The Levy factor

By Anthony Figliola

Having seen Steve Levy’s tenacity and unrelenting drive to reach all goals set before him, Rick Lazio should be aware of the “Levy Factor.”

Many years before the 2003 election for Suffolk County Executive, Steve Levy, a little-known state Assemblyman from Holbrook, decided he wanted the job. But Democratic Party leaders at the time, knowing they couldn’t control Levy, had decided on a former Republican town supervisor turned Democrat for that post. But as is commonplace in politics, the wind changed and many rank-in-file Democrats – with a nudge from Levy – were opposed to supporting a former Republican, leaving the field wide open.

So Levy put his years of strategizing and political maneuvering into action. Only one problem, a well financed yet unknown Nassau Deputy County Executive stepped into the race. How would Steve Levy react to this news?

As they say in poker, “he went all in.”

Levy worked the phones, made house calls and wrote letters to Democratic committee members asking for their support at the party’s nominating convention. He branded his opponent as an outsider and joined forces with the Democratic leadership that had tried to marginalize him just months before.

The strategy proved successful for Levy and his supporters, lovingly referred to as “Levy-ites.” However, he did have a primary challenge, which he won handedly. He then went on to coast into the county executive’s office, easily defeating a weak Republican opponent.

Four years later, he negotiated a deal with party leaders, which landed him on every ballot line garnering over 97 percent of the vote. This set the stage for Levy’s run on the Governor’s mansion as an independent fiscal conservative.

The moral of the story is that Levy understands trench warfare and has an uncanny ability to bring non-supporters to the table and cleanse them of their opposition. What Levy does best is sell the goods by putting the shoe leather to the pavement, knocking on doors and sometimes busting them down if he has too.

Rick Lazio would be wise to take stock of Levy’s past accomplishments and political strategies; it could help him defend his territory. However, each day that goes by more Republican leaders are turning into “Levy-ites,” which may cost Lazio the Republican nomination.

Ravitch Proposal - Will the legislature get it?

By Jerry Kremer

Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch, looking to inject some sanity into the legislative process has crafted a series of proposals to straighten out the state's ugly budget mess. Ravitch has succeeded in the past as Chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority where he did an admirable job cleaning up the MTA ugliness.

Among the current Ravitch proposals are the creation of a five year financial plan, adopting a budget according to GAAP principles, creation of an Independent Financial Review Board and giving the governor the power to enact spending reductions if a budget is not in balance.

If the legislature does all of those things he then recommends that the legislature be able to borrow up to $2 billion over three years to get out of the mess. That's a sensible solution to a serious problem because it imposes discipline on all of the members of the legislature for a long period of time.

There are rumors that the legislature is seriously considering borrowing the $2 billion but not agreeing to the rest of the package. That's a recipe for disaster and it should be avoided at all costs. Back in the 1970's the City of New York was caught using bond funds for day-to-day operating costs. Once their practices saw the light of day it took an act of Congress to stop the chicanery.

New York State has to get out of its current crises with some tough measures, but if its elected officials  don't swallow the bitter pill of financial restraint, then there will be disasters yet to come.  

Note: Jerry Kremer is the Former Chairman of the NYS Assembly Ways & Means Committee and President of Empire Government Strategies

OBAMA FINALLY GETS IT...."IT’S THE ECONOMY -------!"

by Jerry Kremer

The economy has been in a tailspin for the past year and a half. The federal government got it half right when it found the funds to fix the shaky financial services industry. But Wall Street was one of the two 800 lb gorillas in the room. The second one was the escalating unemployment statistics.

It took eleven months but finally President Barack Obama has figured out that America needs and wants more jobs. Former President Bill Clinton got it right when he and his team figured out that “it’s the economy- stupid.” Put the country back to work and the protest tea parties won’t have anyone showing up at an event.

Bill Clinton didn’t invent job-creating programs. The idea goes back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt who tackled high unemployment by creating dozens of federal programs to give people work to put food on the table. Fixing highways and bridges, cleaning up our parks and rebuilding our facilities was the right thing in the 1930’s and it’s the right thing now.

Where should the money come from to start the job programs? It’s an easy answer. That TARP program started by President Bush helped banks and investors get back on their feet. Thanks to an improvement in the economy many of the institutions that took our money have paid it back, so why not use it to fund job- qcreating efforts?

The not-so-loyal opposition has suggested that the TARP moneys be used to reduce the deficit. Considering that the opposition created the deficit they shouldn’t have much say on where the repaid moneys should go.

So for now the President has gotten on track to take care of the nation’s number one problem-unemployment. Hopefully the bureaucrats in Washington won’t mess it up this time.

Note: Jerry Kremer is the Former Chairman of the NYS Assembly Ways & Means Committee and President of Empire Government Strategies