http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/ny.../12repubs.html
February 12, 2009
Uncovering the Perks of Albany’s Fallen G.O.P.
By DANNY HAKIM
ALBANY — Democrats took control of the State Senate last month after more than four decades of Republican rule, then set out to determine how the Senate’s own budget of nearly $100 million and its attendant perks were being distributed.
They are still trying to figure it out.
They recently realized there are some 75 employees working at the Senate’s own printing plant, a plain brick building on the outskirts of Albany. On Long Island, they found a small television studio, which had been set up — all with public money, with two press aides on hand to help operate it — for the exclusive use of Republican senators to record cable TV shows.
Democrats also came across what they are calling the “Brunomobile,” a $50,000 specially outfitted GMC van, with six leather captain’s chairs (some swiveling), a navigation system, rearview camera and meeting table. Joseph L. Bruno, the former Senate majority leader who was recently indicted on corruption charges, traveled in the van after his use of state helicopters sparked a feud with the Spitzer administration.
Then there are the parking spots, always at a premium near the Capitol. Democrats had been given roughly one spot per senator — there were 30 Democrats last year — and guessed there were perhaps double or even triple that controlled by the majority. Instead, they have learned, there are more than 800.
And Democratic leaders must determine what to do about 45 workers toiling away in a building close to the Capitol who appear to have been engaged in quasi-political research for the Republicans.
“Every time we nail something down, we uncover another rock and there’s another 30 people there — it’s all over the state,” said Angelo J. Aponte, who as the new secretary of the Senate is the top aide to Malcolm A. Smith, the Queens Democrat who became majority leader last month.
Mr. Aponte said the lack of cooperation from Republicans — and their decades-long absence of transparency — has left him poring over payroll records, trying to piece together the money trail. He said an audit would be conducted, either by the state comptroller or by an outside accounting firm.
Republicans have long defended their spending as the prerogative of the majority party, and also characterize as absurd the claim that they have been uncooperative — a smokescreen to hide that Democrats are now giving Republicans fewer resources than Democrats had received when they were in the minority. Indeed, Mr. Smith, while increasing the allotment for individual senators, is cutting the minority’s central staff budget to about $3 million from $7 million, after promising to put the minority party on more equal footing.
“That effectively neuters our ability to function as an opposition,” said Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican and the new minority leader. Still, many in the capital are tittering at the howls of anguish from the Republicans, who for so long gleefully starved the Democrats, and were known for paying their top staffers even more than the governor’s $179,000 salary.
Tensions between incoming and outgoing legislative majorities are not unusual. But the questions of how Senate Republicans spent public money are emerging at a time when the state is financially pressed, and the public is being asked to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more in taxes.
Mr. Smith, who says he will also reduce his own party’s staffing budget, has committed to shaving the Senate’s overall budget by 8 percent, mostly by cutting staff. The Democrats cannot say how many jobs they will eliminate, because they really do not know how many employees there are. Mr. Smith said he believed there were 1,200 to 1,500 people on the Senate payroll, but is not sure.
“We don’t even know where everybody is,” he said.
The transition has allowed for the first real glimpse inside the sprawling patronage machine built by Senate Republicans and operated with a veil of secrecy that sometimes left even rank-and-file G.O.P. members in the dark.
Senator Tom Libous, an 11-term Republican from Binghamton, said even he had not known there was a television studio on Long Island.
“You serious?” he said. “O.K. I don’t have one in Binghamton.”
John McArdle, a spokesman for Mr. Skelos, said calling it a television studio was an overstatement. Yes, there were cameras, lights and a place to record television segments — usually for cable-access programs — he conceded, but only in a corner of a special regional press office at a state building in Hauppauge.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Senator Craig M. Johnson — who had been the lone Long Island Democrat until November’s election — said he had heard “vague rumors” about the existence of the facility. He guffawed when asked if Mr. Johnson had ever been invited by the Republicans to use it.
“No,” Mr. Azzopardi said, “I don’t believe they ever gave us the password that shut down the waterfall to enter the cave leading into the studio.”
Republicans say they provided Democrats with detailed employment lists. Democrats insist that never happened, and are assembling their own.
During an interview, Mr. Smith turned to an aide and asked: “What’s that place off campus? Some building we haven’t even been to yet. It has like 200 people there and we didn’t even know it existed.”
He was referring to the Senate’s printing plant, about seven miles from the Capitol.
Bills, mailings and various brochures were printed there, with Republicans receiving premium service. For instance, the constituent newsletters sent to Republican districts were printed in multiple colors, while those printed for Democratic districts were printed in black and white, with one color. Democratic leaders say the lease for the plant currently costs the state $632,460 per year, and that the payroll appears to be about $2.7 million.
Workers there, many of whom have worked at the facility for much of their professional lives, are wondering about their job security.
“It’s not like it doesn’t go through people’s minds,” said Fred Beck, the good-natured assistant director of mail and printing services for the Senate, during a tour of the plant. He showed a reporter three jumbo Xerox machines that can each crank out 180 copies per minute, as well as thick coils of paper and stacks of Senate mailers.
Are all the employees here Republicans? Mr. Beck was asked.
“Yeah, I believe so,” he said. “It’s not like I go around and ask.”
At 90 Swan Street, in the building across the street from the Capitol, 45 employees worked for the Senate Research Service, which generated a variety of documents for the Senate, though Democrats and Republicans differ on the partisanship of their service.
A memo circulated late last year by top staff members of Mr. Skelos said the research service needed to coordinate with the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, then the majority’s political arm. The memo’s existence was previously reported by The New York Post.
“It was a mistake, it was unauthorized and it should never have been done,” Mr. McArdle said of the directive.
It is not clear what will become of the service, whose employees cost the state $2.1 million annually. A top official at the office declined to comment.
As the spending questions pile up, Republicans are grappling with the more general adjustment to being in the minority. Perhaps the ultimate indignity came last week, when Democrats refused to let a Republican senator interrupt a Democrat during an oration on the Senate floor, a courtesy typically afforded to a fellow senator.
“In 17 years, I’ve never refused to yield to any member’s questions,” said Senator Michael F. Nozzolio, an upstate Republican, after he was denied a chance to speak.
Senator Carl Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat, rhetorically swatted Mr. Nozzolio aside, saying simply, “I’m not finished.”
First Amendment rights are like muscles, if you don't exercise them they will atrophy.
No I'm sorry, it's not just the republicans. I believe that many knew about this outrage and were getting a piece of the pie.
There's no sense in getting upset. They'll do exactly what they did to Spitzer. Oust him out of office (to make it look good) and find a loophole so the money doesn't have to be paid back. Crooks
I hope that's not because of my post.Originally Posted by Anotherview
My post was in reply to The Pirate.
No, it wasn't. Just thought I'd let you know how I feel about all of thisI hope that's not because of my post.
My post was in reply to The Pirate.
uhh in this case?
It's the republicans.
RagnarThePirate: Yes, but I think this is only the start. Wait till the mud starts flying.
i'd rather be paying millions of tax dollars to people who actually doing somthing than the 2 billion the DEM's spend on Welfare, the 6 BILLION DEM's spend on Medicare and the BILLIONS OVER spent on Education and all the unions they rely on for their votes.
If i recal last month the DEM's rejected the idea of a pay cut in this state because they said it "wouldn't make a dent in the deficit" while the Repubs were all for it!
This state has been destroyed by them DEMS and their need to SPEND to win elections versus doing whats right for the REAL taxpayers!
"I know you guys enjoy reading my stuff because it all makes sense. "
Dumbest post ever! Thanks for the laugh PO!
In this case it is the Republicans. But you almost have to laugh. For 40 years this stuff was allowed by both sides.
I think once people see that it is not the parties but rather the people and the whole system that is the problem....this will continue.
For 40 years this stuff was allowed to go on. Any person, regardless of party, could have said something.
Check Out My Blog
www.creedthoughts.gov.www\creedthoughts
The investigation has even't begun yet. Stay tuned JMO
Don't you think if the dems knew of this waste they would have brought it up long ago? Furthermore, we had a rep gov Pataki along with a rep senate for countless years and your telling me those were great years? Oh I know your going to tell me those folks weren't real republicans.
The telltale story is that a government was running a privately owned printing business This is not something even the best of the best can keep under rap. I think alot of people were getting a piece of the action and nobody told on each other. Money talks
I think this is just politicians in general. Stupidity and waste are bipartisian.
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