Cuomo backing off thruway toll hike?

The two-lane is still toll-free!

Second generation New York governor Andy Cuomo has been supporting the absolute necessity of billionaire Howie Milstein's "modest" 45 percent Thruway truck toll hike. 

“The Thruway Authority has to be financially capable,” Cuomo said in an interview Friday on public radio’s “Capitol Connection.” He said the authority created to operate the statewide system decades ago must be able to meet its debt payments from capital borrowing. Compared to other states, Cuomo said, truck tolls “are not that high.”

The toll for a three-axle truck traveling from Buffalo to New York City is about $88. That could increase to $127.

We're not sure that Andy's view from his cozy Albany/Washington bubble allows him to understand how increasing Thruway tolls forces more traffic onto rural two lane roads, resulting in more traffic deaths for his Upstate constituents.  Perhaps Andy's presidential aspirations have cleared his head, however, as yesterday the millionaire career politician seemed to backing off a bit.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday agreed a toll increase must be a last resort, but he said the Thruway Authority run by his appointees need to make sure it is fiscally secure enough to pay its contracted debt. Mr. Cuomo also said public hearings under way are also considering the option of raising tolls for passenger cars as a way to spread the burden. Car tolls were last raised in 2010.

"The first question for them is, can they find more efficiencies?" Mr. Cuomo said. "The economy isn't coming back. The answer can't be more taxes. So the answer must be finding a way to run that organization more efficiently."

So car tolls haven't been raised since 2010?  Most Upstaters, if they're still employed at all, haven't had a raise since 2008.  We predict these outcomes:  higher tolls for trucks, higher tolls for cars, higher salaries for Thruway employees, and higher accident rates for Finger Lakes roads.

DiNapoli to audit Thruway?

Gov. and Mrs. Dewey open Thruway, 1954

While many Upstaters consider New York's economy already dead, billionaire Cuomo donor and Thruway honcho Howard Milstein wants to bury the corpse six feet deeper.  Milstein, an influence-buying  Manhattan tycoon, wants to raise Thruway truck tolls by a "modest" 45 percent.  While we suspect Milstein, Cuomo and their jet-setting pals could care less that about that massive increase in business costs, every penny of which will ultimately be paid by consumers, a handful of drowning New Yorkers are sending up a warning flare.

A major state business group is demanding a thorough audit of the state Thruway Authority before it raises tolls by what the authority called a "modest" 45 percent for larger trucks.

"We will all pay the price for this toll hike if we don't stand up and demand that the Thruway review its own finances before taking money from the rest of us," said Brian Sampson, executive director of Unshackle Upstate.

The toll increase on trucks with three or more axles would threaten distribution jobs and increase the costs of food, clothing and other articles hauled by trucks while slowing New York's "tenuous" economic recovery, he said Tuesday.

In what may turn out to be nothing more that a political smokescreen, Democrat New York state comptroller Tom DiNapoli  is hinting he may just audit the bloated Thruway Authority's books.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli opened the door to possibly auditing the Thruway Authority's financial books Tuesday as the agency seeks to push through a controversial 45 percent toll hike on trucks.

The comptroller said the agency failed to thoroughly implement many of the recommendations he made in 2009 when it pushed through a previous toll increase. Had the findings from that audit been followed, he said, "many of the same problems that exist today would have been addressed.''

"Our Thruway system helps sustain the upstate economy. Increasing tolls could have a negative impact on our fragile economic recovery and hurt small businesses and consumers,'' the comptroller warned.

Bold added.  A few surviving Upstate residents may recall that Thruway tolls were supposed to disappear when the bonds were paid off in 1996.

The Thruway was built beginning in the 1950s and tolls were supposed to have paid off the superhighway in 1996.

 Ah, yes, 1996:

Boom times in Tioga

Not Tioga County, NY, however, that's Tioga, North Dakota.

Politicians wake up to toll increase

Will billionaire Cuomo campaign donor Howard Milstein get away with his stake-through-the-heart Thruway toll increase?  Maybe not.  In the Finger Lakes:

You won't find any supporters of a proposed New York State Thruway toll hike among Cayuga County's state legislators...

The potential toll increase was criticized by Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, who said that it's another example of New York "not being open for business."

"It would increase the cost of goods and services and increase costs at a time that people do not need any more increased costs," he said.

Assemblyman Gary Finch, R-Springport, shared Kolb's position.

"At a time when we're trying to get the economy to come back, in addition to the high cost of fuel, we're putting an additional burden on trucks that will be reflected in the costs of goods and merchandise to the consumer," he said.

Assemblyman Robert Oaks, R-Macedon, and state Sen. David Valesky, D-Oneida, also oppose the proposed toll increase.

And from the remote Western New York outpost of Amherst:

Representative Kathy Hochul (NY-26) sent a letter to New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo expressing her opposition to a proposed 45 percent increase in tolls for trucks on the New York State Thruway stating that the increase would negatively impact Western New York’s economy.

In the letter Hochul writes: “If implemented, this would seriously hinder economic activity in our region. I spoke to truckers just today who say they will have no option but to either pass on the additional costs of the higher tolls to their customers, or to avoid the Thruway altogether by using secondary roads. The Thruway Authority’s proposal would make the cost of business in our state even higher, especially in rural communities that depend on trucks for freight service.”

We remind Rep. Hochul that people who depend on truck transportation are not confined to New York's rural hinterlands.  Every man, woman and child in the United States depends on trucks for the necessities and luxuries of modern life. 

End the sugar tax

Have you noticed that most of that candy in the grocery store is imported?

Bitter about paying artificially high prices for the non-artificial sweetener everyone uses just so a politically connected family can enjoy the sweet life? It's time lawmakers put a lid on the honey pot.

An Iowa State University study has found that the federal sugar program costs U.S. consumers roughly $3.5 billion a year and deprives the workforce of 20,000 jobs. This New Deal-era framework of barriers on sugar imports and of price supports for domestic sugar is a racket that benefits only a few, in particular the Fanjul family of Florida.

The federal sugar scam does have one benefit for Upstate New York, however - it's easier to park near the former Nestle chocolate factory!

There’s no one working in the former Nestle chocolate plant, so there’s no need for the parking restrictions around the plant, according to city of Fulton officials.

This week, lawmakers approved the elimination of 30 minute parking restrictions and a no-stopping order on Fay St., which runs along the front entrance of the closed plant, and 2 hour restrictions on a block of Lyons St. and several blocks of S. Fifth St.

“When Nestle was operating, they asked us to enforce the parking,” said Mayor Ron Woodward.  The 30 minute parking made it possible for Nestle’s customers and visitors to find a convenient place to park, he said.

Perhaps the Fanjuls just want to support Obama's traffic congestion reduction plan. 

 Abandoned Nestle plant, Fulton, NY.

Cuomo confused by Econ 101

Andy Cuomo poses with pal Al Sharpton

2016 Democrat presidential candidacy front-runner Andy Cuomo appears to believe that an increase in New York's minimum wage will both decrease and increase employment, at the same time, in the financially struggling Empire State.

Gov. Cuomo played footsie with a possible minimum- wage increase yesterday, calling a hike a potential job-creator.

He acknowledged the argument of Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and other opponents that an increase could lead small businesses to cut jobs — especially for young, less-skilled workers.

But, he told reporters at the Capitol, “As a general rule, I don’t believe [increasing] the minimum wage costs jobs if it’s an intelligent increase. I believe it can create jobs, as a matter of fact, and create spending. The question becomes, what numbers?”

While we're at it, why don't we raise taxes again?  That should encourage more business to relocate here, right?

Increasing the cost of entry-level employees will result in fewer employment opportunities for the youngest, least skilled New Yorkers.  Candidate Cuomo needs to read up on basic economics.

Planning to visit Rochester?

Kodak Park demolition

Finger Lakes travelers, be aware that Rochester's fastest growing revenue source is red light cameras.

Net revenues from red light tickets are three times the city’s budgeted estimates, records show — with 2½ months to go in the fiscal year.

The additional $400,000 in fines collected to date is attributable to a faster deployment of cameras and improved collections, officials said.

Forget about that antiquated right to confront your accuser in open court.  Tickets are mailed to vehicle owners, regardless of who was driving.  

Violators receive a $50 ticket in the mail. The fine jumps to $75 if not paid, and eventually the car can be booted or towed. Fines are levied against the vehicle owner, based on the license plate.

Tim's Cogitorium follows the money, and guess what?

While the city has collected $141,045 in fines so far, that’s only half the amount that’s outstanding because over 50% of the tickets remain unpaid.  Nearly 1 in 4 tickets are in default or in collections, meaning the chances of ever getting paid are slim.

But hey, $141k isn’t pocket change.  That’s a good profit, right?  It turns out, not so much.  You see, the cameras were installed and are maintained by Arizona-based vendor Redflex Traffic Systems.  Over the same period, they have billed the city $145,164 for operating the system.  Fortunately, there is a clause in the city’s contract with Redflex saying they can’t be billed more than they take in.  So, all totaled, the city has seen a net cash influx of… let me work the arithmetic out here… carry the 1… ah, yes… $0.

While the red light scam is taking money out of citizen's already depleted pockets, one Rochester guy is still doing OK.

Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy had a big day at Saratoga Race Course, winning $2,628 one day there last summer, his tax returns showed.

Duffy’s income in 2011, in fact, was significantly higher than his boss, Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Their returns were released Tuesday.

Duffy earned $76,770 from his police pension — he’s the former police chief in Rochester, as well as the former mayor — and $152,823 as lieutenant governor.

Along with some investment  earnings, his and his wife’s total taxable income came to $237,995.

Upstaters should recall that Duffy is in charge of your economic development.  Does he think we live in Arizona, or Australia?  Perhaps we should all got to the track.

Kodak selling online services to Shutterfly

Rochester's bankrupt Eastman Kodak Company is reported to be in the process of selling is online photo services business, Kodak Gallery, to competitor Shutterfly.

Eastman Kodak Co has agreed to sell its online photo services business to Shutterfly Inc for $23.8 million, kicking off the bankrupt photography pioneer's relaunch as a much slimmer company although a patent sale seen crucial to its turnaround may still be months away.

The once-iconic company that invented the hand-held camera has said it will quit the camera business and is expected to fetch $1 billion to $2 billion from the sale of about 1,100 digital patents, which is due to get under way by June 30.

After dominating Upstate's industrial landscape for more that 100 years, Eastman is now forced to surrender it's still-viable photo printing business to what was, only a few years ago, a tiny start-up that no one at Kodak Park had ever heard of.  While Kodak management was out spending their annual bonuses on Buicks and swimming pools, a few techies in California were thinking ahead.

Shutterfly was founded in 1999 by two employees of Silicon Graphics – Eva Manolis and Dan Baum. Eva was a product person and Dan was a technology person. They teamed up and asked Jim Clark to fund it, which he did...

The vision at the time was that people were starting to buy these new things called digital cameras, but their pictures were stuck in them. They created a site that allowed people to get their pictures out of the camera, literally. Their early adopters where white men, technofiles, spending $2,000 for a 1-2 Mega Pixel camera. That was in 1999. They started programming in April, and the site launched on December 11, 1999.

 More on Kodak's digital photography history here.

Kodak makes its last camera

Rochester's Eastman Kodak Company introduced its first daylight loading camera in 1891.  Today, Upstate New York's former industrial giant, now bankrupt, announced that it will end camera production.

For generations of New York politicians and business "leaders," who've told us the solution to our economic collapse is more of the same, then more of the same, then even billions more of the same, we'd hope Kodak's historic collapse will ring a bell.  At least, take Kodak's name off the list of  politically connected crony corporations we're supposed to follow into the promised land.

Opie gets a Kodak

New York "recovery" "stalling"

Future flea market location?

Finger Lakes residents may not have noticed that New York's economy has been recovering.  In a press release provided to Gannett, Andy Cuomo's official spokesman for economic matters admits that it really isn't.

New York's economic recovery appears to be losing momentum, and that's raising concerns about the pace of the rebound we'll see in 2012.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli shared those findings in a report released Thursday: "Economic Trends in New York State."

 Don't move to Texas yet, as DiNapoli has some good news.

Rochester, New York City and the Glens Falls areas did better than the state average, with Rochester recovering 98.1 percent of the jobs it lost. The report attributed Rochester's economic success to gains in professional and business services, but it warned that the recent bankruptcy of Eastman Kodak "could result in the loss of thousands of jobs."

Yeah, that Kodak bankruptcy could really have a negative impact on Upstate's staggering economy, Tom.  Then there's this other matter:

New York also has had the stigma of being unfriendly to business. The Tax Foundation, based in Washington D.C., last week named New York as having the 49th worst business climate in the nation -- ahead only of New Jersey.

"The combination of high property taxes, high income taxes, high corporate-income taxes and high sales taxes all create a toxic climate for attracting businesses and people in the state and keeping businesses and people in the state," said Scott Hodge, the group's president.

Cuomo mandates electric cars

Mario Cuomo, that is.

In a decision that environmentalists contend will provide a major boost to the nation's tiny market in electric cars, a Federal judge ruled today that New York State can order automobile manufacturers to sell thousands of electrically powered vehicles in the state beginning this fall.

The ruling by Judge Lawrence E. Kahn of Federal District Court in Albany upholds a six-year-old state rule requiring that 2 percent of all vehicles sold during the 1998 model year, which begins on Oct. 1, be powered by electricity. The quota gradually increases to 10 percent by 2003.

That's right - by 2003, a full ten percent of cars sold in the Empire State were supposed to be coal-powered.  As we recall, the rules actually mandated that ten percent of new cars in stock on dealer lots had to be electric.

However, like unicorns, marketplace-viable electric cars never appeared.  By 1995, rino governor George Pataki was reluctantly retreating from the fantasy.

Amid a strenuous lobbying campaign by the oil and auto industries, Gov. George E. Pataki is hinting that he may push back the state's deadline for auto makers to begin selling electric cars in New York State, now just over two years away.

His decision could have an important effect on whether the auto industry will sell electric cars or other fuel-efficient vehicles across the rest of the nation. And the auto makers are pressing for a decision in the next few weeks so they can have time to prepare.

Under antipollution rules written during the administration of Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, major auto companies must sell a quota of electric cars starting in New York in 1998. But the auto makers contend that a commercially viable electric car does not exist, and they have been pressing Mr. Pataki to push back, if not eliminate, the deadline.

We'd be willing to bet $10,000 that not one out of one thousand current New Yorkers has ever heard of the Cuomo/Pataki fantasy car mandate.  If they had, perhaps they'd be a little more skeptical of Cuomo Jr.'s current schemes.

Barfrack and Wafflin' Andy

Famous natural gas storage tank, Boston, MA

Two of our wealthy career politician rulers have suddenly switched sides on shale gas recovery.  America's most anti-energy president has suddenly become Barfrack Obama.

The Wall Street Journal has an opinion column noting that Barack Obama has done an about face and now seems to be boosting the prospects of natural gas (especially that derived from shale gas fields). The White House has released a report that notes the important role that shale gas has played in helping to spark job and industrial growth. The White House mentions the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania as playing an especially important role...

Meanwhile, in Albany, governor Andy Cuomo, who we suspected had already promised billions of dollars in fracking revenue to his state employee union masters, in spite of the fact that the rest of New York's anti-prosperity Democrats are fighting fracking tooth and nail, has suddenly gone a-wafflin'.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal will not include any funding for additional gas-drilling regulators, he said Monday.

Speaking after delivering remarks at a Martin Luther King Jr. remembrance ceremony, Cuomo told reporters he won’t move to add the appropriate staff until the state Department of Environmental Conservation determines whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing.

It’s a “chicken and the egg” situation, Cuomo said.

“You would not be hiring staff to regulate hydrofracking unless you believed you were going ahead with hydrofracking,” Cuomo said. “And we haven’t made that determination. So the budget won’t anticipate hydrofracking approval.”

What's up with the commissars?  We suspect it has to do with Barfrack wanting to be reelected president, and Wafflin' Andy looking to be reelected governor.  Ed Lasky has another theory about Frackin' Barry's suddden crush on shale, however.

George Soros -- a major donor to Obama, a major backer of so-called 527 groups, and the sugar daddy of the Democratic Party -- has recently made a major investment in a company that would be enriched if natural gas takes off as a fuel source for cars, trucks and buses.

 Apologies to Mrs. Howe for the run-on sentence, we couldn't stop ourselves.

Cuomo tobacco tax grab fails

Adam  Smith's invisible hand slaps Andy Cuomo right in his budget.

A memo sent to members of the New York Association of Convenience Stores from the group’s president, Jim Calvin — a copy of which I have on my desk — said, “I got a call from Gov. Cuomo’s budget office yesterday. In examining cigarette tax receipts so far this fiscal year (April 1 to March 31) it looks like they will fall considerably short of their projection in new revenues. . . .”

The sale of nontaxed smokes by stores on Indian reservations became an issue two years ago when the state cigarette tax was raised significantly and many smokers took more of their business to reservations — or to Internet sellers — whose packs aren’t taxed. Some folks even bought lower-taxed cigs smuggled in from out of state.

The State of New York estimated that taxing Indian reservation cigarette sales at the wholesale level would bring in an additional $130 million.  It appears resourceful NY smokers made other plans.

Kodak's last new cameras?

Despite teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, Rochester's Eastman Kodak Company introduced two new cameras today - perhaps its last.

Two new Kodak cameras were announced today, both of which are priced below the $200 mark: the Wi-Fi-enabled Kodak EasyShare M750, which allows users to upload photos directly from the camera and pair up with smartphones via a peer-to-peer connection, and the Playfull Dual hybrid still/video camera, which has some of the best specs we've seen in a pocket camcorder.

Kodak shares drop to 48 cents

As Kodak board members abandon ship, renewed bankruptcy rumors sent shares of Rochester's once-mighty Eastman Kodak Company to a new low today.

Shares in photography company Eastman Kodak have tumbled to a new all-time low following a report that the ailing company is getting ready to seek bankruptcy court protection.

The Wall Street Journal said Kodak is preparing for a bankruptcy 11 filing "in the coming weeks" should efforts to sell a trove of digital-imaging patents fall through.

Among the well paid geniuses who ran Kodak into the ground, and the most recent fleeing board member, elite academic Laura D'Andrea Tyson was head of Bill & Hillary Clinton's National Economic Council and 16th Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.  Amazingly, the teflon Tyson is now on deck for a similar position in the Obama administration.

Professor Tyson

Schumer pops a cold one

Schumer with his former intern

With a no end for our national depression in sight, a real unemployment rate around 16%, our yet-unborn grandchildren facing a life of crippling debt, and the Middle East being overrun with US taxpayer-supported Islamist regimes, what's on New York's senior senator's to-do list?  Beer.

Sen. Chuck Schumer wants his constituents to drink more beer this holiday season — as long as it's brewed in New York.

Schumer unveiled a campaign on Wednesday to sell more New York beers in restaurants, bars and convenience stores throughout the state. He said the initiative will boost the growing micro-brew industry in New York, which supported nearly 60,000 jobs and produced more than a million barrels of beer last year.

New York already produces some classic brews - we're enjoying one as we write this.  In our experience, Upstaters are actually capable of producing and consuming beer without federal assistance.  None the less, every minute this putz spends bothering brewers is another minute he's not driving our country further down the road to serfdom.

Pennsylvania fracking impacts New York

Colonial Manor under construction

 

It seems there's something of an economic upturn happening in Upstate New York's Southern Tier.  Demand for housing in the formerly moribund region near the Pennsylvania border is being addressed by the opening of  Colonial Manor, a new 144 unit apartment complex in Horseheads. The spiffy residences will rent in the $895 to $1,295 range. 

For those who've spent any part of the past few decades in the vicinity, the concept of a housing boom in the perennially depressed Tier might be difficult to comprehend.  A local politician explains:

Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli said the project should ease a housing shortage in Chemung County.

“This will help fill the gap which I think will continue to grow,” Santulli said. “In the next 12 months (Chemung County) will gain an additional 1,000 jobs. Maybe 2,000 jobs will be created.”

What's driving the job growth in long-depressed Chemung?  Colonial Manor manager Helen Allis has a theory:

"Having the gas drilling...."

Bold added.  Shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania's Northern Tier is driving economic growth in the adjoining Southern Tier of New York.  That's bad news only to those opposed to prosperity.  

Editor's note:  For our readers around the globe, the statement above is not a typo.  New York's Southern Tier is located just north of Pennsylvania's Northern Tier.  

"Economic development councils" will prevent economic development

Planned city, now abandoned, former USSR

Who believes that that way to revive the once-Empire State's moribund economy is to allow the people who got us here to spend billions more of our tax dollars on Soviet-style central planning?  We'll tell you who:  Andy Cuomo and his gang of politicians, union bosses, academics and crony capitalists.

Dryden resident Tracy Marisa, speaking for the Dryden Safe Energy Coalition, takes to the Ithaca Journal to to explain why Cuomo's merry band is doomed to fail.

Central planning is not what New York needs; we need less government planning and a reduction in the role of government.

New York starts in the race for jobs with two strikes against it: one of the highest total tax burdens in the nation and excessive regulation coupled with bureaucratic administration. These are the problems that need to be addressed.

Marisa reminds us who's riding in Cuomo's clown car.

The composition of these councils also demonstrates a failure to understand how to achieve economic development as a majority of their members are drawn from academia and government.

Marisa provides alternative suggestions for shocking Upstate back to life.  Be sure to read the whole thing. 

Opening of the Erie Canal, 1825

Basketball season underway

Scoop!

Central New York's leading export:  SU 78, Fordham 53.

Last exit for the "Big Yellow Box?"

Rochester's Eastman Kodak may be all done, folks.

Eastman Kodak Co. (EK), the unprofitable 131-year-old camera maker, is weighing options including a bankruptcy filing because of concerns raised by possible buyers of its patent portfolio, said three people with direct knowledge of the process.

Sam Henry looks at a sad day for Rochester, Upstate New York, and everyone who ever captured images on film.

This is a company whose “campus”once  covered a large portion of this city and whose wealth enabled Rochester to print its own money or script during the Great Depression and to carry on fairly unscathed.  So many in the community were touched by Kodak that you heard it said “the big yellow box takes care of us.”  And it did.