Council Votes To Allow Larger Political Contributions By Labor Unions

Just eight days after general elections which returned most of the present City Council to office, that organization passed a controversial bill which would increase political donations to many councilmembers.

The bill was pushed strongly by the New York City Central Labor Council, headed by Assemblymember Brian McLaughlin (D–Flushing) and was sponsored by Councilmember Bill de Blasio (D–Brooklyn), a candidate for the powerful Council Speaker post which will be decided when the new council is organized next January 4.

The bill passed, 44 to 3, so Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s threat to veto it has no real meaning. He said the council should not pass a law which results in the councilmembers being the direct beneficiaries. “The conflict is insurmountable,” he said.

But the mayor also said that each union local should be permitted to give money to whomever its members choose. This reflects the fact that many unions supported the mayor in the recent election, including the Central Labor Council.

The Campaign Finance Board, which makes the rules on political contributions and disbursements, opposes the council bill, as do many good-government groups. But McLaughlin sees the measure as one preventing the board from imposing a restrictive rule which is undemocratic and unfair to working men and women.

Although the bill would allow more money to flow from labor unions into current councilmembers’ campaign treasuries, it would not help them in winning re-election to the council because the majority of members returning for a new term in January cannot run for another consecutive term because of term limits. But it could help them if they build a treasury to run for some other office when their terms end in 2009.

The controversial bill provides local chapters of the same union to be counted as district sources of contributions. Currently the CFB rule says no single source, or central union, may contribute more than $2,750 to council candidates or $4,950 to candidates in citywide races.

IS COMMUTER TAX DOA? Reinstatement of the tax on commuters who live in the suburbs but work in the city was pushed strongly by losing Democratic candidate Fernando Ferrer in the mayoral election and was given a similar boost by Bloomberg several days after the election.

However, a spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said in Albany that the tax has been rejected in the past and will be rejected in the future if it arrives in Albany, where the levy must be passed before New York City can impose it.

BUDGET REFORMS STILL ALIVE: Reports out of Albany say that the budget changes proposed under Proposition One, which was soundly defeated on Election Day, will be pursued anew by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Bruno in the legislature during the next session.

That may seem surprising since 65 percent of the voters cast 2.5 million votes against the changes, which would strengthen the Speaker’s and Majority Leader’s powers at the expense of the governor.

Trying to strengthen their case to pass the budget changes in their individual houses, where party discipline would rule out any opposition, Silver and Bruno said the voters opposed Proposition 1 because they didn’t understand what it meant.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who led the assault against the power grab, said the leaders’ explanation was ridiculous. No doubt Governor George Pataki will veto the budget changes, but there’ll be enough of the votes necessary to override it.

DEM PRIMARY FOR GOV. IN ’06? While most political forecasts expected the Republican Party to be embroiled in choosing a candidate for governor next year, that didn’t seem to be the case on the Democratic Party side.

For the Dems, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced early on he was running for governor and nary a voice was raised in opposition, at least until November 8, when Tom Suozzi scored a convincing victory in being re-elected as Nassau County Executive.

Since the outspoken, 43-year-old pol had been viewed as gubernatorial timber before the election, it was only natural the media would seize on his victory to write scenarios projecting him as a candidate for governor.

Those scenarios took on a decidedly real tone last week as Suozzi, on some television talk show interviews criticized Spitzer for failing to rein in Medicaid fraud in the state’s $44 billion program.

But although Suozzi otherwise praised Spitzer’s record as Attorney General, he did not endorse him on one show when he was asked if Spitzer would make a good governor.

Suozzi was quoted as saying, “I don’t know that he’d [Spitzer] be a good governor or a bad governor.”

Republicans pounced on Suozzi’s comments to attack Spitzer, too, but a spokesman for the attorney general defended his anti-fraud efforts by citing a huge increase in monies recovered in fraud investigations.

A story in Newsday predicted Suozzi would announce he’s running for governor in January, citing sources in the county executive’s office.

Meanwhile, a furious fight for the GOP nomination appears to be brewing among former Massachusetts Governor William Weld and New York State Independence Party-turned-Republican Tom Golisano, a Rochester billionaire who opposed George Pataki. Also in the mix are Randy Daniels, Pataki’s former secretary of state, and former Assembly Minority Leader John Faso.

GOP State Republican Chairman Steven Minarik is reportedly steering party leaders behind Weld, and those loyal to Pataki have threatened to work for Democrat Spitzer against a Golisano candidacy, it is said.

CROWLEY SAYS ‘BACK INSURANCE INDUSTRY’: Congressmember Joseph Crowley (D–Queens/The Bronx) is co-sponsoring a bill to extend the federal government’s backing of the insurance industry which was enacted after 9/11 and encouraged companies to insure construction projects which helped to revive the city’s economy.

Crowley said that the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was “an essential safety net for the insurance industry, our financial markets and our economy” and helped to stem a worse economic downturn after 9/11.

“Over time, the insurance industry will develop additional terrorism capacity,” Crowley said in urging TRIA’s renewal. He said government support is the reason for construction of the new Shea and Yankee Stadiums and other projects, some of which are in Long Island City and all of which are creating jobs.