Property Tax Commission Members Announced
January 23, 2008
Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his erstwhile political enemy, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, shared a podium as partners today in the Capitol’s Red Room - a sight no one could have possibly imagined during the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary - to announce the members of a commission charged with coming up with a solution to the state’s ever-mounting property tax problem.
As announced by Spitzer during his State of the State address, Suozzi will be chairing the commission, which will have Moreland Act powers, meaning it will be able to issue subpoenas, although Suozzi has said he doesn’t expect to do so at this moment.
Spitzer signed the executive order to create the commission this morning before the press conference started.
The two Democats were full of praise for one another today and even briefly joked about their old rivalry. That moment came hen Spitzer was hailing Suozzi for being a leader on this issue, noting that his positions (including a call for a cap, which Spitzer once challenged and now embraces) have “garnered a fair bit of positive…criticism.”
Suozzi immediately chaimed in: “Most of it was from you.” (Big laughs all around).
Another Suozzi joke: “If we succeed he takes the credit. If we fail, it’s my fault.”
The commission members include:
- Former Republican Onondaga County Executive Nicholas Pirro.
- Former Democratic Buffalo-area Assemblyman Paul Tokasz (now a lobbyist working with Pat Lynch).
- Former state Secretary of State/former Sen. Basil Paterson (father of LG David Paterson and a partner at Meyer Suozzi English & Klein, Suozzi’s father’s law/lobbying firm).
- Merryl Tisch, a memberof the state Board of Regents.
- Shirley Strum Kenny, SUNY Stony Brook president.
- Michael Solomon, director of Merrill Lynch & Co.
UPDATE: The commission’s executive director will be John Reid, deputy director of State Operations and executive director of the state Commission on Higher Education. The property tax commission is charged with making its preliminary recommendations by May, 15 and final recommendations by Dec. 1.
Advisors to the commission include: Lisa Donner, founding co-director of the Working Families Party (a key political ally of Spitzer’s), Elizabeth Lynam, deputy research director of the Citizens Budget Commission, Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action of New York (another key Spitzer ally), and Robert Ward, deputy director/director of Fiscal Studies for the Rockefeller Institute.
During the Q&A session that followed the announcement, Spitzer was pressed on why he had not tapped any current legislators or people who have particular tax cutting expertise. Spitzer replied that the commission members have had “great, distinctive” careers in government and represent a “broad spectrum” of opinions.
Source: NY Daily News
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