recently so that former Senator Hiram Montserrat there's really no comparison when you look at the two circumstances. And at this point time just for the record you know. I'm not advocating

that this warrants expulsion. You'll remember earlier this year the Senate voted to expel Montserrat who like Parker was convicted of misdemeanor assault. Montserrat was convicted of assaulting his then girlfriend also on Tuesday the Senate failed to pass a restructuring plan for the New York City off track betting operation. The bankrupt business run by the state has now shut down with over 1000 workers losing their jobs. Governor David Paterson said Tuesday night in a statement that the lack of support for the bill would mean the state would be stuck with more than 600 million dollars in liability. Here's a look at the floor debate on the bill wasn't it fell three votes shy of passing. We are certainly coming into the holiday season with good cheer and welfare to everybody again. Merry Christmas everybody. And I hope you have a good night's sleep knowing full well that these people may not even be able to

collect unemployment insurance because they're being terminated. When we look at the face of those men and women in those green jackets they're representative of middle class New York Hughes who held this state together. A no vote on this bill. Likes to wick to a stick of dynamite that will blow up the racing industry. There's no reason for us to leave without truly solving this problem. And there's no reason. I mean to call out the governor of our state to Larry Swartz. There's no reason for you to pull the plug. No legal reason no actual reason. For that to happen. That's a bunch of baloney. Afterward Larry Schwartz a top aide to Governor Paterson and the OTB chairman says they're shutting down because they're out of money. The legislation that was before the Senate was to help the entire state of New York. Tens of thousands of jobs now a been put at risk throughout the state. We can

see hundreds tracks closing in this state. We could see horse farms going out of business. We can see breeders moving to other states that are more. What's racing friendly. This was not about New York City. This was about New York. Time now to dig deeper into the week's top stories so for that let's head over to the reporter roundtable with Casey. All right I'm joined at the round table by my capitol colleagues Karen DeWitt of New York State Public Radio and from my own paper the Albany Times Union Jimmie bill kind. Well we just heard the narrative of what happened on Tuesday the NYCO OTB bill going down to defeat. How should blame be apportioned we've had a flurry of finger pointing in the days since there is so much blame to CO. I don't even know where to begin. First of all the Senate Democrats they couldn't muster 32 votes they haven't been able to do that on many many issues. The Senate Republicans were kind of intransigent as well they said they wanted to include Long Island in

upstate OTB where they wouldn't vote in the New York City. Bill it all I mean maybe they could have waited on till January avoided this. Then there were some profiles in courage type senators who kind of hid out I know Jimi you spoke to one of them Senator Liz Krueger who you know actually Casey spoke to her but they walked out of the chamber and it's a slow roll call vote your vote is not counted if you walk out of the chamber so Center Hugh Farley who is local to us here in the Albany area he's from New York you know just walked out and he said that he would have voted for the bill. So it's sort of been badly bogged down in talking to senators say oh yeah that was excuses right. And Senator Kruger to her defense and did did take that take the time to sort of invite me up to her office to explain what happened said that she would have been the 30 second vote for the Democratic conference that she had made that commitment but that she did not like the bill that she didn't think it was going to be a solution to NYCO TB's problems and that frankly many constituents in her district don't like teepees

I don't know. Well that's true we pay them. Right. And Senator John Sampson the leader of the Democratic conference which controls the Senate through January and probably not beyond that's not quite settled. He said you know he said that some senators did not live up to their responsibility and he was careful to not directly attack the Republicans and we saw him after it but he stood with the unionized OTB workers and they were very emotional lot of these people who lost their jobs just that the holidays they weren't sure if they were going to get unemployment. They didn't know what was going to become of them and it was very emotional and taxing event for them is a horrible thing for those who are so resistant to witness they're essentially used as pawns in a game and just have to sit there and witness it and then their lives immediately after the shutdown. Many people say it will have ramifications will have ripples across the state perhaps even here in the capitol region and Sarah Teather nice rary Schwartz was bluffing at first that TV wouldn't.

Yeah I think what was really shocking about this was inaction had consequences for once because usually they come up with something at the last minute that's what everybody expected or they would back down and say well OK I will be up another couple weeks and I think that was another thing that was really shocking about this week that it just came crashing down. It's interesting Senator Dale Volker who spend serving in the Senate for a very long time I think over 30 years kind of walked out of a chair and said what's next see that I will be back and. He believe that they will be back that there will be something that he didn't think anything was going to happen and that was on Tuesday afternoon. Now what was interesting was Wednesday morning Larry Schwartz the secretary to the governor his top aide and the chairman of New York City OTB said that closure at Saratoga racetrack and the gem of New York racing and racing aficionados say one of the greatest most prestigious tracks in the world is as a quote definite possibility of shutting down and the way racing is structured New York is that all these entities are interrelated OTB sends money to not New York Racing Association which runs the track and there is money that goes to a breeding fund that goes to the farmers are

breeding horses and it goes to the purses. And if you have a high person you attract the horses to run the race that you have the better horses more people more people more money more. It's all interrelated and by taking one out of the machine the racing officials argue Bill Schwartz and Greg Rayburn who is serving as the interim executive director said this is going to have consequences for the racing industry writ large. And there's no question that it's going to have consequences but the question is well how severe are they going to be are they going to be able to find a way to recoup this. I mean the overall picture the tepees are really outdated I mean again many Larssen right. Need some time on line. Yeah. PHONE OPERATOR Yeah absolutely and can they get the money from from those right. But certainly you need some kind of comprehensive overhaul not this piecemeal pull the plug on and that's what Schwartz who just he said let them fail. The next governor will deal with this comprehensively. Well let's talk about consequences in other matters right now two of the senators who were not there on Tuesday were the loud bell although he

had retired a week ago the previous Friday. And Kevin Parker due to court action I guess you could say these are two senators had good excuses there. Parker was on trial he was convicted that day of a couple of misdemeanors and there was word that he was going to come up and vote but I don't think he did he ever make it there by the end of the day. I don't know he didn't make it for the vote itself I don't know if he showed up afterwards but I heard the same thing Sen. official said that Senator Parker was on his way. And funnily enough had he made it there for the vote I had Hugh Farley who wanted to vote for this made a vote 29 plus two is 31 Yes Senator Liz Krueger made good on their word. That's 32 and the bill would have passed so it's just a little wonderful Asterix on history. But Parker you know Parkers had a history of anger problems. This incident with a New York Post photographer in which prosecutors said this or knew a violent altercation damage to the man's camera was caused an injury to his finger was caused by Parker's actions. He was not found. He was found

guilty of criminal mischief charge and actually just play with it. Yeah right which is what he was initially charged with and different than the misdemeanor assault charge that Senator Hiram Montserrat was found guilty of last year about this time. And so the question became remember there was this big debate about Senator Montserrat whether he continued to serve in the Senate with a misdemeanor conviction and ultimately the Senate had a panel they reviewed all the testimony. Then they should report they recommended either censure or expulsion. And the full chamber voted to expel Montserrat Sampson the Democratic leader voted against that measure. You put the question to John Sampson how is Kevin Parker's violence different from Montserrat and his answer. He essentially. Didn't get to a he said that there is no comparison and I asked him to explain why he said you know it's about a TV related press conference and you know as a journalist I'm I'm not saying that that one is worse than the other I'm not by any means trying to belittle domestic violence but I think it was a fair question and it's

something that the Democrats don't seem eager to grapple with. And again if they head into the minority they won't have to. There's been so much bad publicity about the Senate this is just one more thing between Senator Parker and Senator Lott about which really came as a big surprise Ryan in the Senate anymore. He at least resigned so he didn't embarrass his Republican colleagues any further. But his sentence sentencing is coming up in March. It's likely quite likely that he will face jail time for his offense he was just at the Putnam County executive he was elected in November obstruction of justice tax evasion on a fairly large scale. It all had to do with member items and kickbacks exact member items. Every time. All right well let's let's discuss some slightly more distinguished names we had we had at the end of the week the appointments by Andrew Cuomo the people who are really going to be closest to him his senior staff. What does that list kind of tell us about how Andrew Cuomo is going to govern.

Well he's taken some of his top aides from his current office of the attorney general notably Steve Cohen his current chief of staff and Ben last who is his special assistant really someone who has grown very close to Cuomo over his term as attorney general. They are going respectively as secretary to the governor and chief of staff. And it's unclear what the working dynamic between the two men will be. The authority rests with Cohen's title secretary the governor but it will be interesting when thing that struck me was there are a lot of lawyers a lot of lawyers and if we remember when Eliot Spitzer set up his administration he brought a lot of people from the office of the attorney general and the criticism of Spitzer among many was the skills that made him a successful prosecutor did not make him a successful governor. So it will be interesting to watch that dynamic in the Cuomo ministration. And he also brought in some blasts from the past men who we've known for a long time and who served his father Governor Mario Cuomo belly who was in his father's administration somebody from his days Howard glacier. Kind of a collection of trusted proven aides and I think that's probably

a smart choice because they're going to have a really tough challenge running this government they're going to have to hit the ground running on day one is that the way we actually must use that expression. So I got my day 1 but they're going to have to you know be prepared to govern and Cuomo knows all these people who trust them he's brought them in from all the people he's known his whole life they think some of them don't know how to run government some of them you know hope that they can and you know it's going to be necessary because he's got huge challenges. He's going to huge opposition from the unions that he wants to take on and all the entrenched special interests and so it seems like a smart collection you don't want a bunch of newcomers from here there and everywhere and ministration like this I think one name that I found interesting was Adam Cohen who's a former journalist and a lawyer as well. And there was a couple from the outside that he did put a former member of the New York Times editorial board and also the author of a recent and well-regarded book called Nothing to fear about. FDR was sort of interesting. FDR had been at the opening crisis months of FDR as a

ministration. It's this clearly kind of a reference to what was going to Fannie also bring in Jeremy Lin who was author of the famous Brennan Center report about New York state having the most dysfunctional government in the nation that sort of got the ball. Rolling for at least focus on reform if not actual reform. And that was also one of the first people to recommend that the governor could name his own lieutenant governor during the Senate. So it's an interesting collection of people. All right well let's moving back to issues of law and order and also involving the attorney general Pat Lynch associates one of the biggest names in lobbying in Albany and really across the state was netted or made a settlement this week in the ongoing pension fund seemingly never ending pension fund investigation right who actually announced summons with three firms. Lynch another Albany lobbyist Jerry Weiss and the firm all this capital. Who is whose. In person. Saul Mayer had been previously implicated in this

probe with Pat Lynch it's it was a pretty stiff penalty a five year ban personally from lobbying the state comptroller a five year ban for all those with her firm from doing any pension fund placement lobbying and Cuomo in this settlement agreement described what he asserted Lynch did which was that she bundled campaign contributions for have a c while doing it and that she arranged a job for the daughter of Peggy Lipton the famous mud squad actress and the girlfriend of have a CS tap RTA have a chief of staff act in Quincy Jones is a daughter. Right. Few star names in this. Yes and I'm going to say glamour to this I guess. But it showed that this is how you had to do business and it just kind of laid bare like you want to get something done you want to get business you want to get a meeting with the top official. Hire Pat when she can broker the media hire Jerry Weiss he couldn't broker a meeting with the city pension fund and it's just it just showed how things work in Albany. Just once again reiterated kind of the

system as it existed under the €10 have AC and a bunch minister form probably not have done these investigations to this day. I think Cuomo is trying to send a definite message to the Capitol culture and also to Speaker Silver because Pat Lynch used to be speaker Silver's top. When everybody knows Pat is a capital she's well known she's well collected and she kind of traded on these contracts she had perceived access to these people and she's built really a heck of a business it's like the most I would say probably the most influential lobbying for at least the top three or four right. And so this is really sending like a message that things are going to be business as usual to do it with the timing. You know in December just before he becomes governor and. We should note that wench is also going to have to pay half a million dollars fine as part of her settlement as well. Well that is where we're going to have to leave it. Thanks very much we got through a lot of stuff. Karen DeWitt of New York State Public Radio and Jimmy Beale kind of the Times Union. And now we'll kick it back to Matt at the desk.

With less than a month to go in his administration Governor David Paterson is starting to get his legacy scrutinized. He spent a good part of his time in office trying to create jobs in an economy based on knowledge and technology. But how has he done when it comes to making New York the leader in the innovation economy. Our Dan Brazil takes a look as we head down the Innovation Trail. Governor David Paterson stumbled into the executive office after Eliot Spitzer resigned in March 2008. He's been called the accidental governor. But some members of his administration would like to see him remembered as the clean energy governor. Tom Condon the governor's deputy secretary of Energy says criticism goes with the territory when you're governor. However he says Patterson's record will speak for itself. On December 30 first Patterson's two years and nine months as chief executive of the state of New York will come to an end. Condon says the governor spent most of that time fighting for cleaner energy. We have expanded a number of state programs to actually achieve the goal. We've

interacted several pieces of legislation that will help us achieve the goal and we've really actually transformed the energy landscape. We have to change the way that we use energy. We have to be more energetic about our future. The energy landscape was a major component of his 2009 and 2010 State of the state addresses. Governor Paterson laid out the 45 by 15 program. The plan calls for New York State to meet 45 percent of its electricity needs through energy efficiency and renewable energy by 2015. Congdon says it was one of the most ambitious plans in the nation. It's not just an energy policy although it's going to help ensure we meet reliability needs. It's also a real economic development and environmental policy strategy as well. There was no immediate account of how many jobs have been created so far. Critics say the plan was definitely aggressive but the governor fell short on delivery. Half of that money that was set aside to help encourage that. Through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority disappeared into the

general fund to be used to balance the state budget. Right about this time last year John Sheahan from the Adirondack Council says the money from Nice search was supposed to promote efficiency and renewable energy technologies. And overall she his organization gives the governor a poor grade on the environment. He may have had that aggressive agenda but all in all he squandered it by raiding the fund. That's right. Clean energy was only part of the governor's focus. Paterson says he recognized the future economic growth in many regions of the state is in the new economy that is based on knowledge technology and innovation. That's why he says he got rid of the empire's own program. Literally giving entrepreneurs money when they weren't creating jobs. And the new system is going to focus on being of assistance and jobs and what we think of the expanding areas. With that he was able to strike high profile deals to bring Internet giant Yahoo to Buffalo and keep canon and IBM headquartered in New York State.

But now what I'm hoping they'll do in the next few years is to accommodate the smaller deals not by government putting public money into leveraging companies to come here but by lowering the taxes for business. One of those low profile initiatives is his efforts to promote New York as the place to be for battery research. Congdon says Patterson created a consortium of 50 companies and universities. The group funds targeted programs to speed up the rate of innovation in rechargeable battery technology for electric and hybrid cars. But the governor said is we should bring all those people who are already working on this together in a consortium and make New York the battery R&D capital of the country. Shortly after the consortium General Electric announced it was building a new rechargeable battery plant in Schenectady ban an automotive company that makes electric cars is building a plant in central New York.

This kind of initiative is already bearing fruit in real real. Tangible ways where companies are actually attracted to New York because of not just the money we have available and economic development incentives but also because of the talent that we have here. But the NFIB an organization that represents small businesses is not impressed. The executive director Michael Elmendorf says the governor gets a passing grade for effort but a deal when it comes to following through on his promises. He says the governor approved two of the worst budgets ever with huge tax increases creating a bad environment for business. Dennis Mullen chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation says this governor came into office during unprecedented economic times but he still managed to invest in the new economy. When you look at where the go what the governor had to deal with and where we are today. I think his legacy will be looked upon as one that he was able to weather the storm balanced the budget meet the challenges day in and day

out that were in front of him and the Innovation Trail for New York now and in Brazil the Innovation Trail is a collaboration between five upstate media outlets where the goal is to help the public gain a better understanding of the connection between technological breakthroughs and the revitalization of the upstate economy. For more on this story and others like it you can go to Innovation Trail dot org. You still have one week left to vote in our poll question. What letter grade would you give the governorship of David Paterson. Head to our website to vote at W NHT dot org slash New York now. You can also e-mail us and why now at WME. Org or just vote on our Facebook site. Speaking of Governor Paterson next week we'll air our exit interview with New York's 50:50 chief executive. Here's a preview. The decision you regret the most. I regret not appointing the senator early but it's hindsight that informs me of it remember.

Our senator who became Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not leave office until the day before I appointed the senator. But because there were a lot of high profile candidates in that process it made it more like a vice presidential selection. And what he should have done was appointed someone earlier and just put an end to it. And I think the frenzy is what led to the unfortunate mischaracterization of one of the candidates by peeling Kennedy right who were people working for me something that I will regret for a long time. The governor had a lot of interesting things to say and will bring that interview to you next week for my partner Casey and the entire New York Canal Crew Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time right here on this PBS station. Funding for New York now is provided by W NTT

additional funding provided by the LEO Cox speech philanthropic foundation.