SD-46: State of the Race 9/5 to 9/9

Sen. Breslin's Political Future In Question Thanks to Martland's Spirited Primary Challenge

Welcome to another edition of State of the Race for the Albany County State Senate seat. Incumbent Senator Neil Breslin and his challenger Luke Martland are both in the fight of the thier lives as Breslin seeks to defend his seat of 14 years and Martland looks to turn years of public service experience into his first elected position. It has evolved from a safe-bet for the Senator to an outside chance that Albany County might just get a new State Senator.

The Times Union's Jordan Carleo-Evangelist profiled the race for newspaper readers at the one-week-to-go mark. If you missed the previous editions of the State of the Race or are just tuning in as many voters may be, this article is a great summary of how things look and how we got here. Everything is covered, from Breslin's place as one of three ruling brothers in Albany County to his widely publicized gaffe on prior-approval to Martland's crticisms of his insurance lobby bankroll and even a testament to just how well Martland is doing with voters. It is highly recommended reading for those hoping to catch up in the last few days before the primary.

For regular readers, welcome back! And get ready for the biggest update yet, in the shortest time frame since our
previous edition, as we head into the home stretch in the most important Democratic primary in the Capital Region this year...

(Cross-Posted on The Albany Project)

Luke Martland



"Take Albany Back"

The biggest development for Martland's campaign was the release of his second television advertisement, this one entitled Good Question, Mr. Breslin:



The ad once again attempts to turn this now infamous footage of the Senator's flub into a haymaker, and I can't fault Martland for it at all. The fact that Senator Breslin was caught on camera not knowing the actual contents of a bill he sponsored in his committee in what is supposed to be his area of expertise after months of talking it up for months would have been a godsend to any challenger. The fact that Martland is the first Democratic primary challenger to Sen. Breslin in his 14 years to have the funds to re-broadcast what was already the most damaging new story in his career is another reason the Senator is pulling out all the stops (and the full contents of his substantial war chest) to defend Martland's spirited first run for office.

Funding for avertising campaigns was a topic explored in the TU Local Politics report on the ad. It reveals that Breslin is has spent over $120,000 in broadcast advertising for last month alone...for a primary race. The funding advantage averages out to about ten to one in Breslin's favor, but today, Martland pointed out that the amount of money Breslin is pouring into this thing is just ridiculous:

Martland Accuses Incumbent Neil Breslin of Trying to Buy the September 14th primaryTimes Union says Breslin spent $184,449 in July and August MARTLAND

(September 9, 2010, Albany) State Senate candidate Luke Martland today accused 14-year-incumbent Neil Breslin of trying to buy the September 14th primary election by spending $184,449 between July 12 and September 3, 2010.

“Neil Breslin can’t run on his record so he is trying to buy the election,” said Martland who has campaigned door to door for 90 days to win the primary on September 14th.

“I don’t have a huge campaign war chest funded by insurance companies, lobbyists and special interests,” added Martland. “Instead, I have knocked on doors and spoken to voters everywhere in Albany County from Albany to Altamont, from Colonie to Coeymans, from Watervliet to Westerlo and every place in between."

Martland's campaign claims he has spent the past 90 straight days campaigning door-to-door. This is an impressive feat, and no doubt Martland's advantage in that department is increased physical endurance thanks to his time spent serving in the Marines. But he's been fighting with words, too, and yesterday he unveiled an extensive list of state problems he'd combat as State Senator. His press release and press conference yesterday was a policy wonk's dream and should leave no doubt whatsoever as to where Martland stands on economic issues. The entire platform is included below in full:

Martland Unveils Plan to Revitalize New York’s Economy

((September 8, 2010. Albany) – State Senate candidate Luke Martland today unveiled his plan to revitalize New York’s economy by reforming the budget process, cutting taxes, spending and borrowing, freezing the growth of state government, remaking government and reducing mandates.

“New York’s Government is broken and is failing New Yorkers,” said Martland. “Budgets are late every year, taxes keep going up, jobs are fleeing Albany Co. Now we know one of the reasons why – our Senator, Assistant Majority Leader Neil Breslin can’t even be bothered to read or understand the bills he votes on.”

“If elected, I will propose the following plan to get New York’s budget and fiscal house in order. These five steps will provide the foundation to address our State’s chronic budget problems,” said Martland.

STEP ONE – REFOM THE BUDGET PROCESS

New York’s budget, when the legislature bothers to pass one, is riddled with accounting gimmicks and untrue revenue projections intended to mask the budget’s true cost. For example, the 2010-11 budget has been described as “…riddled with cheating and basic math errors,” and relying on “… at least $5 billion in gimmicks and dubious assumptions.” Over the last few years the legislature has consistently counted revenue projections that are clearly false.

If we want to ensure that the State budget is truly balanced, then we must change the budget process so that is transparent, accurate and free of the accounting gimmicks of the past. I will push for the following changes:

Creation of an independent budget office which will produce an independent analysis of any legislation and its true cost to the taxpayers. If legislation has a cost, the sponsor of that legislation must delineate specifically how that cost will be paid for.

Adoption of Generally Acceptable Accounting Principles (GAPP) in preparing the budget.

Adoption of a five year financial plan to better plan budget decisions.

End to sweeps where funds collected for one purpose are taken to pay for general government operating expenses.

The debt of public authorities should be reported as a financial obligation of the state and incorporated into the budget process.

Consider a certification requirement so that the independent Budget Office, or Comptroller’s Office must certify that a budget is truly balanced.

These reforms will help ensure that the budget is accurate, transparent and that legislators can no longer use gimmicks, “… cheating and basic math errors …” to hide their irresponsible borrowing and spending.

STEP TWO – CUT AND LEAD BY EXAMPLE

In a time of crisis, true leaders lead by example. New York’s elected officials must step up and set an example by making sacrifices and curbing some of the most egregious examples of governmental waste. As State Senator, I will propose a series of steps, including:

An immediate 10% cut in salary for all legislators. I will propose this, and even if it is not adopted I will take a 10% cut myself.

Sharply reduce salaries for political appointees throughout the government. New York Government is rife with political appointees who are paid excessive salaries. The Authorities Budget Office recently released a report detailing some of the inflated salaries at State Authorities. For example, some of the examined authorities were paying top earners between $230,000 and $580,000 in salary. A large proportion of staff of some authorities are paid over $100,000 a year. And, at least $6.6 million in bonuses were paid out to public authorities across the State according to the same report.

I will propose legislation that no one who works for the State government, no matter what the position or title can make more then the Governor in total compensation.
Force dramatic reduction of pork and member items: I will push for a 50% reduction in member items for the 2011 – 12 fiscal year. In addition, all member items should be included in the regular budget and voted on as part of the regular budget process.

These measurers can produce substantial savings, especially going forward. Even more important, these measures will show leadership by example and help eliminate the most notorious misuses of taxpayer money.

STEP THREE - TOP TO BOTTOM GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION

Everyone agrees that New York’s government is inefficient and bloated. To truly shrink and rationalize State government and help balance the budget, we need a fast and complete reorganization. This reorganization must encompass not only agencies, but also public authorities – in other words all parts of New York’s sprawling governmental apparatus.
I will propose legislation establishing a two-step process that will revolutionize State government within two years:

First, I will propose legislation authorizing an independent top-to-bottom review of the structure of state operations, agencies, authorities and other entities. This review, to be conducted by outside efficiency and business experts primarily of the Governor’s choosing, will focus on how to deliver government services more efficiently and at less cost, and how to streamline and rationalize State government. Specifically, the study should recommend:
Major restructuring, including merging and eliminating agencies, authorities and other entities to shrink the size of State government.

Rationalizing how government works, for example, by consolidating support functions to eliminate redundancies and by bringing New York’s government into the 21st Century.
How to sharply reduce the number of public authorities (there are currently 500), fold their operations into agencies in order to eliminate redundancies and reduce the role of the “shadow government”.

Using performance and cost / benefit measures in accessing use of state funds and which projects will continue to be funded, and how to quickly adopt existing technology to save taxpayer money.
The study should be completed in six to nine months, and its findings will be used to inform the Governor’s decisions to restructure government.

Second, I will propose a law giving the incoming Governor broad authority to carry out the suggested reorganization. Under this legislation, the Governor will have authority to order, without legislative approval, the merger, restructuring or elimination of any agency, authority, office, board, commission or other entity. The governor’s emergency powers will end in two years.
The goal of this two-step process is to quickly provide an overall blue print on how to shrink and improve State Government and then give the Governor emergency authority to carry out this fundamental change. If successful, within two years, New York’s government will have been restructured to be smaller, more efficient, less costly and to provide better services.

STEP FOUR - FREEZE THE GROWTH OF STATE GOVERNMENT

The next step to restoring New York to health is to freeze government to create a breathing period until the broad restructuring plan is in place. Starting in January 2011, I will propose a temporary, but total hiring freeze, lasting approximately six months. This hiring freeze will cover all State positions, including consultants, so called “essential” positions and public authorities, and the only exceptions would be for the new Governor to bring on his immediate staff and new agency leadership. There should be a similar freeze on any new projects and the issuance of new debt.

This hiring, contract and debt freeze is intended to bring the seeming never ending growth in New York’s government and debt to a stop and allow the new administration time to develop and implement the re-organization plan discussed in Step III. Once the reorganization plan is in place, the freeze can be lifted as the plan is implemented.

STEP FIVE - SWEEPING MANDATE RELIEF

New York State’s ever growing bureaucracy has resulted in more and more regulation that stifles businesses and opportunity. Local taxes, including school taxes, have been driven higher by unfunded state-imposed mandates that increase local costs. I will introduce legislation to establish a two step process to lessen this regulatory burden.

I will propose legislation to establish the temporary Office of Mandate Relief and give the head of that office - the “Repealer” - authority to repeal and invalidate any existing regulation or rule. This office will be in existence for two years and will be headed by a gubernatorial appointee and staffed with personnel drawn from existing State agencies on temporary assignment. The head of this office - the Repealer -will have authority to strike down any regulation and rule imposed by a State agency, authority or office without the necessity of going through the normal process and without the consent or approval of the agency or the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reform (GORR).

The actions of the Repealer should complement the process of restructuring State government and within two years the Repealer should be able to dramatically cut down the thicket of State regulations and rules, at which point the office will cease to exist.

The most important step in solving our budget crisis is something intangible – competence.
Writing a bill, negotiating a bill, and complying with the law is what legislators do. It is their job. We now know that Neil Breslin – Assistant Majority Leader, 14 year incumbent and one leaders of Senate – doesn’t care enough to do his job. He cannot be bothered to read or understand the bills that come out of his committee and that bear his name, bills that he boasts about. That was his decision – a decision to not do his job because he did not care if what he said was true or not.
The same holds true for why the budget was late. It’s not that Neil Breslin and his colleagues couldn’t pass a budget on time. They are required to by law and that is why they serve in the government. It’s that they decided to not even try. They ignored the law, did not schedule committee hearing or negotiating sessions, refused to put forth proposals and made no attempt to meet the April 1st deadline. Then they did nothing for four months, only worked 3 days a week, take long weekends off and took weeks of vacation time. Our legislators – especially our Senators – intentionally refused to do their most basic job because they are incompetent and lack the back bone to make any tough decisions.

##

We have yet to see anything so substantive or specific from the Breslin campaign. Speaking of which...

::

Neil Breslin



"For All The Right Reasons."

Breslin has gone from being a sure-bet for re-election in the last cycle to a very vulnerable long-time incumbent in a rapid period of time. The general air of anti-incumbency across the country combined with the recent negative media spotlight cast upon him has cause Breslin to become one of the biggest primary spenders this cycle. In fact, according to this report, Breslin is protecting his seat more vigorously than Pedro Espada:

An analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group found that 10 of the state's 30 costliest legislative primaries since 2000 are taking place this year, with candidates rapidly spending six-figure sums to fight challengers or take on incumbents.

"They are shaping up to be the most expensive," said Bill Mahoney, NYPIRG's legislative operations and research coordinator. He analyzed financial documents that detailed spending from July 12 through Sept. 3.

For example, state Sen. Neil Breslin, a Delmar Democrat, has spent more in this time period -- $184,449 -- against challenger Luke Martland than he did in all of the 2008 election cycle. Martland has spent $33,773 so far.

In the Bronx, Pedro Espada, who has been shunned by many fellow Senate Democrats due to last year's coup in which he briefly joined the Republicans, has spent $130,978 while his primary challenger Gustavo Rivera has spent $91,875.

Emphasis mine - SP

Those numbers present Sen. Breslin's greatest advantage over his upstart opponent. For years, Breslin has been the largest recipient of contributions from lobbyists for the insurance and banking industry. My conventional wisdom tells me that he's been saving it up for a raining day, and if he's spending this amount of money then somebody must be making it rain. I can recall Breslin's war chest exceeding $400,000 and edging towards half a million in the several terms I've been watching him. Never once has he had to drop this much in so short a time. Nor did I ever expect he'd be running a campaign that will go down in history as one of the top twenty most expensive primaries in State Senate history.

If there were any naysayers in the Breslin camp that insisted their candidate would win with a 75% margin and virtually no campaigning like in 2008, the Senator's actions in the past few weeks of 2010 should have them hard pressed to admit that the Senator has never felt as threatened in his political life and that he is, in fact, fighting for his political life.

For all of the talk of money influencing politics, a situation like this presents a problem to the well-funded incumbent: you aren't going to get as much bang for your buck against your upstart challenger. There's only so much pro-incumbent sentiment going around in an anti-incumbent year. You're going need as many political endorsements and cross-constituencies as possible.

But Breslin hasn't bagged any good news like that recently. Just today, CBS6 News added another bruising tale to their archives of Breslin revelations: Rep. Scott Murphy will not endorse the Senator in the race. Of course, he's not endorsing Martland either, but he does note that the 46th State Senate district and his own 20th Congressional District don't actually overlap. Still, politicians from nearby districts are typically brought in to make critical endorsements when things get tight.

The fact that Murphy is witholding any involvement in the race will probably speak to Martland's advantage, even though he doesn't throw in a good word for Martland either. Why? Because even though Murphy's office represents area outside Albany County, he is still a well-known and popular local leader. Thanks to his Murphy's own amazing ascendacy to Congress being a national political story last year itself, he's also probably a better-known and recognized commodity that the area's own Congressman, NY-21's own Paul Tonko. So what we have here may not be as inconsequential as this cute little news piece looks. It may be a revealing indicator that support for Breslin isn't only eroding door-to-door, but office-to-office in the halls of government. In other words, the smart sailors don't board sinking ships.

Is Breslin's ship truly sinking, though?

"Duh....good question."

In all seriousness, we'll know the answer in five days....and counting. Thanks for voting, thanks for reading, and stay tuned...the next State of the Race update is coming soon.

Coffee Party Brewing in the Empire State

In less than two months, the Coffee Party movement has grown to over 100,000 members nationwide. And in three days, National Coffee House Day will officially kick off the movement to reform our political culture in all fifty states.

New York is playing its part in about a dozen fledgling organizations that will meet in the afternoon of Saturday, March 13, 2010. From Downstate to Upstate, the Empire State is set to become one of the hot spots of the movement to cool down the rhetoric so we can once again speak to our common goals as Americans.

I organized the Albany County Coffee Party to make sure Albany itself wasn't left out; within a matter of days, one for the city of Albany sprouted up as well.

But this movement is about more than just one blogger, or one city. A complete list of all the New York Coffee Parties are linked to below the fold. And since this movement is bigger than just one state as well, then if you've just heard of the Coffee Party Movement or are not really sure what we'll be doing on Saturday or what we're about, the video directly below makes it clear and simple:



Looks like fun, huh? Click "There's more" to see if there's a New York Coffee Party organizing in your neck of the woods.

(Cross-posted on the front-page of The Albany Project and to the diaries on  Daily Kos.)

The Coffee Party is currently in start-up phase as a truly bottom-up grassroots, non-partisan, non-affilliated movement. It's an organization that seeks to be more than the sum of its parts by the time the Kickoff Coffee Houses are done with and the March 27 (or earlier!)follow-up meetings are planned in even more locations.


So while there isn't a statewide New York Coffee Party yet, part of the goal is to go super-local as well as super-national. Part of what we'll talk about at all the Coffee Parties linked to below will be how we get more conversations started in smaller towns and neighborhoods as well as how to link them up into multi-town-county-and-state levels of organization.

This is how we will later be able to take the common ground we discover on Saturday in our own favorite coffee houses directly to Congress to talk some common sense into our representatives in preparation for a Coffee With Congress from March 27 to April 11.

But here's where you, fellow New Yorker, can join us on the ground floor this very weekend on Saturday, March 13th, and in the days to come:

NEW YORK STATE COFFEE PARTY NATIONAL KICKOFF

All Coffee Parties to take place Saturday, March 13th, 2010 unless otherwise specified.

NEW YORK CITY METROPOLITAN AREA

Coffee Party near Times Square at Le Monde Gourmet Deli, 38 West 48th St., Manhattan at 12 Noon. Questions? CoffeePartyNYC@11372.info -or- 617-421-0100.

Coffee Party in Union Square at 7:30 PM Tuesday, March 16 at Food Depot, 138 5th Ave at 19th St., upstairs in seating area.

Coffee Party in SoHo at the Bleeker Bar next to NoHo Star at 333 Lafayette Street at 12 Noon.

Coffee Party in Forest Hills, Queens at Manor Oktoberfest, 7311 Yellowstone Blvd., Forest Hills, NY, at 12 Noon.

Coffee Party in Mineola at Mo'joe, 95 Mineola Boulevard at 12 Noon.

Coffee Party in Westeshter County at 191 North Highland Avenue, Ossining, at 2:00 PM.

THE HUDSON VALLEY & CAPITAL REGION

Coffee Party in Albany County at Uncommon Grounds, 1235 Western Avenue, Albany at 2:00 PM.

Coffee Party in Downtown Albany at the Starbucks, 10 North Pearl Street at 12 Noon.

Coffee Party in Red Hook at Taste Budd's on 40 West Market Street at 9:00 AM.

Fair Trade Coffee in Poughkeepsie at Woman's Work, 2600 South Road at 12 Noon.

Coffee Party in the Hudson Valley at the Crafted Kup, 44 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie at 10:00 AM.

CENTRAL AND WESTERN NEW YORK AREA

Coffee Party in Rochester at the Bagel Bin Cafe, 2600 Elmwood Avenue at 12 Noon.

Coffee Party in Amherst on Friday, March 12 at 6:00 PM at Tim Hortons, 3394 Sheridan Drive.

Coffee Party in Jamestown at 2:00 PM at Labyrinth Press Company, 12 East 4th Street.

Coffee Party of Northen Chautauqua County at Central Station Restaurant at 332 Central Avenue, Dunkirk at 10 AM.

The events above are just a handful of the over 250 Coffee Parties that will be taking place across the country. So if you're of the Jersey or Connecticut part of the Tri-State Area, or if you're a Green Mountain Boy, you can just head to Coffee Party USA to find out where these are going on closets to you. There you can join the thousands of ordinary Americans taking the first step to stop being fed up with politics and take charge of our government.

All this from one Facebook comment in January. This is democracy in action.

See you there!

Throwing Our State Parks Off A Cliff

As our Legislature continues its President's Week vacation as an a matter of right, and as our Governor announces he'll seek election in his own right, I found myself loathing to discover a perfect reason for not casting my ballot for any of them.

It appears that in order to "save money," Governor Paterson has, behind closed doors, slated a slew of State Parks for closure. Not to diminish the effects of these proposed shut-downs across the state, but rather to illustrate how each closure affects each individual New Yorker, one of these knifings stabbed right at my heart. Albany Times Union columnist Fred LeBrun brought this to my attention this past Sunday in a piece entitled State Parks Make Hit List:

Two lists of possible state park and historic site closures made necessary by Gov. David Paterson's proposed 2010-11 state budget finally have been prepared by senior staff at the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the governor's office.
::
Say goodbye to the venerable John Boyd Thacher State Park in the Helderbergs, for example, as bizarre as that sounds. At this point, it will take extraordinary measures to save it. Once closed, who knows when it reopens?
Emphasis by me -SP

Cross-Posted on The Albany Project
 
There's no way to truly appreciate John Boyd Thatcher State Park unless you see it for yourself. Here's about 100 words on the site from the State Parks website:

John Boyd Thacher State Park, is situated along the Helderberg Escarpment, one of the richest fossil-bearing formations in the world. Even as it safeguards six miles of limestone cliff-face, rock-strewn slopes, woodland and open fields, the park provides a marvelous panorama of the Hudson-Mohawk Valleys and the Adirondack and Green Mountains. The park has volleyball courts, playgrounds, ball fields and numerous picnic areas with nine reservable shelters. Interpretive programs are offered year-round, including guided tours of the famous Indian Ladder Trail. There are over twelve additional miles of trails for summer hiking and mountain biking, and winter cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and snowmobiling.

Sounds pretty nifty, right? Take a look at the picture below and tell me that it's not worth ten quoted paragraphs:



Now the LeBrun column goes into greater detail as to how and why this is being set up behind closed doors in the -Butcher's- Governor's office and the -Meat Packing Department- Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. I suggest reading the whole thing, but the main idea is that the first list includes a whole mess of state parks to close and the second list recommends moving some money (about five million bones) from the Environmental Protection Fund in order to save a handful from these sites, which would require approval from the -Cattle Corral- State Legislature. Regarding the thought process and implementation behind all this, LeBrun says it best:

The expression "arbitrary and capricious" comes to mind, not to mention insensitive and ill-considered.

What is utterly dismaying is that these discussions are going on behind very closed doors with no public input.

Sounds about right to me, especially considering the close relationship my community and I have with Thacher Park. Here in the Hilltowns, the park is an emblematic preservation of the escarpment we live on. It's the very thing that separates us from the "flatlanders" down below, the division between suburban and rural in Albany County.

Not only does the park serve thousands of Albany residents in the summer, but Thacher serves as an almost universal place of employment for young folks on The Hill. I can speak for myself on this. A large portion of my high school friends worked there during the summer, saving them a drive down to the 'burbs or the city in order to save money for college. My younger brother did this as many of his friends. It's a huge boon to the local economy, not a drag on the state budget!

I even worked the place for a short while. I saw first-hand how Thacher Park provided accessible and affordable natural recreation for both the urban and rural poor. It made me not mind picking up the trash so much to see the joy on young children's faces when they were able to escape the concrete jungle and stand face-to-face with something like this:



Not only that, these hills have some of the most unique history in the state. Thacher Park preserves that history in the only place possible. The above photograph is of the Indian Ladder Trail.

The history of the park area dates back to the late 1570s when the trail now known as the Indian Ladder Trail was used by the Mohawk Iroquois Indians to reach the trading post run by Henry Hudson. It was here that in 1777, at a spot known as Tory Cave, Jacob Salsbury found refuge from settlers during the Burgoyne Invasion.

That just skims the surface...I won't even get into the Anti-Rent War that finally destroyed Dutch Patroonship in the 1840s; check it out for yourself, but be reminded that the terrain played no small role in our success up here. That's part of the history Thacher Park preserves.

Even in spite of the history, the trail is just below the Overlook, and from both points, one can look out and view almost the entire Capital Region and straight into Massachusetts. See above...you can pick out the Empire State Plaza and The Capitol.

How can the Governor and the Legislature and the Department not see this?

What's even more confusing about the proposed shut-down is the amount of money that the State has put into preserving and expanding Thacher Park in just the last four years...and how the State didn't have to pay a dime for the land just four years shy of a century ago!

The park is named after Albany mayor John Boyd Thacher whose widow, Emma Treadwell Thacher, donated the land in 1914. The purchase of 500 acres of land in 2004 with a State grant of $750 00 from the Environmental Protection Fund and a donation of land from the Nature Conservancy of 81 acres and the further purchase of 188 acres on 3 August 2006 took the total area of the park to 2,155 acres.
Emphasis added -SP

So the State got all sorts of historic, geologically and geographically unique land at the premium price of, uh, zero dollars and then spent three-quarters of a million dollars to add to it, then got even more acreage for free...and they're going to shut it down because it costs too much?

Don't you just love the way these guys practice not-thinking?
Unfortunately, that's how they think. I've already contacted the Legislators whose districts include Thacher Park (these are Assemblyman Jack McEneny, AD-104, and State Senator Neil Breslin, SD-46, by the way) but since they're on vacation right now, I haven't heard back from them yet. And I'm not even going to bother lobbying Gov. Paterson on the matter. He's in campaign mode now. He'll only do something about it if he thinks it'll help him win - and realistically, nothing is going to help him win.

Besides that, I don't think the closure is going to happen. It's just far too foolish. In fact, it's downright impossible to close! Our friend and columnist Fred LeBrun tells it like it is:

Take Thacher Park. How do you "close" it? A major highway runs right through it. There's easy access on all sides. Those escarpment cliffs are dangerous; hardly a year goes by without serious injury there. Which means a squad of park police will have to be stationed there, at what cost, patrolling the area year-round to protect the state's liability interest and safeguard the public.

But what park police? Manny Vilar, a veteran park cop, is the president of the union that represents the senior officer corps at parks. He points out that repeated budget cuts and a pathetic pay scale have created a ludicrous situation. In 2007, the last year there was a park police academy for new recruits, 113 new cops were hired at a cost of $6 million. But from 2004 to 2007, 118 park police left for better paying police jobs from the village level on up to State Police. So, Parks paid $6 million for a net loss of five officers, because the agency doesn't have the funds to remain competitive. As a direct consequence, a skeleton crew of 263 officers and supervisors is responsible for safeguarding 55 million visitors a year at more than 100 parks and historic sites across the state.

So, who's going to protect and preserve Thacher Park until we can reopen it? As I said, this not a pretty picture, no matter how you focus it.
Me emphasize, ugh! -SP

Now I could have left this quote to just the top paragraph. But let me explain because this hits home for me again. See, between 2001 and 2003, I was a student at the State University of New York at Oswego. I ended up majoring officially in music, but dropped out because I truly was majoring in improv comedy and dining hall studies.

The Park Police facilities for new recruits were right on campus. In fact, the recruits had the pleasure of getting to come to breakfast before the dining hall officially opened. Which means I had the distinct pleasure of having to get my own ass up early enough to help serve the morning rush. It was a fantastic experience that really taught me the value of hard work and of knowing the whole job inside and out.

It was murder, sometimes, though. I'd be on the register at the entrance swiping cards, then I'd be at the grill flipping eggs and spinning around to serve them, then I'd be rushing about the dining hall making sure that milk and juice dispensers were full, and then careening into the "slop room" to get the dishes done, all the while anticipating the next rush of studious early-riser college kids while simultaneously getting on the phone to ask my co-workers "Hey! Did you know you were on the schedule today?" In the end, the hard work paid off: I eventually worked my way up to Group Leader, an assistant manager position of sorts. But this was only a title; I knew that my hard work was going to help these trainees become full-fledged park police, who would one day safeguard New York's most precious treasures like Thacher Park back home.

So here's what this new chopping block maneuver tells me: "Sorry, but you worked for nothing, bro. It just made ya feel rosy and good about yourself. Sorry 'bout that, but since those trainees can't make a livin' and we're shuttin' down the joint anyway, you might as well have been the one partying it up and sleeping in. Hey...wanna tax credit to make up for it?" And here's what I say to that:

Bite me.

Bite me Governor David "Run Away" Paterson, bite me Office of "Closing" Parks, bite me bite me Assemblyman "History Major" McEneny, and bite me Senator Neil "Gavel Drop" Breslin.

Even if you do bite the bullet and keep these parks funded, you've gone too far just by getting this discussion started. Former Governor Teddy Roosevelt must be spinning in his grave. This should have never come under consideration. Not. Even. Mentioned.

To me, it's perfectly clear why it did: so you could scare us all with the threat of park closure and then make yourselves all look like heroes when you "turned around" and saved the parks. So you could force us all into "taking action" and organizing protests, which requires us to raise money, which we can then donate the excess to your re-election campaigns after you swoop in like Batman with your legislative and bureaucratic gadgetry to "save the day."

Save the day from what? From your own tomfoolery, that's what!

How about this: ever see a steer shovel his own bullshit? If you haven't, Washington Avenue and State Street in Albany is a good place to start.
After that's thoroughly disgusted you, take Washington up to Lark Street hang a left, stop at one of the nice cafes, then a right onto Madison Avenue after a couple blocks across from Washington Park onto New Scotland Avenue, which will carry out right out of the Albany city limits as it turns into New Scotland Road, state route 85, through the Towns of Bethlehem and New Scotland, then just after passing through the little hamlet of New Salem, go up the hill and make a right onto State Route 157 at the fork in the road to get a glimpse of Thacher Park while you still can. It'll take about twenty minutes, depending on the traffic through Delmar.

Ironically, the sign will say that Governor David Paterson "welcomes" you.
I say instead of throwing our State Parks off a cliff, we should throw these guys out of office.