Tenants can't find a friend in New York state capital
Monday, March 30 By
Barbara Ross, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Related News Articles below the first article:
New York State Senators who got big landlord bigs
A limitless line of lobbyists still pulling strings
This was the year tenant advocates were waiting for: a Democratic-controlled Senate coming in to make long-awaited changes in the state’s rent laws.
Until now, their biggest obstacle was history.
Now, it seems, their biggest hurdle is money — tons of it — going from landlord groups to key lawmakers.
Historically, former Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno routinely blocked their efforts, but he stepped down last year — and was indicted in January.
Moving quickly, the Assembly passed 10 rent reform bills. Tenant advocates were sure they could get enough Democrats — and a few Republicans — to finish the job in the state Senate.
But as with most Albany tales, stalemate has replaced momentum. The drive to strengthen rent regulations is again trapped in the usual Albany limbo, apparently caused by the influence of money on politics.
Since January 2007, landlords and their lobbyists have funneled $2.5 million in campaign contributions to Democratic and Republican senators and Assembly members, the Albany watchdog group NYPIRG has found.
Republicans pulled in $1.5 million and Democrats raked in more than $1 million.
The new Democratic Senate Majority Leader, Malcolm Smith of Queens, who had no opponent last year, got more than $236,000 from landlord interests. His rival for the leadership spot, Sen. Jeff Klein, a Bronx Democrat, collected $237,290, records show.
Other recipients of landlord donations included $52,375 for former Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Queens) and $62,650 for Caesar Trunzo (R-L.I.), both of whom lost close races. An additional $34,962 went to Republican Sen. Martin Golden, who faced no opposition and whose Brooklyn district includes 27,000 rent-stabilized units.
Sen. Carl Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat who faced a minor opponent, took in $27,700, records show.
He has 40,000 rent-stabilized units in his district and has not taken a position on the issue.
Sinking feeling
Landlords and their lobbyists have swarmed legislative fund-raisers recently, giving tenant advocates a sinking feeling.
Last spring, all but three Senate Democrats signed a petition
favoring the end of vacancy decontrol.
Now, nine of 32 Democrats are missing as sponsors, grumbled
Michael McKee, head of T-PAC, a tenant
political action committee.
There’s nothing abstract about rent reform: The bills could affect 1 million New York families.
Under state law, apartments can be decontrolled if rents reach $2,000 a month and household income exceeds $175,000, or if a landlord claims renovations on a vacant unit require raising the rent above $2,000.
The priority for tenant supporters is changing the vacancy decontrol laws that landlords have used to take at least 71,000 — and possibly more than 200,000 — apartments out of the rent-stabilized system since 1994. Each year, a growing number of units are decontrolled.
The Assembly bill would block landlords from doing that and put thousands of deregulated units back under stabilization if the market rent is under $5,000.
“Vacancy decontrol is key because it gives landlords a target to aim at. If they get an apartment empty, they can push the rent up to $2,000,” said Alison Cordero, deputy director of the St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corp. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Cordero says hundreds of tenants have been bought — or harassed — out of their Williamsburg apartments by landlords who make modest repairs and double or triple rents.
Naturally, the powerful lobby group representing New York landlords sees things differently. Mitch Posilkin, general counsel to the Rent Stabilization Association, said vacancy decontrol has inspired landlords to spend $1.4 billion renovating buildings in the past 14 years. The city profited by getting a rejuvenated housing supply and higher property tax revenue, he argued.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” he said.
Other numbers speak to the quagmire the Senate Democratic conference finds itself in: 24 Democrats signed on as sponsors of the Assembly’s vacancy decontrol bill, yet their leader, Smith, is silent and Pedro Espada, chairman of the powerful housing committee, is opposed.
‘Not a Manhattan issue’
Espada said Democrats will “not rubber-stamp a rent-regulation agenda template that virtually has been on automatic pilot in the Assembly for years.”
He labeled the reforms, which have multiple sponsors, the creation of the Working Families Party to protect the rich.
“If we rubber-stamp the Working Families Party housing agenda, we would virtually provide protections for people who earn $175,000 or more annually — which is essentially a Manhattan-based constituency.”
Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, a West Side Democrat, scoffed at Espada’s argument. She noted that far fewer units (4,223) are decontrolled because their occupants earn $175,000 a year, compared with the 70,000-plus decontrolled by becoming vacant.
“This has nothing to do with the rich. This is about a calamity for people of middle-income means,” she said. “It’s not a Manhattan issue. That’s what landlords are saying.”
Tenant advocate McKee said Smith had privately promised activists that if Espada blocks the vacancy decontrol bill in his committee, he would let it come up for a vote on the Senate floor.
There’s little evidence Smith can or wants to muster the votes to get it passed — and tenant advocates are pinning their hopes on a few Republicans to tip the balance.
------------------------------------------
New York State Senators who got big landlord bigs
Sunday, March 29th 2009, 4:00 AM
Each of the following received numerous donations from landlord interests in the 2008 election cycle, according to an analysis of campaign finance records by NYPIRG:
Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) - $236,245
Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) - $237,290 (Majority Leader candidate)
Democratic Senate Campaign - $144,100
Ex-Sen. Caesar Trunzo (R-L.I.) - $62,650
Ex-Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Queens) - $52,375
Sen. Joseph Robach (R-Hilton) - $49,698
Senate candidate Barbara Donno (R-L.I.) - $38,000
Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) - $34,962
Ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-L.I.) - $34,150
Sen. Roy McDonald (R-Troy) - $33,300
Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) - $27,700
SSenate candidate James Gennaro (D-Queens) - $25,400
Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens), who beat Gennaro - $8,400
Sen. John Bonacic (R-Sullivan County) - $20,700
------------------------------------------
A limitless line of lobbyists still pulling strings in Albany
BY Brian Kates, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, March 30th 2009, 2:05 AM
Related News Articles:
New York State Senators who got big landlord bigs
Tenants can't find a friend in New York state capital
The political earthquake that gave Democrats control of Albany for the first time in 70 years created chaos — and opportunity — for a vast army of lobbyists.
Hoping to cash in, Democratic operatives are expanding existing firms or creating new ones.
Their Republican counterparts, once able to get huge portions of pork with a call to then-Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, are rushing to regroup now that Democrat Malcolm Smith runs the Senate trough.
Lobbying data for last year won’t be released until May, but interviews with the main players make clear that Albany’s top lobbying firms are scrambling to switch their lineups to accommodate the shifting political landscape.
“Diversity is the name of the game,” said Blair Horner, a lobbyist for the nonprofit New York Public Interest Research Group. “The top 10 firms usually remain in the top 10 year after year because they are large and have prominent Democrats and Republicans on their payroll.”
Lobbyists pull strings on virtually every issue affecting New Yorkers, including rent regulation, gun control, gay rights, school spending and health care.
It’s a big-bucks business. Though numbers aren’t yet out, officials expect last year’s haul to exceed the $171 million the state’s 5,300 lobbyists pocketed in 2007.
Especially well-positioned, insiders agree, are Patricia Lynch, former top aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), and Parkside Group’s Evan Stavisky, longtime Democratic strategist and son of state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Queens).
Both have been among the state’s most influential lobbyists for years, records show. Lynch recently bolstered her Senate ties by hiring Richard McKoy, a former aide to Smith.
No lobbyists are closer to the throne than those at Meyer Suozzi English & Klein.
The venerable law firm’s principals include the governor’s father, Basil Paterson, and Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi’s dad, Joseph.
That’s good news to more than a dozen union clients, including Service Employees International Union Local 1199, the city’s largest municipal bargaining unit.
In October, two Meyer Suozzi alums formed a spinoff company, State & Broadway. Its Web site notes partners Lawrence Scherer and Jacqueline Williams’ links to the powerful law firm.
“Clearly, they are hoping to cash in on ties to the governor,” one competitor said.
Principals Lawrence Scherer, former campaign manager for ex-state Controller Alan Hevesi, and Jacqueline Williams, longtime Albany lobbyist, declined to be interviewed.
Also in the catbird seat are strategists who helped orchestrate the Senate takeover, like close Smith ally Doug Forand.
In January, he opened Shelter Rock Strategies with Long Island lawyer Steve Schlesinger and a handful of other Democratic Senate Campaign Committee vets.
It will go head to head with former Assemblyman Arthur (Jerry) Kremer’s established outfit, which recently changed its name from Island Strategies to Empire Government Strategies and hired three more operatives.
“In the Pataki years, we were in the desert,” Kremer said. “Now we can get clients listened to in the Senate. That’s especially important for stimulus money for the municipalities we represent.”
Even the biggest Republican lobbyists are scrambling.
Legendary powerhouse James Featherstonhaugh, known for business ties to Bruno, hired Frank Hoare, former chief counsel to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Manhattan Democratic Party chief Denny Farrell.
Powers & Co., founded by former state GOP Chairman William Powers, added Jose Paulino, a former top aide to Smith.
“Bill Powers tries to keep diversifying and adapting,” Paulino said. “Some firms are caught in a web of partisanship, those that have historically catered to the old majority.”
He declined to name names.
The clout of lobbyists “who were retained because of their personal relationships with one individual” is evaporating, said Joseph Strasburg of the nonprofit New York Public Interest Research Group.
Frequently cited is
Park Strategies, founded by
Pataki’s mentor, former
Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. The firm would
not comment.
bkates@nydailynews.com
(NOTE that this last article somehow assigns landlord lobbyist Joseph Strasburg to the nonprofit New York Public Interest Research Group!)
Stories (and NOTE above) sent to us by:Michael McKee,Treasurer ' Tenants Political Action Committee, 11 Park Place, Suite 814,New York NY 10007, (212) 577-7001 mmckee@tenantspac.org