Real Estate corruption in Albany leads to arrest of Assembly Speaker Silver
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Scott Baker
Jan 22, 2015, 2:44:31 PM1/22/15
to Scott Baker, Andy Mazzone, Edward Dodson, Billy Fitzgerald, Alanna Hartzok
Hello Common Groundlings (and friends):
This developing story just in on the pending arrest of Sheldon Silver, the powerful long-time Democratic Speaker of the Assembly:
Details of the specific charges to be brought against Mr. Silver were unclear on Wednesday night, but one of the people with knowledge of the matter said they stemmed from payments that Mr. Silver received from a small law firm that specializes in seeking reductions of New York City real estate taxes. The total amount of the payments was unclear, but another person has said they were substantial and were made over several years.Mr. Silver failed to list the payments from the firm, Goldberg & Iryami, on his annual financial disclosure filings with the state, as required.
Note that the arrest, so far, has only to do with failure to report income, not with what that income was for, though it sure looks like it was basically a bribe to lower property taxes in NYC, a city which gave a 94% tax abatement to 5 of the priciest residential buildings in the world recently.
There is more information in this Crain's story about the 100-year old(!) top campaign contributor to both Cuomo and Silver, Glenwood Management owner, Leonard Litwin.
You can be sure property tax relief is not what the Governor is referring to when he lists:
- Passing $1.7 billion in property tax relief for 1.3 million homeowners and financial relief for over one million renters
among the list of accomplishments in his "opportunity agenda": The 2015 Opportunity Agenda...the buyers of these apartments ALREADY have about as much property tax relief as they can get! Of course, as we know, this money is not "saved" it is just privatized into the price, to the great benefit of the banks and developers, and later, to the buyers of these 8-figure, and even 9-figure, apartments when they go to sell them.
The R.E. lobby, of course, is the biggest campaign donator to the Assembly and Senate as well as the Governor.
The Governor shut down his own Moreland commission last year when it got too close to his sources of campaign funding. This arrest is actually a continuation of that commission's work, taken up by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. Bharara has a separate investigation going on into Gov. Cuomo and the Governor has hired an expensive white-shoe lawyer to defend himself. This is a developing (and developer) story!
Of course, Henry George was well aware of the corrupting influence of the real estate lobby and its effect on politicians of his time. It's widely believed he was counted out by corrupt Tammany Hall politicians when he ran for Mayor in 1886. Then, as now, the main source of corruption is greed resulting from the private collection of Land Rent.
We have our work cut out for us.
Until next time, Happy Landings.
Scott Baker - President: Common Ground - NYC; NY State Coordinator, Public Banking Institute; Opednews Blogger/Managing Editor; Huffington Post Blogger; Author
Video Appearances & Slideshows here:
http://newthinking.blogspot.com/
Petitions:
-- Commemorate President Lincoln's Assassination with 1 Billion Debt-Free Lincoln $5 Bills
-- Replace Property Tax with Ground Rent in New York State
-- Assess NYC buildings using comparative properties
-- California Dreaming: Set up a State Bank with abundant CAFR funds
-- Complete the East Side Manhattan Greenway from 38-61 Streets and save bikers, help the environment, and clear up traffic
-- Tax Vacant & Unused Land to Return its value to the Community
-- Close New York State's budget Gap with money from its own agencies by setting up a State Bank
-- Defend the Clean Air Act
-- Produce debt-free United States Notes
-- Reclassify the FED's account, from private to public
Video Appearances & Slideshows here:
http://newthinking.blogspot.com/
Petitions:
-- Commemorate President Lincoln's Assassination with 1 Billion Debt-Free Lincoln $5 Bills
-- Replace Property Tax with Ground Rent in New York State
-- Assess NYC buildings using comparative properties
-- California Dreaming: Set up a State Bank with abundant CAFR funds
-- Complete the East Side Manhattan Greenway from 38-61 Streets and save bikers, help the environment, and clear up traffic
-- Tax Vacant & Unused Land to Return its value to the Community
-- Close New York State's budget Gap with money from its own agencies by setting up a State Bank
-- Defend the Clean Air Act
-- Produce debt-free United States Notes
-- Reclassify the FED's account, from private to public
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