Who is the Committee to Save New York? Who’s behind this front?

Protected by a public brainwashed 24/7 the Big Lie walks amongst us with the cynical arrogance of a criminal sure to be beyond apprehension. The US is literally crawling with these corporate/plutocratic fronts. In this case, they naturally gain legitimacy by linking their fortune to an ambitious but unscrupulous politician. Cuomo is nothing if not Obama with an Italian face. Count your silverware.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZO7d9K31gU[/youtube]
By Kevin Connor  •  Originally posted Jan 20, 2011 at 13:46 EST

IN A PRELUDE to the looming budget battle, a shadowy group going by the name of the “Committee to Save New York” has started coordinating with the Cuomo administrationto promote the dawning of a new era of “fiscal sanity” in New York State. The group has amassed a $10 million war chest to run ads in support of a fiscal reform agenda heavy on budget cuts. One ad has already gone on the air touting Cuomo’s approach to the state’s budget problems.

Who, exactly, is behind the Committee to Save New York? To find out, LittleSis’s Cuomo Watch research group will be investigating over the course of the next month. The Committee has refused to disclose its donor list, but it has released its board list, and we have already added that info to the Committee’s page on LittleSis. We will be using that and other public record information to shed light on who, exactly, is behind these efforts, and what their true agendas and interests are.

It is already clear that one of the main forces behind the Committee is the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), an industry association comprised of wealthy real estate and financial interests. REBNY’s president, Steven Spinola, and chair, Mary Ann Tighe, are on the board of the Committee, and Committee co-chair Rob Speyer is on REBNY’s executive committee. Speyer’s real estate firm, Tishman Speyer, has reportedly donated $1 million to the Committee, and other members of REBNY’s board have also donated to the Committee, including chair emeritus Stephen Ross (a billionaire) and the Durst Organization (Douglas Durst is on REBNY’s board).

REBNY’s board boasts many super-wealthy real estate investors and bankers, including billionaires Richard LeFrak, Stephen Ross, Leonard Stern, Sheldon Solow, and Jerry Speyer. Large real estate management firms like CB Richard Ellis, conglomerates such as Vornado Realty Trust, law firms such as Weil Gotshal Manges, and financial firms such as Barclays gain a voice in government through REBNY.

REBNY’s annual reports do not exactly paint a picture of an organization intent on tackling the state’s budget problems or easing the tax burden of the middle class. The reports detail a range of lobbying activities intended to lower the tax burden of big business and the super-rich, including advocating for equal income tax rates for billionaires and bus drivers, a continued “carried interest” tax break for hedge funds and real estate investment firms, and a continued tax abatement for condo owners in Manhattan. “Fiscal discipline,” in REBNY’s world, appears to mean helping wealthy, big business interests avoid paying taxes.

What does the Committee actually stand for?
Judging from press reports, REBNY has a direct line to Cuomo’s office, but that has come at a high price: 26 of the organization’s board members donated $10,000 or more to his gubernatorial campaign, an incredible level of support from one organization.

There is much more research to be done on REBNY and other groups associated with the Committee. Who are they? What do they lobby for in Albany? What aspects of the budget and tax code benefit them? Do they pay their taxes?
Is this the Committee to Save New York, or the Committee to Scam New York? Join the research group to help us find out.
Note: For analysts who are more interested in the shadowy ways of Washington, Sunlight Foundation is leading an exciting investigation of Super PACs, the outside groups made possible by Citizens United that spent hundreds of millions of dollars influencing last year’s election. Go here to sign up for the research group and research a few Super PACs: where are they located? Who are their main officers? Do they have a website? Help us find out.

5 Responses to “Who is the Committee to Save New York?”
1. Albanius Says: 

February 2nd, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Is there a way to discover whether David H. Koch has contributed to the Committee to Starve NY?
2. Kevin Connor Says: February 3rd, 2011 at 1:56 pm
They aren’t disclosing their funding sources, though Koch and his wife Julia have given Cuomo himself $87,000…a pretty tidy sum. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have contributed to CSNY, but nonprofits don’t have to disclose funders.
3. Rose Says: February 7th, 2011 at 7:39 pm
I am disgusted that my 20 yr old daughter just got a job with these people at Committee to Save NY. They dropped her off in the middle of a “less than desirable” neighborhood with a small group all several blocks from one another. She was assigned a partner who never answered his phone, didn’t reply to her texts and didn’t show up within 30 minutes as planned. What kind of practice is this? She expressed she felt unsafe. The shuttle driver told her he was busy and couldn’t pick her up! Busy doing what if his job is to play driver to this group!!!! He came a long while later after she threatened to call the police. I am very angry that they want her to promote politics, which she is great at, but are not taking safety issues seriously!!! Today is her second and last day! Her safety is important to ME.
4. Barbara Young Says: February 13th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
  My daughter is an international studies major hired by this committee to save new york on a part time basis during her college semester. She was extremely disillusioned by the lack of organization, the lack of safety, and the secretive nature of the canvassing procedure. Her safety was also at stake on several days of working, and she was left stranded in neighborhoods with transportation not arriving until hours later. It is irresponsible and unconscionable to take young and enthusiastic college students and use them like this. What a welcome to the world of politics in New :York.
5. Jim Pharo Says: March 4th, 2011 at 6:31 am
 Why is being present in “less desirable” neighborhoods a safety issue? The people that live there deal with it every day.  
I’d be very curious to know what neighborhood(s) exactly you’re kids found so unsafe. Given the very low crime rate in NYC, it’s hard to read this as anything other than racial…
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Committee To Save NY Back On The Airways, Featuring McCall
Posted on March 4, 2011 at 9:16 am by Liz Benjamin
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The business-backed, pro-Cuomo Committee to Save NY has launched its long-awaited second round of TV and radio ads in support of the governor’s budget.

The new spots started running this morning, with radio ads – both a NYC and upstate version – running statewide and TV in NYC metro area on both cable and broadcast channels, according to CSNY spokesman Bill Cunningham.
One of the radio spots features former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall, against whom Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched a primary challenge during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign – a move that angered the African-American community and very nearly cost Cuomo his political career.

Since then, McCall has become one of Cuomo’s most active surrogates, speaking out on his behalf both during the 2010 governor’s race, co-chairing his transition committee and taking his side in the battle against the public employee unions during the early days of his tenure.

A female announcer then talks about the number of people New York has lost in recent years and says there’s “hope” in the form of Cuomo’s budget – “a plan to move New York forward” without raising taxes.

“What it means is that people will want to invest here, it means jobs can be created here so that we can have the kind of sustainable stream of income that will enable us to provide better services to people as we go forward,” McCall adds.
Listeners are urged to “lift our voices” in support of Cuomo’s plan by visiting CSNY’s Website, LetsFixAlbany.org.
The TV ad, which appears below, stars average New Yorkers talking about high taxes in New York and the need to create more jobs so “we’ll all be much better off in the end.”

No word on the size of this buy. But one thing is certain: Cuomo and his allies are sitting on a big pile of resources.
CSNY met its initial $10 million fundraising goal some time ago, according to key committee members, and the governor has been adding to the $4 million he had left over from the 2010 campaign to prepare for a potential air war over the budget.

But now that Cuomo has successfully neutralized the two biggest players in budget battles past – GNHYA and SEIU 199 – he only has the teachers and public employee unions to deal with. So far, NYSUT is running one ad, but it’s a pro-millionaire’s tax spot, not an all-out assault on Cuomo.
FROM: CAPITOL CONFIDENTIAL
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/59320/committee-to-save-ny-back-on-the-airways-featuring-mccall/

FROM: POLITICS ON THE HUDSON BLOG
Pro-Cuomo group launches new ads
The Committee to Save New York, a business-backed group that is supporting Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s agenda, including his nearly $133 billion budget proposal, is on television and radio with new ads today. Former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall is featured on the radio ad, which has separate versions for upstate and metropolitan New York City audiences.

The 30-second TV spot features New Yorkers saying that property taxes are too high and there’s less money available for services. A narrator says New York’s taxes have soared for 10 years, 1.7 million people have left the state and 400,000 jobs are gone.

“But there’s hope,” he says. “Governor Cuomo’s plan closes the budget gap without raising taxes, protecting vital programs while creating jobs.”

Another New Yorker (where do they find these people!) closes the spot with this thought: “If the budget is brought under control, businesses will start creating jobs here and we’ll all be better off in the end.”

In the radio ad, McCall says the state has been “spending too much, borrowing too much, taxing too much, and that’s not sustainable. We’ve got to go in a different direction.”

A narrator in the upstate version of the spot says the 1.7 million people who have moved away equals twice the combined population of the four largest upstate cities. (The version for the New York City region says the 1.7 million people is more than the population of Manhattan or the Bronx, and the narrator is a woman.) He says Cuomo’s plan will balance the budget without raising taxes and will “move New York forward.”

“What it means is that people will want to invest here. It means jobs can be created here, so that we can have the kind of sustainable stream of income that will enable us to provide better services to people as we go forward,” McCall says.
http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2011/03/04/pro-cuomo-group-launches-new-ads/