CAPITOL Spitzer blocks local funding $482,548 in state aid withheld BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter
Capital Region nonprofit and government organizations, most of them in the district of Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, will not be getting $482,548 in state aid they were counting on. Tedisco, a Republican whose district includes parts of Schenectady and Saratoga counties, accused Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer of blocking the funds as an act of political retaliation, because Tedisco has opposed the governor’s plan to let illegal immigrants qualify for driver’s licenses. Spitzer denied this, and said Tedisco was not entitled to the money. The blocked funding includes: $100,000 for the Schenectady Free Health Clinic. $90,000 for the village of Ballston Spa bicentennial celebration. $71,300 for Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School in Schenectady (for areas used by public guests and groups). $50,000 for the American Italian Heritage Association in Colonie. $40,000 for Niskayuna Fire District No. 1. $25,000 for the Beyond the Classroom Foundation in Saratoga Springs. $25,000 for playground equipment at the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District. Lesser amounts for eight other organizations. Much of the money has likely been spent already, said Bill Sherman, Tedisco’s chief of staff, by groups that were expecting the state to reimburse them. Bill Spolyar, director of the Schenectady Free Health Clinic, said he hopes the clinic will not close, in part because it might be difficult to start up again. But the clinic could face closure by the end of this year, he said, unless new funds can be raised. He is the only paid employee of the clinic, which is staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses. It stopped taking new patients in April, as an economy measure. Under former Gov. George Pataki, Spolyar said, the clinic received funding from state Health Department discretionary funds amounting to $200,000 in each of the 2005- 06 and 2006-07 fiscal years. Spolyar had expected more than $300,000 in aid from that source this year, but discovered in April the clinic would not get any discretionary spending because Spitzer had eliminated it across the board. In June, the Senate passed a $350,000 appropriation for the clinic, but the Tedisco-sponsored measure died in the Assembly. The funding announced earlier this year by Tedisco, and now denied by Spitzer, would have come from prior years’ budgets, when Pataki allocated member-item money for his fellow Republicans in the Assembly. Spitzer and his budget director, Paul Francis, said Tedisco was told in January that only the grants specifically promised to organizations by the end of last year would be paid out. Tedisco disputed that, saying the governor told him in January that any new policy this year would not affect the Pataki-era money. Tedisco, like other legislative leaders, allocates to his own district a disproportionately high share of member-item money. Other Republican members generally get less than their Democratic colleagues, reflecting their minority status in that house. Senate Democrats get less to spend than the majority Senate Republicans. Sen. Craig Johnson, a Nassau County Democrat who captured a Republican seat this year, complained earlier this month that his district has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in promised member-item aid. The other local groups not getting promised funding are: Schenectady Access Cable Council, $15,000; Galway Volunteer Fire Company, $15,000; Saratoga Rowing Association, $8,000; Scotia-Glenville Junior Tartans Pop Warner, $6,500; Scotia-Glenville Rowing Association, $10,000; Scotia-Glenville School District (for video surveillance) $10,000; Cornell Cooperative Extension of Saratoga County, $11,748; and Belmont Pop Warner Football, $5,000. “This is truly governance by vengeance,” Tedisco said at a news conference, saying he has never seen “a more disturbing and shameful reaction by a public servant, let alone a governor.” Spitzer, speaking earlier to reporters in New York City, said Tedisco was “fundamentally wrong,” according to a Daily News blog. “He was giving away money he had no right to give away,” the governor said. E-mails provided by Tedisco’s office, and confirmed by Spitzer spokesman Jeffrey Gordon, show that as recently as last month the Budget Division was “prepared to process” some of the projects in question. Gordon said that just reflected lower-level employees doing their jobs. Sherman said Francis, Spitzer’s budget director, told him the decision was made Monday not to fund the projects. Francis could not be reached for comment, but sent a letter to Tedisco Wednesday saying the minority leader was told in January that new projects would not be funded. Gordon declined to comment on why the administration and Tedisco have different versions of the communications between them in January. Tedisco said the administration was providing false information. “I don’t think it’s a misunderstanding. I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” he said. Gordon said the unused funds will be applied to next year’s budget. He declined to say whether the health clinic or the other groups might receive funding then, or to suggest what they should do in the meantime to make up for the lost money. Tedisco said he is trying to raise private funds for the health clinic. Gordon denied that the governor’s action was connected to any political issue. Tedisco had been on good terms with Spitzer in the first part of this year, and in budget negotiations took a position in between that of the governor and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick. But as relations between Spitzer and Bruno deteriorated over the summer, so did they between Spitzer and Tedisco. The governor and the Assembly minority leader have been harshly critical of each other over the issue of driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.
Funding cut called political punishment Tedisco claims Spitzer is penalizing Schenectady health clinic in GOP district
By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau First published: Thursday, October 18, 2007
ALBANY -- A Schenectady health clinic for the poor may be the latest casualty in the escalating battle between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Republican lawmakers. Funding cuts have long been weapons of choice in the Capitol's partisan wars. But Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco said Spitzer has taken the art of political retaliation to a new level by cutting $100,000 from a health clinic for the poor in a Republican-held district in Schenectady.
"The governor has really stepped over the line," Tedisco said a day after learning that money he requested for the financially strapped Schenectady Free Health Clinic had been eliminated.
He said thousands of low-income Schenectady residents depend on the clinic's free care.
It is hardly the first time one of Albany's leaders has been accused of cutting funding for political reasons. Republican Gov. George Pataki infuriated Assembly Democrats in 1998 when he axed $1.6 billion of their spending and borrowing items. Over the past year, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's office has pulled back local grants for two Long Island and Westchester districts where Democrats seized longtime Republican seats.
The cut in Schenectady was just outside Tedisco's district in an area represented by one of his Republican colleagues, George Amedore Jr., who won a special election this summer.
It also came amid a high-profile battle over Spitzer's plan to allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. Tedisco has emerged as the opposition's point man, appearing on national TV shows blasting the plan and calling the governor "Illegal Eliot."
Spitzer's cut also comes just days after the Times Union reported that Tedisco was researching a legislative proposal, which, if passed, could allow for a recall of the governor.
The driver's license plan, enacted by Spitzer last month, is the latest flash point between the governor and Republicans in the Legislature.
"This is payback," said Tedisco. "And this is governance with a vengeance."
Spitzer spokesman Jeffrey Gordon countered that Tedisco and other lawmakers knew the governor was changing the way local grants, known as member items, were allocated and they could have asked for the funding during the budget process but instead waited until August.
"They had ample opportunity to secure funding for this and they did not attempt to do so," Gordon said.
In past years, the health clinic got money from a discretionary fund controlled by the state health commissioner. But as part of what he said was an effort to make spending more transparent, Spitzer, who took office in January, did away with these multimillion-dollar pots of money controlled by agency heads and put them in the state budget as line items.
The governor said he would use money left over from 2006 to fund some requests from local lawmakers, which is what Tedisco sought in August, after he realized the clinic's traditional funding source no longer existed.
Even though the request came late in the year, Tedisco said, he was led to believe he'd get the money. As proof, he released a Sept. 6 e-mail from the governor's office to Tedisco stating that "we're prepared to process this project along with the other items."
The other items included additional grants requested by Tedisco, including $90,000 for a bicentennial celebration in Ballston Spa; $10,000 to buy boats for the Scotia Glenville Rowing Association; and $50,000 toward an elevator at the Italian American Heritage Association. None of the items, totaling $482,548, was approved for funding. When he asked what happened, Tedisco's chief of staff, Bill Sherman, said Spitzer's Budget Director Paul Francis told him "that was the decision of this administration."
The health clinic operates on an annual budget of about $700,000, said Executive Director Bill Spolyar. Local retired doctors donate their services, and most of the expenses are for medication and malpractice insurance.
He wasn't familiar with the combative budget politics but said the clinic is starting to solicit charitable donations and still hoping the state funding will come through.
"We're hopeful that's going to happen," he said. Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com. Capitol bureau reporter James M. Odato contributed to this story.
The other items included additional grants requested by Tedisco, including $90,000 for a bicentennial celebration in Ballston Spa; $10,000 to buy boats for the Scotia Glenville Rowing Association; and $50,000 toward an elevator at the Italian American Heritage Association. None of the items, totaling $482,548, was approved for funding
Sorry folks, but I really don't want to pay for boats and elevators or a bicentennial celebration.
Quoted Text
The other local groups not getting promised funding are: Schenectady Access Cable Council, $15,000; Galway Volunteer Fire Company, $15,000; Saratoga Rowing Association, $8,000; Scotia-Glenville Junior Tartans Pop Warner, $6,500; Scotia-Glenville Rowing Association, $10,000; Scotia-Glenville School District (for video surveillance) $10,000; Cornell Cooperative Extension of Saratoga County, $11,748; and Belmont Pop Warner Football, $5,000.
Nor do I want to pay for the dictatorship owned Access Cable, or a fire dept., or a pop warner, or a football team.
These are all just special interest groups that perhaps IF the residents had their tax money in their paycheck, perhaps then these special interest groups, who go begging to the government for money, would be receiving residential and business donations. Sorry folks, as political as this is, and perhaps this is a payback for Tedisco's Spitzer bashing (which I agree with), our tax dollar has no business paying for special interest groups.
If you start an organization, then ya better make sure it can sustain itself WITHOUT the government handouts!! If they did, they wouldn't be in this situation today, now would they?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The poor may feel this cut the most when the free clinic closes but all the rest can raise money on their own and shouldn't be depending on the government for handouts.
If you start an organization, then ya better make sure it can sustain itself WITHOUT the government handouts!! If they did, they wouldn't be in this situation today, now would they?
That means our 'poor kids' would have to stand outside jangling a coffee can for change(oh, how awful, just like in Darfur).....somehow we got to the "get something back for 'giving'" ie: selling candy, wrapping paper etc.......no different than the government collecting from lotteries, racing, slots etc.......
Let the kids and parents work together that are in these organizations and let people learn to give without getting......geez......selfish/greedy......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
It’s hard to believe, frankly, that the decision by the Spitzer administration not to honor member item commitments totaling nearly $500,000 by Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco isn’t related to the assemblyman’s recent unrestrained effort to humiliate him over his illegal alien licensing scheme. Spitzer’s people want the public to believe that the governor is simply applying new rules regarding the distribution of member item money passed this spring, but the money involved wasn’t from the current year’s budget, it was held over from the Pataki administration. And Spitzer didn’t say or do anything when Tedisco announced in a rather high-profile manner in July that he was giving $100,000 of it to the Schenectady Free Health Clinic. The timing of that announcement was politically suspect, given that Tedisco was working hard at the time to push the candidacy of George Amedore for Paul Tonko’s Assembly seat; yet Spitzer, who clearly preferred the Democratic candidate, Ed Kosiur, didn’t say or do anything to dispel anyone of the notion that the clinic would be getting its money. Only this week, after Tedisco went on national TV to discredit Spitzer’s plan to let illegal aliens get driver’s licenses, and started talk about recalling the governor, did Spitzer suddenly decide not to honor Tedisco’s commitments. That’s hardball partisan politics, just the way it’s always been played in Albany. And while he may win this particular battle with Tedisco, depriving the assemblyman of an opportunity to score points with his (and his protege’s) constituents, he will once again lose a bigger public relations war. Tedisco has already started running around calling the governor a bully over this, and it’s hard to argue with him: Only a bully would, because of politics, deprive a worthy health clinic of badly needed money to buy drugs for its patients. It was disconcerting enough this spring that Spitzer couldn’t find it in his heart to support the clinic, whose medical staff is made up exclusively of volunteers, the way his predecessor did, through discretionary funds doled out by the Department of Health; but to take money away that only a month ago his staff indicated would be forthcoming is unconscionable. There’s no question the governor led the Legislature in the right direction this year with changes to the member-item process, but if the money Tedisco earmarked for the clinic was from a previous year, then the old rules should apply.
CAPITOL Tedisco says Spitzer blocked $740K in funds for Republicans Free clinic patients, family members hope for reprieve BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
Ballston Spa Mayor John Romano received a letter from the state Department of State’s director of financial administration, Kimberly Landry, that began: “The state of New York has awarded your organization $90,000 for the purpose described in the Legislative Initiative Form enclosed with this letter.” The money was supposed to reimburse the village for expenses associated with its bicentennial celebration this year. The letter was dated Aug. 22 but postmarked Oct. 15, and Romano got it on Tuesday, he said. As the day wore on, the Republican mayor began hearing of potential problems with legislator member items, like this one, that had previously been announced by Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady. And on Wednesday he learned from a Daily Gazette story that Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, was blocking $482,548 in Tedisco member items, including the $90,000 for Ballston Spa. On Thursday, Tedisco said Spitzer is blocking a total of $740,433 in member-item money for Assembly Republicans that was approved in previous years’ budgets by Gov. George Pataki. In three-way agreements with legislative leaders, some money was put under the control of the former governor for distribution by his fellow Republicans in the Assembly. Pataki’s rationale was that Assembly Republicans were assigned less member-item money than Democrats by Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan. (In the Senate, majority Republicans get more than Democrats.) The $740,433 included funds for projects in the districts of 21 other Republicans, but does not include any others from the Capital Region. Two of the Capital Region Republican Assembly members, Peter Lopez of Schoharie and George Amedore of Rotterdam, are new this year. The other, Roy McDonald of Saratoga, apparently earmarked all his money from Pataki before the end of last year, said Tedisco’s chief of staff, Bill Sherman. Tedisco held on to some money to meet needs as they came up, Sherman said, and some of it was not spent earlier because projects changed. Spitzer spokesman Jeffrey Gordon released a list of projects totaling $405,583 that were “disapproved by the governor’s office because they represented new grants in 2007 and therefore were not consistent with the governor’s commitment to only use governor’s funds for member item commitments made prior to January 1, 2007. Additional member item requests from the Assembly minority … are still being reviewed.” While Spitzer’s list does not tally with Tedisco’s, that does not mean there will be any reprieve for the local projects listed by the Assembly Republican leader. They are all new in 2007, although they would have used the old Pataki money. In a letter to Tedisco this week, Budget Director Paul Francis claimed the Assembly minority leader was informed of this policy in January. Tedisco denies this, and said the governor told him in January he would honor the monetary commitments made by Pataki and passed in prior years’ budgets. Asked about this Thursday at an event at the Rockefeller Institute, Francis declined to respond to questions about how Tedisco was informed about this policy. Gordon also declined to answer the question about how Tedisco was informed. He said there is no written record. Francis did say the administration would look at providing aid to the Schenectady Free Health Clinic. A $100,000 member item for the clinic was among the funding blocked by the governor. E-mails from the Budget Division to Tedisco’s staff indicate the member items were being processed up to last month. But the letter to Romano, the Ballston Spa mayor, also said “reimbursement of eligible costs can only be made after the contract is approved and returned by the state,” which did not happen. The mayor said the money has already been spent. Tedisco told him the village was getting $100,000 in January, Romano said, and it did actually get $10,000. He said he wished the Spitzer administration had told him earlier that the $90,000 was disallowed. Several patients at the health clinic said they hoped the governor would relent. Patricia Manning, 62, of Rotterdam, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, said she can’t afford a private doctor. A parttime retail worker, she said she and her husband earn just too much to be eligible for government health insurance. Holly Sharer said her brother, Charles Lebrecht, who had a massive heart attack and a stroke in May, is waiting for Medicaid to respond to his application and meanwhile needs care. “All I hope and pray is that the governor can listen,” said Indrawatti Sookra, 63, an immigrant from Guyana with bad knees and a bad eye. Bill Spolyar, director of the clinic, said tax-deductible contributions can be sent to the Schenectady Free Health Clinic, 600 Franklin St., Room 205, Schenectady, NY 12305. He hopes fundraising will keep it open, but so far no big contributions have come in this week. Nor has Tedisco yet come up with significant private contributions, Sherman said. MEREDITH L. KAISER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Cathryn A. Zilcosky, right, a registered nurse who volunteers at the Schenectady Free Health Clinic, takes a blood pressure reading from patient Charles Lebrecht of Schenectady at the clinic Thursday. Lebrecht said recently suffered a heart attack and stroke and does not have health insurance.
Spare the clinic First published: Friday, October 19, 2007
It is painful to watch the Schenectady Free Health Clinic caught in the crossfire between Gov. Spitzer and Republicans in the Legislature. As we said last June, the clinic ought to serve as a model for addressing the uninsured crisis in the state, and even the nation. The clinic serves more than 7,500 patients a year who have no health insurance and nowhere else to turn for outpatient care. For four years, the clinic has operated with a staff of 75 volunteers, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists and others. But now it faces the prospect of having to eliminate some services and reduce others, or even close, because Gov. Spitzer has cut $100,000 in state funds the clinic was counting on this year.
In one sense, the cut is baffling. It runs counter to Mr. Spitzer's laudable aim to more directly match spending to the patient. Given the looming merger of Schenectady's two hospitals, as called for by the Berger Commission, that goal becomes even more crucial.
But is the funding cut political payback, as Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, claims? The clinic is not in Mr. Tedisco's district, so it's hard to see how he was personally targeted. True, the clinic is in a neighboring Republican district, but the funds were in peril last June before a special election to fill the Assembly seat in that district -- not just now -- when the governor announced his intention to start including such spending as part of the regular budget, instead of being funded from discretionary accounts commonly known as member items.
At the time, the governor indicated he would use money leftover in 2006 to fund some local projects that would be hurt in the transition. But only some. Nonetheless, Mr. Tedisco has produced an e-mail from the governor's office saying it was prepared to "process" the clinic project along with other funds sought by Republicans. But since when is process synonymous with a done deal?
Mr. Tedisco has been in politics long enough to know what buttons to push to provoke a crisis, and that makes his latest posturing truly offensive. Just days before the clinic funds were cut, Mr. Tedisco boldly announced that attorneys on his staff were researching ways to recall Gov. Spitzer, ostensibly over his controversial plan to allow illegal immigrants to ob@@hyphen@@tain driver's licenses. How convenient for him to now cry payback. From now on, whenever Mr. Tedisco fails to get his way with the administration, he can accuse Mr. Spitzer of political retribution. Voters should see through this deception.
As for the clinic, we hope Mr. Spitzer will rise above the level of his detractors and find a way to spare the $100,000. The poor people who depend on this vital service should not have to suffer because of politics. But as for the other funding requests Mr. Tedisco sought, including $10,000 to buy boats for the Scotia Glenville Rowing Association and $90,000 for a bicentennial celebration in Ballston Spa, Mr. Spitzer was right to draw the line. Some spending is too parochial to be foisted on all the taxpayers of the state.
As for worthy projects like the free clinic, they belong in the state budget as line items -- where they should have been all along.
THE ISSUE: A free clinic in Schenectady may be the victim of state politics.
THE STAKES: Vital services for the uninsured are at risk.
Clinic hopes funding will come through Health Dept. may help keep doors open BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
The director of the Schenectady Free Health Clinic said Friday that supporters hope to raise the funds to keep it open, including some from the state Health Department. Clinic director Bill Spolyar said Health Department officials told him Thursday evening that $25,000 to $30,000 may become available this fiscal year. Previously, he said, top Spitzer administration health officials said a larger grant might be included in next year’s state budget. Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for Gov. Eliot Spitzer, said the governor’s rejection of member items previously announced by Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, including one of $100,000 for the clinic, “was not a reflection of the worthiness of the Schenectady Free Health Clinic.” The Health Department press office did not return phone calls. Earlier this week, a spokesman there referred questions to Gordon. Tedisco appeared at a news conference Friday with Spolyar and two of the clinic’s volunteer doctors, Clifford Tepper and Robert Pletman. They urged Spitzer to restore the funding. Tedisco contends, and Spitzer denies, that the funding cutoff is political retribution stemming from Tedisco’s opposition to Spitzer’s directive to allow illegal immigrants to qualify for driver’s licenses. In response to a question, Spolyar said the clinic does not ask whether patients are legal U.S. residents before treating them. The clinic has more than 2,500 patients but stopped taking new ones in April after an earlier funding cut by the governor. Pletman said that meant it couldn’t accept a 10-year-old asthmatic girl. One of the clinic’s success stories, he said, was curing a woman of blindness by removing her cataracts. “This has nothing to do with politics,” Tepper said, but involves needed treatment for the working poor people who don’t have health insurance coverage from their jobs but earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. “We’re doing what we can do” for them, he said. Pletman, 78, is a retired urologist. Tepper, 84, a retired allergist, immunologist and pediatrician, also teaches part-time at Albany Medical College. “I can’t believe the governor himself has looked at what he has done,” Tepper said. By keeping patients out of hospital emergency rooms, the doctor said, “this saves money. It doesn’t spend money.” According to Tedisco, the Democratic governor’s denial of funding approved under former Gov. George Pataki for Assembly Republicans is being done for political reasons. Gordon said the policy was changed to enhance accountability and save money. While Tedisco said he learned about the policy change this week, Gordon and Budget Director Paul Francis said he was told in January. They have not said how, and Gordon declined again to answer that question Friday. Tedisco claims Spitzer told him in January he was not changing the policy regarding the funding commitments made by Pataki and passed in prior years’ budgets. Gordon did not respond to requests for comment about letters sent recently by the Department of State to some potential recipients of the Tedisco member items, saying the funds had been awarded to them. “I know what the rules are,” Tedisco said, adding that he has never in his 25 years in the Assembly previously announced a grant that was rescinded.
Clinic director Bill Spolyar said Health Department officials told him Thursday evening that $25,000 to $30,000 may become available this fiscal year. Previously, he said, top Spitzer administration health officials said a larger grant might be included in next year’s state budget.
Oh, these two separate conversations are very well connected.....and BOTH PARTIES ARE PARTY TOO THEM....
votes based on fear fear-illegals getting ID's fear-lack of health care
votes based on $$ loss $$-illegal costing the system when not tracked properly $$-everyone should have health care
pay attention---they are very well linked and from other sources that we cant even see behind closed doors......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
SCHENECTADY Mayor: Clinic to get funds Stratton lobbying Spitzer for $100K Tedisco promised BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Gov. Eliot Spitzer may give back the $100,000 that Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco had promised to the Schenectady Free Health Clinic. Mayor Brian U. Stratton said he has been personally lobbying Spitzer for the money and on Monday received assurances that the clinic would be funded. The state Health Department on Tuesday confirmed that $25,000 has already been set aside for the clinic, but Stratton said he’s sure the clinic will get its full $100,000. “I was clear we need the full amount. They know that in no uncertain terms,” Stratton said. “I’m confident the governor is going to do the right thing. The governor’s office was confident the money would be in the Health Department [budget].” Stratton has been calling Spitzer’s office since he heard, 10 days ago, that the governor had canceled Tedisco’s member items. Tedisco says the money was cut to punish him for leading the charge against Spitzer’s proposal to let illegal immigrants apply for driver’s licenses. Spitzer’s aides said Tedisco lost the money because he didn’t spend it by Dec. 31, 2006. Stratton said he didn’t care what reason Spitzer had for cutting funding to the health clinic. “I told him it would have a major negative impact. There are people in our city who have nowhere else to go,” Stratton said. “This is a case where I wanted them to hear from me personally. I took it out of the political realm and put it in the personal realm.” The effort may have had an effect. Budget Division spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said the funding request is being considered. “The clinic situation is under review,” he said, but added that Spitzer doesn’t want to fund individual institutions. He wants the health department budget to fund only programs with a “statewide impact,” Gordon said. “There’s certain funding streams the Schenectady Free Health Clinic could access, but we wouldn’t provide operating expenses,” Gordon said. He said individual institutions might get reimbursed for their expenses if they work under contract from the health department to serve certain populations, such as uninsured patients. Under such a scenario, the clinic could return to its regular health department funding, which Spitzer cut when he took office. Stratton said the state should find some way to restore regular funding to the clinic. “That’s what precipitated this crisis,” he said. Stratton is also lobbying the governor to restore Tedisco’s promised $15,000 grant to SACCTV, but it was unclear whether that request would also be considered. The member item was intending to be a matching grant for work on the public access television station’s facade. Station broadcasters are now running an intense fundraising campaign to finish the facade.
And yet another black eye for the dems. Tedisco is a very respected politician. And to see such pandeing by the dems is disgraceful. OF COURSE Sptizer will give Stratton the money that was promised to Tedisco. Stratton is up for election so this will appear that he saved the day. Well people are smarter than that. They are just beginning to catch on and see the light. The dems need all of the help they can get these days. But the help they are getting is just digging themselves a deeper hole! THANK GOD!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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