Gunther, DeStefano also support tax commission report

By Nathan Brown | Published: December 11, 2013 | 1 Comment

Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, D, I, WF-Forestburgh, and Middletown Mayor Joe DeStefano both said Tuesday that they support the recommendations of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s tax-relief commission.

The recommendations include a property-tax free in jurisdictions that stick to the tax cap and work to share services and an increase in the estate tax exemption. Here’s a link to the story in today’s paper, which includes a copy of the report.

Most local Assembly members and senators were supportive of the recommendations; Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, was the exception, taking a more skeptical view of the report. Cahill is one of more liberal local Assembly members, and his less effusive reaction lines up somewhat with the reactions of some of his downstate Assembly Democratic colleagues and with groups such as New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness and the AFL-CIO, as Capital New York and the Times Union’s Capitol Confidential blog reported Tuesday.

DeStefano has been outspokenly in favor of the tax cap.

Full statements from Gunther and DeStefano below:

Gunther:

“I’m encouraged that the Tax Relief Commission’s first recommendations would provide property tax relief to homeowners. I have long supported a property tax circuit breaker– a more thoughtful approach that would provide meaningful relief, especially to families in the 100th Assembly District. I appreciate the Commission’s suggestions at reducing the tax burden on businesses, including simplifying the tax code and eliminating the 18-a utility assessment. Upstate businesses continue to struggle, and I look forward to working with the Governor and my colleagues to help Upstate businesses grow, thrive and create good paying jobs.”

DeStefano:

Middletown Mayor, Joseph M. DeStefano applauded Governor Cuomo and the New York State Tax Relief Commission Final Report as excellent news for property taxpayers in New York State.

The Commissions Report was released today and offered significant relief for New York property tax payers.

“Governor Cuomo has long been committed to relieving New York taxpayers from the burden of high property taxes, “ DeStefano said. He is delivering on that promise with his endorsement of the report. He urged state legislators to accept the report and begin the relief program supported by the governor.

“I supported the Governor’s tax cap proposal realizing that it would make our job on the local level more challenging. Governor Cuomo set the example of responsible leadership on the state level, and along with his commitment to cap property taxes, the Governor at the time said he would put forth a program to relieve the property tax burden on homeowners. This proposal does just that,” DeStefano said.

The Report also makes New York more competitive by lowering corporate tax rates to the lowest level since 1968.

“New York must be competitive in the corporate tax area to incentivize business to locate here and to end the outflow of jobs to other states. As for the upstate economy the Governor made bold promises in this area also and once again is delivering, DeStefano stated.

As the Mayor of a small city in upstate New York, I applaud the work of the New York State Tax Relief Commission and the leadership of Governor Cuomo as he continues to deliver on his commitments to the taxpayers of New York State.

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Neuhaus holding post-election fundraiser

By Chris McKenna | Published: December 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

Orange County Executive-elect Steve Neuhaus is getting a jump-start on restocking his campaign account before taking office by holding a $175-a-head “Victory Celebration” and fundraiser on Dec. 17 at Falkirk Estates & Country Club in Central Valley.

For companies looking to fill a table and display their names on a sign, the invitation offers ticket packages costing $1,000 (“A step in the right direction”), $1,500 (“Running with Steve”) and $2,500 (All-in for Steve”). Inquires are directed to former Orange County Republican Chairman Bill DeProspo, who was replaced as party leader in October after a decade in the post.

Campaign finance records show Neuhaus raised $376,000 and spent $402,000 — four times as much as his Democratic opponent, Roxanne Donnery — this year in his successful run for county executive. As of Nov. 28, he had only $7,000 left in his campaign account.

The upcoming fundraiser gives professional services firms and other companies a chance to pony up before new contribution limits kick in on those that want to win contracts with Orange County or renew the ones they already have. Under a crackdown on pay-to-play contributions enacted by the county Legislature in October and taking effect Jan. 1, any company donating more than $1,000 a year to the county executive would be ineligible for a county contract unless the executive returns the excess money.

 

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Donnery spent $80,000 in homestretch of county exec race

By Chris McKenna | Published: December 9, 2013 | Leave a comment

Orange County Legislator Roxanne Donnery spent about $80,000, mostly on campaign literature, in the final weeks of her unsuccessful campaign for county executive, according to a post-election financial report Donnery’s campaign recently filed.

That amount was far less than the $144,000 that Chester Supervisor Steve Neuhaus, the Republican who beat her, reported spending after Oct. 21. Neuhaus also raised far more money than the Democratic candidate during that same period, taking in $94,000 as she collected just over $15,000.

While the Republican reported landing three donations of $10,000 and two for $5,000 in the campaign’s last two weeks, Donnery’s biggest donations in the homestretch were three, $1,000 checks from attorney Helen Ullrich and her law firm and county Democratic Chairman Jonathan Jacobson, and a $1,750 contribution from the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee.

Donnery finished the campaign with about $1,900 in her account.

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Police union official eyes Rabbitt’s Assembly seat

By Chris McKenna | Published: December 9, 2013 | Leave a comment

A third Republican candidate has emerged for the Assembly seat Annie Rabbitt is vacating in January to become Orange County clerk.

Michael Morgillo, a 33-year New York City police officer who has worked as a trustee for the city’s Police Benevolent Association since 1999, said Monday that he intends to seek the Republican nomination for the seat and has met with party chairmen for Orange and Rockland counties and the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee to discuss his plans. He expects to make an official campaign announcement in January.

Morgillo lives in Monroe. The 98th District crosses southern Orange County, from Port Jervis to Harriman, and encompasses part of the Town of Ramapo in neighboring Rockland.

Deerpark Supervisor Karl Brabanec and former Washingtonville Mayor Kevin Hudson, both Republicans, already have announced they’ll see the 98th Assembly District seat, although Hudson has acknowledged that he will likely be ineligible to run until the general election in November 2014, since he moved into the district only recently and must live there at least a year before he could serve.

There is expected to be a special election early next year to fill the seat once the vacancy occurs. Candidates would be nominated by their parties for that race, rather than through primaries. That means there could be three elections for the 98th District next year: the special election, a September primary and the general election for a full, two-year term.

 

 

 

 

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Monroe vote tallies illuminate sharp divide

By Chris McKenna | Published: December 6, 2013 | Leave a comment

No big surprise here, but a breakdown of voting results by election districts in Monroe brings into sharp relief the conflicting preferences of voters on opposite sides of Route 17 in the three-way race for town supervisor.

United Monroe candidate Emily Convers won a commanding 90 percent of the vote in districts outside Kiryas Joel on Nov. 5, with Democratic town Councilman Harley Doles and Republican incumbent Sandy Leonard splitting the remaining 10 percent.  The vote totals there were 5,990 for Convers, 360 for Doles and 282 for Leonard.

But across the Quickway, Doles won an almost comically lopsided share of Kiryas Joel votes, enough to push him to a comfortable victory despite a higher number of votes cast for supervisor in the rest of Monroe. Endorsed by leaders of both of Kiryas Joel’s voting blocs, Doles won 6,430 votes there, compared to 14 for Leonard and 6 for Convers.

 

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Ulster County Legislature attempts to own sales tax drop

By James Nani | Published: December 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

The Ulster County Legislature is spinning the loss of 1 percent in county sales tax this month as a “tax holiday” in a release put out Thursday.

It’s true that shoppers in Ulster County this month will only have to pay 3 percent instead of the usual 4 percent when they buy things this month. The state’s 4 percent sales tax is still in effect.

“While 17 states offer annual sales tax holidays, the Ulster County sales tax decrease is expected to end early in 2014 after the vote of the New York State Assembly on the 2013 Ulster County Home Rule Request as submitted in January 2013,” the legislature said in a release.

But just because there’s a drop doesn’t mean it was by the county’s design.

Actually, most of the legislature adamantly fought the loss in sales tax revenue this year, but were stuck with it after Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, opposed the measure.

The county needs permission from the state Legislature to collect any more than 3 percent sales tax, but in June Cahill threw his own bills with strings attached into the mix, creating a logjam and sinking all the bills.

The measure allowing the collection of additional 1 percent has been approved every two years by the Legislature since the early 1990s and Cahill has long voted against the tax.

But this year he took his opposition to the next level and tanked the bill saying he wanted the county to take over the full costs of Safety Net, or welfare, from local municipalities as well as election costs.

Since then, Cahill has conceded on the election costs but he’s getting the full takeover of Safety Net. The logjam and ensuing war of words that lasted for months was heated between Cahill and Ulster County Executive Mike Hein.

Now that Cahill got his Safety Net takeover promised, in writing, by both Hein and the legislature, he’s promised to do everything he can to get it on the books by February next year.

The legislature was essentially caught in the middle during the whole argument. Cahill didn’t even approach anyone from the legislature before he tanked the bills to see if they supported the full Safety Net takeover. And there was no indication that Hein told the county legislature Cahill was threatening to tank the bills until days before it happened.

All that said, the county is reminding folks that if someone finds they’ve been charged at a higher tax rate after December 1, 2013, they can submit an Application for Credit or Refund of Sales or Use Tax located at http://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/ads/au11.htm.

Also, if shoppers find a business that refuses to adjust their sales tax, they can inform the State Department of Taxation and Finance at 518-457-0578 or online at http://www.tax.ny.gov/reporttaxfraud.htm.

 

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Rodriguez to lead Ulster Legislature

By Chris McKenna | Published: December 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

Ulster County’s Democratic lawmakers have chosen 10-year legislator Hector Rodriquez to lead the Legislature as chairman when it reconvenes in January with a newly elected Democratic majority taking control from the Republicans.

“I am deeply honored and humbled to have the support of the Democratic Caucus for the position of Chairman,” Rodriguez said in a press release announcing the decision. A Plattekill native and 12-year resident of New Paltz, Rodriguez has served previously as a committee chairman and minority whip.

Democrats, who will hold a 13-10 majority when new members take office in January, picked Donald Gregorius, an eight-year legislator and former Woodstock councilman, as their majority leader.

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Neuhaus spent $144,000 in final weeks

By Chris McKenna | Published: December 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

Orange County Executive-elect Steve Neuhaus spent a torrid $144,00 on a blitz of television ads, mailings and other campaign expenses in the final two weeks of his successful race against Democrat Roxanne Donnery, according to his latest financial report.

His single biggest expense was the $55,000 his campaign funneled through the county Republican Committee to the New York Republican State Committee to reimburse the state party for mailings it distributed on his behalf. Candidates transfer money in this way to take advantage of the lower postal rate granted to state parties, even though the practice violates federal postal regulations.

Neuhaus paid his public-relations firm, Focus Media, $40,000 for TV ads and $11,200 for campaign literature in the closing weeks, according to his report.

Neuhaus reported collecting $94,000 in donations between Oct. 21 and Nov. 28, most of it coming in before the Nov. 5 election. Hig biggest donations included $10,000 from Barry Breeman, a real estate mogul who recently moved to Puerto Rico from Warwick to shelter his income from federal taxes; $10,000 from Jeffrey Rosenberg, a Village of Florida businessman who had already given Neuhaus $30,000; $9,500 from the Teamsters; $5,000 from the campaign account of County Executive Ed Diana, the three-term incumbent he’s replacing; $5,000 from Warwick developer Jonah Mandelbaum; and $4,000 from Jack Holt, whose Pearl River construction company is overseeing the impending overhaul of the county Government Center.

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Maloney, Gibson call for House vote on anti-bias bill

By Chris McKenna | Published: December 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

U.S. Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-Cold Spring) and Chris Gibson (R-Kinderhook) were among 10 House members signing a Dec. 3 letter to House Speaker John Boehner to demand the House vote on a Senate-approved bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

“An innate sense of fairness compels our country to rise above all forms of workplace discrimination,” reads the letter, which then points out that the bill “balances worker protections with respect for religious employers,” and prohibits “preferential treatment of hiring quotas.”

“We are not seeking special privileges  – just equal protections,” the House members wrote.

The Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013, or ENDA, on Nov. 7 in a 64-32 vote, with 10 Republicans joining Democrats in support. The bill was introduced in the House as HR 1755 and referred to four committees on April 25, but no action has been taken. It now has 200 co-sponsors, including virtually the entire Democratic conference.

Gibson and Richard Hanna of New York’s 19th and 22nd congressional districts, respectively, are two of only five Republican co-sponsors. All five signed the Dec. 3 letter to Boehner.

 

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Legislative races unchanged by absentee ballots

By Chris McKenna | Published: November 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

The counting of absentee ballots in Orange County’s closest legislative race on Nov. 5 has confirmed Republican James DiSalvo as the winner of a three-way contest for the District 14 seat Democrat Roxanne Donnery is vacating.

DiSalvo, a Highland Falls trustee, had led former Highlands Supervisor Inga Quaintance by 35 scanned ballots on Election Day and wound up beating the Democrat by 44 votes in the final count, with Conservative Party candidate Konstantinos Fatsis coming in third. The complete tallies were: DiSalvo, 977; Quaintance, 933; and Fatsis, 526.

The post-election tallying of absentee ballots hasn’t changed the initial results in any elections for all 21 Legislature seats, 18 of which were contested. As expected, that means the party split on the Legislature when new members take office in January will remain just what it was before the election: 11 Republicans, nine Democrats and one Independence Party member.

With the election of fourteen incumbents and seven newcomers for four-year terms, one-third of the Legislature is turning over. The new members are: Paul Ruszkiewicz, R-3rd District; Curlie Dillard, D-4th District;  James Kulisek, D-6th District; Barry Cheney, R-8th District; John Vero, R-10th District; James DiSalvo, R-14th District; and Shannon Wong, D-21st District.

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