On the morning of Monday, March 8, Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch placed a call to Kathryn Wylde, president of the civic-minded business group Partnership for New York City, with a request.
Mr. Ravitch, who was working on a plan to reform the state’s dismal system of budgeting, needed support—and fast. He wanted Ms. Wylde, a Read More
Michael Bloomberg and Kathy Wylde, head of the Partnership for NYC, are out with statements criticizing the City Council for blocking the Kingsbridge Armory plans, saying a requirement to pay workers “living wages” has cost the city valuable jobs.
The “outcome and timing couldn’t be worse,” Bloomberg said in a public statement, referring Read More
ALBANY—The first reactions to David Paterson’s “executive option proposal” are mostly not positive.
“What’s next, martial law?” Assemblyman Rory Lancman, a Queens Democrat, asked.
Paterson’s proposal would, temporarily, give him the power to make spending and revenue decisions to bridge a multi-billion dollar mid-year imbalance. Article VII of the State Constitution describes Read More
For City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, things are probably going to be less fun now.
The mayor whose wagon she hitched her fortunes to spent $100 million to win reelection by less than 5 points against a member of her own party whom she endorsed late and with undisguised indifference. Four incumbent council members Read More
ALBANY—Richard Ravitch called me from somewhere between Albany and New York. He had been with David Paterson in Rochester the night before, speaking to an annual gathering of the Business Council. He was heading to a forum alongside the governors of Texas and Vermont. I asked him what he's been doing.
"Just working Read More
Almost from the moment that the financial industry entered its tailspin a year ago, landlords and developers began to sound the warnings that commercial real estate would be the other shoe to drop in the economy. Then early in the Obama administration, regulators threw the real estate industry a bone, expanding a financial rescue program, Read More
ALBANY—Business leaders will huddle tomorrow to develop and share their ideas on how the state can deal with a growing budget gap.
"Hopefully we're going to mobilize some constructive responses to the budget crisis," said Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City. "We want to be constructively anti-tax."
The Partnership Read More
ALBANY—In a legally questionable move that is likely to bring a challenge, David Paterson named former M.T.A. chairman Richard Ravitch as his lieutenant governor in a live address Wednesday evening, hoping to break the deadlock in the State Senate.
"The Senate is paralyzed, there is no presiding officer," Paterson said. "I Read More
ALBANY—It seems that Malcolm Smith and the Senate Democrats have come up with a plan that's easy to hate.
Transportation advocates, business groups and the governor are all taking shots at the Senate majority leader's just-announced plan to address the M.T.A.'s budget shortfall.
Near as I can tell, Wiley Norvell of Transportation Read More
ALBANY—It's not every day that labor and the Business Council advocate the same side of an issue.
Kathy Wylde of the Partnership for New York City and Kenneth Adams of the Business Council just explained that the AFL-CIO has joined them in opposing assessments on health insurance that David Paterson has either proposed or Read More
