Rule 21-O:  One Hand Washes the Other


 
By Henry J. Stern

The fight over Proposition One heated up today after it was revealed that Cablevision, the principal commercial opponent of the West Side Stadium, a project killed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Leader Joe Bruno, has contributed $500,000 to a campaign which will run TV commercials supporting the plan by Bruno and Silver to limit sharply the governor's power over the state budget.

Madison Square Garden, owned by Cablevision, had previously hired Senator Bruno's son, Kenneth,  to lobby on its behalf and the two firms contracted to pay him $240,000 a year for his undoubtedly valuable services.  Young Bruno was previously with a large and respected firm of lawyers and lobbyists, but with his lucrative new client felt empowered to go into business on his own.  We have obtained the State figures on all the lobbyists hired by Madison Square Garden for the first six months of 2005, and you will see that other lobbyists, also well connected, received even larger fees than Kenneth Bruno .    The fact that these transactions are perfectly legal is understandable when you are aware that the laws are made by the legislature, a sovereign body.   Link to the State report to see for yourself the extent of the lobbying, which resulted in a satisfying victory for the client, at least in the near term.  It is conceivable that the end result was in the public interest, but that was scarcely the motive of the client or its platoon of lobbyists.  The decision by the frustrated Jets to build in New Jersey rather than New York should quash the myth that a Queens site was an acceptable alternative.


 
The Daily News reported the $500,000 gift yesterday in an article on p36 by Joe Mahoney, Albany bureau chief.  The headline: CABLEVISION CHANNELS 500G TO PUSH BILL.  The lede: "Months after spending $34 million to persuade key state legislators to scrap the proposed West Side stadium, Cablevision is channeling $500,000 to back a proposal that would boost the Legislature's influence…
 
"The proposal's chief backers are Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer), who control a state panel that nixed the stadium.  Cablevision feared a stadium could hurt its Madison Square Garden.  Cablevision spokesman Charles Schueler said, "We support the initiative, and we will have no further comment.”
 
 
Today's Post expressed its outrage in language strong for even that intense journal.  The opinion page, p35, was headlined, "STOP THE PIGS! The Battle Over Proposal One, the Bogus Budget Reform."  The Post printed a large photograph of Porky, a giant three-dimensional pig, which had been trundled around New York State and reached City Hall Park yesterday, where it was displayed on a flatbed.  Porky is intended to symbolize the assault on the budget which is anticipated if the porkbarrel legislature acquires the power of the purse.
 
Beneath the photo of the very pink pig, the Post ran ten brief individual statements in favor of the Constitutional amendment, and twenty three against it, followed by seven public officials who refused to take a stand on the issue. One of the seven, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, issued a statement this afternoon in opposition to the amendment.  Six sphinxes stay silent.  You can link to PIGS for the thirty statements.   
 
The editorial headline, QUID PRO JOE, is a reference to Senate Leader Joe Bruno.  Read it to capture the indignation of the editors at the proposal.  Here are the Post's concluding paragraphs:
 
"Let's be clear.  Only folks with direct financial and other personal interests in an unduly empowered Legislature are in favor of Prop One.
 
“So New Yorkers shouldn't be fooled.
 
"Proponents cleverly wrapped the word 'reform' about the amendment," state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Monday.  "But calling a mule a thoroughbred doesn't make it one."
 
“Let's just hope New Yorkers don't let Bruno and Silver -- and Cablevision -- make jackasses of them."



On another topic which deserves attention this week, Michael Goodwin, in his Daily News column, GOOD LAW GONE BAD, writes about the failures of the city's well-intentioned but easily manipulated campaign finance program.  His trenchant critique of the program, which has enriched campaign consultants and paid for both sides of non-competitive races between hapless losers and sure winners, both aggrandizing themselves and paying their staffs at public expense, is worth reading.  Here is the lede:
 
"With all the attacks on Mayor Bloomberg's election spending, you might conclude nothing could be worse than a super-richie running for office.  You would be wrong, for there is something worse -- taxpayers getting stuck with the tab for everyone else who runs."
 
This is another mare's nest where the more you know about the situation, the more likely you are to be disgusted. It is NOT the fault of the board itself or its dedicated staff.  It is the law under which they are required to operate, subject to the whims of the self-interested City Council  -most of whose members take every dollar they can get their hands on, whether it is needed or not for any legitimate public purpose.   Some more honorable members resist dipping their paws into this honeypot, and if they step forward, we will be glad to name them for you, along with the worst offenders, members heading for re-election landslides who swore they had close and difficult races.  Scooter Libby would put those birds to shame.
 
If you want to learn about how your money is spent, Goodwin's article is a very good place to start.  


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