I really don't care where the welfare recipients work just as long as the get off the welfare system and support themselves and hopefully someday the state will be able to lower our taxes a little.

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The bill would have required local and state government to train recipients for jobs that pay $17 an hour or more and to seek training and openings for nontraditional employment, such as women trained for construction jobs. The Legislature passed the bill unanimously earlier this year.

Good thing they're going to get free training to get a job immediately that pays $17 / hour.

I only had to work in the industry I'm in for 8-10 years before I got up to that level.  Wouldn't want them to work for it.

You really don't expect a person on welfare to wait that long to reach top do you. Many people are on welfare because it pays better than a real job does.

No kidding.  Maybe I should quit and go get a job.  Of course, to get into that, you probably need to have been fired from your last post.  Gross Negligence.

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Spitzer gets a breather from scandal
Governor tours state to announce new initiatives
BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter

   Gov. Eliot Spitzer spent most of last week out of Albany, going around the state to announce a few modest initiatives and fi nding time to sign or veto the last package of bills — more than 125 of them, mostly minor local issues — sent up by the Legislature.
   It was routine stuff, the sort of thing previous New York governors have done in the summer, and a far cry from the dramatic changes Spitzer talked about in last year’s election campaign, where he wound up getting almost 70 percent of the vote. For Spitzer, though, his agenda had the great advantage of keeping him mostly out of the public eye in the hope that the current scandal — or whatever you want to call it — will blow over.
   Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, RBrunswick, calls it a scandal and described it this way in an opinion piece published in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal: “Two close advisers to the governor apparently used the New York State Police to carry out a political smear campaign against me by creating documents designed to generate negative press reports.” Bruno’s characterization is based on a report issued July 23 by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
   And the scandal hasn’t blown over yet. Last week, Albany County District Attorney David Soares said he would be looking into the matter, as is the state Ethics Commission. On Thursday, news broke that Darren Dopp, Spitzer’s communications director who was suspended because of his role in the affair, has hired Terry Kindlon, a prominent Albany defense attorney, whose clients last year included a Muslim imam accused of terrorism and a Bethlehem student who was convicted of murdering his father when he attacked his sleeping parents with an ax.
   The DA’s office and the Ethics Commission would have the ability to subpoena witnesses, which Cuomo did not do in his investigation, which broke the scandal but concluded that no laws were broken. Key Spitzer aides Dopp and Richard Baum declined to be interviewed under oath in that probe.
   Soares noted in a statement: “It must be remembered that while certain conduct may appear unethical or even immoral, the only issue for our consideration is to determine whether the conduct is of such regard that criminal liability can be assessed.”
   Bruno and others have questioned whether the governor is telling the truth when he denies knowing about the scheme to use state police. But if the governor has been truthful, then it is hard to see how he could be in legal jeopardy.
GOOD RECORD CITED
   That’s the presumption made by Bethany Schumann, a lawyer who represents Amsterdam’s Third Ward on the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors. “I have absolutely no reason to question the truthfulness of the governor,” she said, adding that he has earned the right to the benefit of doubt.
   Schumann also said her fellow Democrat Spitzer has a good record in government, citing increases in aid to upstate cities and the deal to keep and expand Beech-Nut’s operations in the county. The latter agreement, she said, turned “what was really an economic development crisis” — the departure of Beech-Nut from Canajoharie — into an opportunity.
   Some Republicans, too, don’t so far see political damage to the governor. Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, and new GOP Assemblyman George Amedore, who pulled off an upset victory in the 105th Assembly District in Schenectady and Montgomery counties in Tuesday’s special election, said the scandal wasn’t a factor in the Republican win. “It never once was a topic for discussion,” Amedore said, except when the media brought it up.
   Opinion polls show some decline in Spitzer’s previously high ratings. Perhaps more ominously, as a press release from the Siena Research Institute said last week, most voters who had heard about the attorney general’s report believe Spitzer “was aware of what his top aides were doing,” despite his denials.
   One of Spitzer’s major issues has been improving the upstate economy, and Schumann said she thinks his splitting up of the economic development team into upstate and downstate operations is the right approach.
   However, the annual membership survey of SSA, a small-business advocacy group, shows most responders having negative opinions about New York’s economy and prospects and little support for Spitzer or other state leaders.
   The survey obtained by The Gazette, due to be released Monday, shows most responders do not see positive change in Albany since Spitzer’s election. And while they do see the governor as focused on economic development, they think he is neglecting small business.
PROGRESS SLOWS
   Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said Thursday in an interview on radio station WROW that the Ethics Commission and the DA should be left to get on with their investigations, and meanwhile the state’s leaders should “move on” to other issues.
   Progress on those issues has slowed. Asked to rate Spitzer’s performance this year, Matthew Maguire, spokesman for The Business Council of New York State, praised a workers compensation agreement that was reached in February. Asked what the governor has done since then, Maguire cited a one-year extension of the Power for Jobs program and an unsuccessful effort to come up with a power-plant siting law. He declined to comment on the state budget, which increased spending at several times the rate of inflation.
   On the left, Mark Dunlea, associate director of the Hunger Action Network, was upset about the governor’s veto last week of what advocates called welfare reform legislation that would have tried to place participants in higherpaying jobs. Spitzer’s veto message said, “This bill does not recognize the importance of securing employment even at a low wage and building an employment history over time.”
   Dunlea said Spitzer has some accomplishments in expanding health insurance coverage but has not focused nearly enough on reducing poverty.
   The ethics reform passed under Spitzer was widely seen as weak, and his latest campaign-finance compromise is held up, tied to other issues on which agreements have not been reached between Spitzer and Bruno.
   This week, the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations will start looking into the scandal, a probe Spitzer has opposed. Silver, while saying he remains on good terms with Bruno, said that committee is the wrong forum because its majority members are appointed by the Senate leader.
   “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Spitzer said on March 29, as he wrapped up the budget compromise. Schumann said the same thing last week in defending the governor, and Amedore also used the phrase in acknowledging that he won’t be able to get everything he wants done as soon as he would like.
   In the campaign and the early days of governing, Spitzer suggested he could steamroll his way to immediate, radical changes. But the real world of Albany politics has reasserted itself, slowing the steamroller, and the pending investigations could stall it.

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The bill would have required local and state government to train recipients for jobs that pay $17 an hour or more and to seek training and openings for nontraditional employment, such as women trained for construction jobs. The Legislature passed the bill unanimously earlier this year.

Once these people are provided government paid training that makes them eligible for jobs that pay $17 hours or more per hour will they be permanently removed from the welfare rolls?  Will they be required to reimburse the taxpayers for the free training that they were provided once they begin to accumulate wealth?

Not to worry...they will then become state/public workers since there are obviously no private sector jobs in the state. So we will be paying for them right through their retirement. OR they will move out of state to seek employment.

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Once these people are provided government paid training that makes them eligible for jobs that pay $17 hours or more per hour will they be permanently removed from the welfare rolls?  Will they be required to reimburse the taxpayers for the free training that they were provided once they begin to accumulate wealth?

Hopefully they wont find aquiring wealth the only reason for what they have just received, maybe they will loose their need to carry a gun and volunteer somewhere and show up at their kids conference day, and stop waiting for that dirt-bag husband/wife to come back home......We can only hope since systems dont change peoples hearts... just circumstances are changed by systems.....so to make that kind of judgement the government would have to be God.....Either way, it's just 50/50, but to say "dont make an effort we will do it for you"....that just totally removes the brain from the equation......

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Welcome veto of Legislature’s welfare-to-work bill

   Advocates for the poor are mad at Gov. Eliot Spitzer for vetoing a bill, passed unanimously by the state Legislature, that would require county social services agencies to develop plans for welfare recipients, especially women, that would lead to better, better-paying (as in $17-an-hour) jobs. But it was a good veto. As a Spitzer spokeswoman put it, “The intent of the bill is laudable, but the approach is unrealistic for most clients.”
   Before the federal Welfare Reform Act of 1996, championed by Bill Clinton, there was no real pressure to get a job. It was enough that one was “looking” or involved in a training or education program, regardless of the chances of them sticking with it, finishing it successfully, or getting a job at the end. As a result, welfare benefi ts were seen as indefinite; generations were growing up never seeing a family member work, totally dependent on the state.
   Welfare reform turned all this around. Now, assistance is supposed to be temporary; people are expected to work, with eventual self-sufficiency the goal. But, recognizing that most entry-level jobs won’t provide that self-sufficiency right away, government continues to provide working mothers with such essentials as daycare, transportation and health care.
   The legislation Spitzer vetoed says that too many women are stuck in low-paying, entry-level jobs, such as bank teller, food service worker and home health aide, and never advance, thus not allowing their family to break the cycle of poverty. It calls for social services agencies to prepare them for technical and nontraditional jobs — like computer technician and electrician, and professional jobs like chemist, aerospace engineer and city manager — that pay well, with benefits and have room for advancement.
   That sounds wonderful, but what if the woman has no skills, experience or interest in such a job? What if not enough $17-anhour jobs exist in today’s service economy?
   Wouldn’t it be better for the woman to establish a work history and good work habits, and then offer her the opportunity to continue getting benefits if she wants to train for another, better job?
   Spitzer is right when he says the legislation seeks to increase wages in a way that is not targeted effectively or administratively realistic.

  
  
  

http://www.timesunion.com

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Unions Line Up Behind Spitzer In Troopergate
by Rick Karlin

So far, two labor groups have come out on Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s side in the Troopergate affair. Both the Working Families Party and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union have come out with statements in the wake of today’s Senate Investigation Committee hearing, urging lawmakers to esesntially move on.

Here’s what Working Families said:

“The Senate Republicans have the skills of neither Siegfried nor Roy. This hearing is about distracting us with the illusion of substance while real concerns – like paid family leave for thousands of working mothers and fathers – are ignored,” said WFP Executive Director Dan Cantor. “The lives of working people – including their newborn or adopted children — would be immeasurably improved if the Senate Republicans did the job that their constituents actually favor, instead of wasting time and money on a redundant investigation.”

And the Retail union President Stuart Applebaum:

‘’The hearings being conducted by the State Senate Investigations Committee are a distraction from the real work that needs to be done in New York State.

The men and women of the RWDSU who live and work in New York State need action not hearings. We need action on Governor Spitzer’s agenda – an agenda that the voters in New York heartily endorsed.

New Yorkers need our state government to focus on issues like paid family leave, strengthening the state’s economy and expanding access to health care. Instead we are getting grandstanding. We cannot afford delays and dysfunction when there is real work to be done.

If Republicans in Albany use these hearings as an excuse not to address the important needs of working people, that would be a tragedy for all New Yorkers. It’s time to get back to business.'’

A couple of thoughts here. Obviously these labor groups are anxious to see some progress on their push for legislation allowing more family leave, and there are a number of bills coming up next week that the governor must veto or allow to become law.

Also, it’ll be interesting to see if other unions join in the cry to move on. Not sure what groups like SEIU, 1199, who had heavy Repbulican backing in last springs health funding fight, will do, for instance.    

Now is anyone surprised that the unions are behind Spitzer?

Nope.

The dogs are guarding their bowls......and urinating on the fire hydrants......

I'm sure Mr.Spitzer has a 'treat' in his pocket

And I'm sure Mr. Bruno has an automatic cat box cleaner for all those fat cats in his "house".....

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Spitzer targets working poor
Plan aims to help families achieve ‘economic security’
BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press

   Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Monday detailed a plan to better help the working poor rise from welfare to the middle class, including lowering the costs and availability of housing and day care.
   Spitzer ordered 17 state agencies to team up to try to end what he has called a “perfect storm of unaffordability.” The Economic Security Cabinet will also provide ways to improve job opportunities, training and education for families to move from welfare to the work force. The aim, Spitzer said, is a sustainable job that pays expenses and help a family become financially secure.
   Advocates for the poor have long complained that government has done too little to bolster the working poor who, through extra training, education, services or by law left social services during the welfare overhaul efforts of the late 1990s.
   Spitzer’s attention on Monday was welcomed even by some advocates for the poor who criticized the Democrat less than two weeks ago for vetoing a welfare-to-work bill. That bill would have required the government to train recipients for higher-paying, “sustainable wage” jobs. Under the bill, local and state governments would have had to train recipients for jobs that pay $17 an hour or more and to fi nd training and openings for nontradi- tional employment, such as women in construction.
   Spitzer said then that the Legislature’s bill was “neither targeted effectively nor administratively realistic.”
   The Hunger Action Network of New York State had been disappointed by the veto, but applauded Spitzer’s action on Monday.
   “The state needs to be making better policy choices to truly build ‘one New York’ for all of our residents, including the working poor and working people on welfare,” said Bich Ha Pham, executive director of Hunger Action Network of New York State. “Almost a half a million people receiving welfare in our state have dreams of joining the middle class and becoming economically secure.” But she said too many aren’t able to benefit from education and job training.
   State data show there are about 530,000 New Yorkers receiving social services now, down from 1.6 million before welfare reform began more than a decade ago.
   “I’m rather encouraged by [Spitzer’s announcement],” said Jillynn Stevens of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies. She said, however, it should be expanded. “He’s talking about working New Yorkers who are not on welfare, but there also needs to be a meaningful intervention to help those who did fall into the safety net and [back] on welfare.”
   Spitzer said the special Cabinet will “make certain that no New Yorker falls through the cracks.”
   “New York leads the nation in the gap between rich and poor,” Spitzer said Monday from a Harlem job training site. “My economic security agenda is focused on lowincome, working New Yorkers who are one step away from economic peril, and who are neither firmly established in the middle class nor firmly supported by the full array of programs that make up our social safety net.
   “These families work hard and play by the rules,” he said. “They have done their part. Now we must do ours. “  

  
  
  

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“The state needs to be making better policy choices to truly build ‘one New York’ for all of our residents, including the working poor and working people on welfare,” said Bich Ha Pham, executive director of Hunger Action Network of New York State. “Almost a half a million people receiving welfare in our state have dreams of joining the middle class and becoming economically secure.” But she said too many aren’t able to benefit from education and job training.

That is an oxymoron......I'm sure Ms.Savage would align herself with this school of thought......sooooo, what is NYS to do.....We are too expensive for ourselves....credit credit credit.....robbing Peter to pay Paul all the time.......where does the circle jerk end......who is the lead horse on this merry-go-round....

no one has stopped to start again---that doesn't get votes......

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“New York leads the nation in the gap between rich and poor,” Spitzer said Monday from a Harlem job training site. “My economic security agenda is focused on lowincome, working New Yorkers who are one step away from economic peril, and who are neither firmly established in the middle class nor firmly supported by the full array of programs that make up our social safety net.
   “These families work hard and play by the rules,” he said. “They have done their part. Now we must do ours. “  

I'm sure he will be diving into his pockets and selling his 'extra' homes......

I work with the 'working poor' and they take care of the old and debilitated rich and poor...........this is linked to national health care,,,,,,

we want them to pick our lettuce too....so who will pay $5.00 for a head of lettuce?????