Recent editorials of statewide and national interest from New York’s newspapers:
The Utica Observer-Dispatch on how everyday issues often get lost in the DC shuffle
April 24
With or without redactions, the long-awaited Mueller Report released last week isn’t what most folks in the 22nd US Congressional District have on their minds when they roll out of bed in the morning. In the 22 months it took to put the 448 pages together, it just wasn’t the usual topic of conversation at the Friday night football game or Sunday church coffee hour.
Instead, folks in central New York are wondering whether they’ll be able to afford higher costs for prescription drugs, how to pay off college loans, getting broadband access or how they can help their son or daughter deal with opioid addiction. Those are the issues leaders in Washington need to prioritize.
But that’s probably wishful thinking. The daily struggles facing most Americans are little more than a blip on the congressional radar screen. That’s why more leaders need to do what Rep. Anthony Brindisi is doing: Get out and talk to the people.
And get a dose of reality.
During his first 100 days in office, Brindisi, a Democrat from Utica, has held four town hall sessions (he plans another tonight in Chenango County), attended 53 community events, meetings and tours and answered 12,040 constituent calls, emails and letters from people throughout the district. In those meetings, he told the O-D editorial board last week, the Mueller Report - an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Trump’s team and Russia and any possible obstruction of justice - has not been a high priority.
Not that it hasn’t been mentioned. During a recent Town Hall meeting in Madison County, Brindisi said, the topic did come up - about 1 1/2 hours into the session.
“Unless you represent an area like San Francisco or Manhattan, you really don’t hear a lot (from constituents) about the Mueller report,” Brindisi said.
What do you hear about?
Prescription drug costs, infrastructure, opioids, broadband access, education, student loan debt. These are the realities facing people in districts like New York’s 22nd across America, Brindisi said. These are the things that have a direct impact on their lives.
The problem is that these issues become lost in the Washington quagmire, where party extremists on both sides of the aisle are consistently jostling one another for sound bites on this or that. Blame the national media for that. The squeaky pol gets the air time. Or the ink. And there are some real squeaky ones out there. Now, for who knows how long, they have the Mueller Report to bat around, along with all the sideshows that come with it that in reality don’t mean a blessed thing to the guy from Deansboro, New York, trying to pay his bills. If you’re a moderate like Brindisi, trying to best represent that guy, you can easily become lost in the shuffle.
That was a similar observation made by former congressman Richard Hanna, a Republican but also a moderate who sought to build consensus with those across the aisle and actually tried to make a difference. Unfortunately Hanna’s good sense was too often trumped by career politicians who were blinded by their own bluster and whose best efforts were spent securing their own futures, public be damned.
That means Brindisi and representatives of his ilk have their work cut out for them. He talks regularly with other congressional representatives from districts whose constituents also have real issues of concern that need to be dealt with. Among them is Rep. John Katko, a Republican who has represented New York’s 24th District since 2015. As he did with state Sen. Joseph Griffo while serving as an assemblyman, Brindisi continues to reach across the aisle to establish productive relationships to address topics of mutual concern. Some of those topics, like infrastructure, might not be sexy, but unlike the Mueller Report (its cost has been pegged at more than $25 million so far) they have a direct effect on real people’s lives.
But once inside the Capital Beltway, you’re not in Kansas anymore. Or, for that matter, upstate New York.
Online: https://bit.ly/2VqvnbI
The Daily News on House Oversight Committee subpoenas
April 25
Give Donald Trump some credit: While congressional Democrats twist themselves in knots over whether to open up impeachment hearings, he provides more ammunition.
Just this week, the White House told the House Judiciary Committee that it would not make former White House Counsel Don McGahn - a key figure in the Mueller report’s obstruction of justice section - available for a hearing, asserting executive privilege, even though privilege was waived during the Mueller probe.
The White House also told Carl Kline, former official in charge of security clearances, to ignore a House Oversight Committee subpoena.
On Wednesday, Trump declared he would broadly encourage rejecting all House subpoenas, while saying, in the same breath, “I have been the most transparent president and administration in the history of our country by far.” Oh, also in the week, this administration again rejected requests for Trump’s tax returns.
All of this is unacceptable.
The third article of impeachment drafted against Richard Nixon was his refusal to respond to legitimate House subpoenas (for the White House tapes).
Trump, meanwhile, tweets out contempt for the whole process:
“If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court. Not only……are there no “High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” there are no Crimes by me at all.”
Not quite. He can’t run to the Supreme Court to get the justices to call off impeachment. It’s a process the Constitution clearly leaves in the hands of the legislative branch. The only role for the court is that the chief justice presides over a Senate trial, if it comes to that.
More importantly, Trump may not like it, but the definition of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” is up to Congress to decide, which includes things like Trump’s outright contempt of legislative oversight.
Online: https://bit.ly/2ISOnZI
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The Citizen on effects of the I-81 highway project
April 24
The elevated portion of Interstate 81 in Syracuse is going to be demolished, so the question now is how best to implement that change so that it works out the best that it possibly can.
The announcement on Monday that the state Department of Transportation has determined that a community grid is a better option than a tunnel or a rebuild of the crumbling viaduct revived some of the shouting from tunnel and viaduct advocates who say the grid will be a big mistake.
The community grid will have pluses and minuses for downtown Syracuse and the surrounding area, but as a public comment period on the project approaches, it would be a wasted effort to try to get the state to reverse course. What people should be focused on now is making sure that any negative impacts of the grid plan will be addressed as well as possible.
In Cayuga County and western Onondaga County, it’s easy to predict that more travelers - especially tractor trailer drivers - may avoid Syracuse altogether when traveling to and from the New York metropolitan area and points west of Syracuse. We share those concerns. Many trucking companies already employ shortcuts through Cayuga County, Skaneateles and elsewhere between the state Thruway and Interstate 81 to shave a few miles off their trips. The downside locally is more wear and tear on roads and an increase in traffic, noise and diesel exhaust that add up to a degradation of quality of life.
So while the majority of the building and planning for this project is going to be focused on downtown Syracuse and points just north and south, there needs to be a simultaneous effort by our local, state and federal representatives to prepare for the side effects of the community grid in other places in the larger region.
Businesses and residents in Syracuse and beyond are going to be impacted by this change in traffic flow through central New York. Complaining about the likely choice of a grid project is not going to be helpful - but advanced planning to mitigate its effects will be.
Online: https://bit.ly/2USJRBI
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The Press-Republican on unrelated laws in the state budget
April 25
It’s just an hour.
But the state added those 60 minutes to two hours that people could already get in order to vote on election days.
Maybe a city dweller needs three hours to vote? But it seems like overkill, especially from an employer’s point of view, for the law says the boss foots the bill.
Not just state entities, over which the state, of course, should have more say.
But private employers, too.
But it’s just an hour, you say.
Those 60 minutes, though, were hidden amid budget items that legislators passed in a hurry to meet April 1 deadline.
According to Assemblyman Dan Stec (R-Queensbury), “… half the (budget) bills were printed Sunday and voted on in the dead of night, yet again, without time for the legislature and public to properly vet them.”
Often, laws such as the one giving workers more time off to vote find their way into the spending plan as a bargaining chip.
Several this budget season made the news because they were (and remain) controversial.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the vehicle of the budget to end cash bail for most misdemeanor charges nonviolent felonies.
Selling drugs isn’t a violent felony, we note here, but addiction kills.
And he got his way on ending the release by state agencies of most mugshots of people charged with crimes. We’ve been outspoken in opposition to that.
Some laws are tied to state finances, so it’s more understandable to see them as part of the budget.
There’s been a mixed reaction to one of them - making permanent the 2 percent cap on the property tax levy.
Others come as a surprise, after the fact.
For example, did you know there’s a law built into the budget that will make backseat seat belts mandatory for all, not just age 16 and younger?
And then there’s the time-off-to-vote amendment.
That one was buried somewhere in budget bill S1505C, Sen. Betty Little’s office told us.
When news of it surfaced some days later, the North Country business world was understandably annoyed, frustrated and even kind of outraged.
The state mandate takes money out of the pockets of small-business owners, can short them workers for as long as three hours to go vote - or maybe go home and take a nap.
Those workers don’t have to prove they voted; maybe in the next budget the state will mandate hand stamps at polling places so employees can show the boss they actually did.
Yes, that’s getting a little silly.
But what’s not silly is when laws get pushed through under the radar.
We know that happens in the regular course of legislative sessions, too.
But it seems even more inappropriate when bills that have nothing to do with spending get tacked onto budget legislation - the mugshot and bail laws especially.
Especially now, with one party in control of Albany.
Cuomo, backed by the majority of Democrats in both houses, seems lately to feel anything goes (well, except for recreational marijuana - so far).
That will take a whole lot more than an hour to sort out.
Which is a good thing. A governor shouldn’t get everything he wants.
Online: https://bit.ly/2viJxgz
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The Utica Observer-Dispatch on how everyday issues often get lost in the DC shuffle
April 24
With or without redactions, the long-awaited Mueller Report released last week isn’t what most folks in the 22nd US Congressional District have on their minds when they roll out of bed in the morning. In the 22 months it took to put the 448 pages together, it just wasn’t the usual topic of conversation at the Friday night football game or Sunday church coffee hour.
Instead, folks in central New York are wondering whether they’ll be able to afford higher costs for prescription drugs, how to pay off college loans, getting broadband access or how they can help their son or daughter deal with opioid addiction. Those are the issues leaders in Washington need to prioritize.
But that’s probably wishful thinking. The daily struggles facing most Americans are little more than a blip on the congressional radar screen. That’s why more leaders need to do what Rep. Anthony Brindisi is doing: Get out and talk to the people.
And get a dose of reality.
During his first 100 days in office, Brindisi, a Democrat from Utica, has held four town hall sessions (he plans another tonight in Chenango County), attended 53 community events, meetings and tours and answered 12,040 constituent calls, emails and letters from people throughout the district. In those meetings, he told the O-D editorial board last week, the Mueller Report - an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Trump’s team and Russia and any possible obstruction of justice - has not been a high priority.
Not that it hasn’t been mentioned. During a recent Town Hall meeting in Madison County, Brindisi said, the topic did come up - about 1 1/2 hours into the session.
“Unless you represent an area like San Francisco or Manhattan, you really don’t hear a lot (from constituents) about the Mueller report,” Brindisi said.
What do you hear about?
Prescription drug costs, infrastructure, opioids, broadband access, education, student loan debt. These are the realities facing people in districts like New York’s 22nd across America, Brindisi said. These are the things that have a direct impact on their lives.
The problem is that these issues become lost in the Washington quagmire, where party extremists on both sides of the aisle are consistently jostling one another for sound bites on this or that. Blame the national media for that. The squeaky pol gets the air time. Or the ink. And there are some real squeaky ones out there. Now, for who knows how long, they have the Mueller Report to bat around, along with all the sideshows that come with it that in reality don’t mean a blessed thing to the guy from Deansboro, New York, trying to pay his bills. If you’re a moderate like Brindisi, trying to best represent that guy, you can easily become lost in the shuffle.
That was a similar observation made by former congressman Richard Hanna, a Republican but also a moderate who sought to build consensus with those across the aisle and actually tried to make a difference. Unfortunately Hanna’s good sense was too often trumped by career politicians who were blinded by their own bluster and whose best efforts were spent securing their own futures, public be damned.
That means Brindisi and representatives of his ilk have their work cut out for them. He talks regularly with other congressional representatives from districts whose constituents also have real issues of concern that need to be dealt with. Among them is Rep. John Katko, a Republican who has represented New York’s 24th District since 2015. As he did with state Sen. Joseph Griffo while serving as an assemblyman, Brindisi continues to reach across the aisle to establish productive relationships to address topics of mutual concern. Some of those topics, like infrastructure, might not be sexy, but unlike the Mueller Report (its cost has been pegged at more than $25 million so far) they have a direct effect on real people’s lives.
But once inside the Capital Beltway, you’re not in Kansas anymore. Or, for that matter, upstate New York.
Online: https://bit.ly/2VqvnbI
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