Spin Cycle

The Times' Danny Hakim today has a valuable story that demonstrates clearly what's been suspected for many years -- that fiscal analysis included in legislation is about as reliable as the "self-certifications" filed by many builders with government agencies.

District Council 37 wrote a bi-partisan pension-sweetening measure sponsored by Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn), at left, and Assemb. Peter Abbate (D-Brooklyn), at right -- as well as the fiscal "analysis" that it would have no monetary impact on the city -- which the city claims is actually $200 million.

This story, coming as public pensions are under scrutiny and state expenses are spiking, has a number of interesting facets, and is worth a close read here. Note the sponsors' reactions to the news that the "analysis" was performed by an actuary in the pay of the unions.

The story coincides with Gov. David Paterson's declaration against special pension bills that traditionally bloom in the spring in Albany.

All this is of a piece with Newsday's recent efforts to highlight controversial public pension practices, the latest of which is here.

Dan Janison

Earlier today, Assembly Democrats gathered in the Brooklyn Marriott and with Speaker Sheldon Silver acting as host, asked questions of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Pols are funny types, so more than one of them noticed how Schumer mentioned exactly 24 of his same-party colleagues by name during his session and Spitzer mentioned approvimately two. That's just emblematic of the difference in styles. As he did on Oct. 1 before a gathering of the state Democratic committee, Schumer -- without mentioning the governor by name -- criticized those who knocked the comptroller appointment of former Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli (apparently without offending the two other then-candidates for the post who were in the room).

For his part, Spitzer said he talked about the state Democrats as family, who talk and sometimes squabble. Mercifully, he did not go so far as to recycle Gov. Mario Cuomo's 20-plus-year-old Family of New York riff. Nor did he mention this family's driveway wars with its Republican neighbors who occupy the house next door, the Senate.

School budgets were a concern...

Dan Janison

Speaker Shelly Silver is on WNBC this weekend, talking about his role as Spitzer/Bruno middleman:

"It's clear that they don't like each other. There's no question about it. And I am sitting between the two of them. I talk to both of them all the time. And I kind of feel like Henry Kissinger used to feel in the Middle East, doing shuttle diplomacy between the two of them."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is threatening to pull funding assistance from Columbia University because it invited Ahmadinejad to speak, and Silver doesn't like Ahmadinejad. It's not a matter of academic freedom, the Speaker says, but instead "attempting to legitimize this individual."