| The Pataki Executive Chamber | ||
|---|---|---|
| OFFICE | NAME | TERM |
| Governor | George Pataki | 1995 – 2007 |
| Lieutenant Governor | Betsy McCaughey | 1995 – 1999 |
| Mary Donohue | 1999 – 2007 | |
| Secretary to the Governor | Bradford J. Rice Jr. | 1995 – 2002 |
| John P. Cahill | 2002 – 2007 | |
| General Counsel | Michael C. Finnegan | 1995 – 1997 |
| James McGuire | 1997 – 2003 | |
| Richard Platkin | 2003 – 2007 | |
| Communications Director | Zenia Mucha | 1995 – 2000 |
| Michael McKeon | 2000 – 2003 | |
| David Catalfamo | 2003 – 2007 | |
| Director of State Operations | James Natoli | 1995 – 2007 |
| Chief of Staff | Tom Doherty | 1995 – 2003 |
| Robert Bulman | 2003 – 2007 | |
| Office of the Attorney General | Dennis Vacco | 1995 – 1999 |
| Eliot Spitzer | 1999 – 2007 | |
| Office of the Inspector General | Roslynn Mauskopf | 1995 – 2002 |
| Jill Konviser-Levine | 2002 – 2005 | |
| Dineen Riviezzo | 2005 – 2007 | |
| Office of the Comptroller | H. Carl McCall | 1995 – 2003 |
| Alan Hevesi | 2003 – 2007 | |
| Department of Agriculture and Markets | Donald R. Davidsen | 1995 – 1999 |
| Nathan L. Rudgers | 1995 – 2005 | |
| Patrick Brennan | 2005 – 2007 | |
| Department of Banking | Neil Levin | 1995 – 1997 |
| Elizabeth McCaul | 1997 – 2003 | |
| Diana Taylor | 2003 – 2007 | |
| Department of Civil Service | George C. Sinnott | 1995 – 2004 |
| Daniel E. Wall | 2004 – 2007 | |
| Department of Correctional Services | Glenn S. Goord | 1995 – 2007 |
| Department of Environmental Conservation | Michael D. Zagata | 1995 – 1997 |
| John P. Cahill | 1997 – 2001 | |
| Erin Crotty | 2001 – 2005 | |
| Denise Sheehan | 2005 – 2007 | |
| Department of Education | Richard P. Mills | 1995 – 2007 |
| Department of Health | Barbara DeBuono | 1995 – 1998 |
| Antonia Novello | 1998 – 2007 | |
| Department of Insurance | Edward Muhl | 1995 – 1997 |
| Neil Levin | 1997 – 2001 | |
| Gregory V. Serio | 2001 – 2005 | |
| Howard Mills III | 2005 – 2007 | |
| Department of Labor | John E. Sweeney | 1995 – 1997 |
| James J. McGowan | 1997 – 2000 | |
| Linda Angelo | 2001 – 2007 | |
| Department of Motor Vehicles | Richard E. Jackson | 1995 – 2000 |
| Raymond P. Martinez | 2000 – 2006 | |
| Nancy Naples | 2006 – 2007 | |
| Department of Military & Naval Affairs | Michael Hall | 1995 – 1997 |
| John H. Fenimore V | 1997 – 2001 | |
| Thomas P. Maguire | 2001 – 2006 | |
| Joseph J. Taluto | 2006 – 2007 | |
| Department of Public Service | John F. O'Mara | 1995 – 1998 |
| Maureen Helmer | 1998 – 2002 | |
| William Flynn | 2002 – 2006 | |
| Patricia Acompora | 2006 – 2008 | |
| Secretary of State | Alexander Treadwell | 1995 – 2001 |
| Randy Daniels | 2001 – 2006 | |
| Christopher Jacobs | 2006 – 2007 | |
| Department of Taxation & Finance | Michael H. Urbach | 1995 – 1999 |
| Arthur J. Roth | 1999 – 2003 | |
| Andrew Eristoff | 2003 – 2006 | |
| Department of Transportation | John Daly | 1995 – 1997 |
| Joseph H. Boardman | 1997 – 2005 | |
| Thomas J. Madison Jr. | 2005 – 2007 | |
George Pataki was first elected governor in 1994. He would go on to serve 3 terms of the state of New York.
Contents |
Pataki has been a long-time advocate of tax cuts during his administration and his time in the state legislature. He signed and sponsored several tax cuts during his first term in office and in addition made spending cuts to the budgets he proposed. This has included a push for privatization of state entities.
In 2003 Pataki made a controversial budget proposal in which he proposed several tax cuts, despite the state's rising deficits. He also made cuts in education and health care funding, which, some say, may close emergency rooms and turn non-profit hospitals into for-profits. Pataki argued that new taxes would drive businesses out-of-state, reduce jobs and further compound the state deficit.
During the first years of Pataki's administration, he began to institute the major spending cuts, which he has advocated for most of his career. Among the cost cutting initiatives was a push to privatize the World Trade Center from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The New York City governor's office for more than 20 years had been in the Center. The privatization effort took effect a few weeks before the September 11 attack when Larry Silverstein assumed a 99-year lease for $3.2 billion.
While Pataki campaigned against the New York State practice of not adopting an ontime budget by the start of the April 1 state fiscal year for over a decade, Pataki's first 10 years in office did not see the adoption of an ontime budget.
Pataki's term had been marked with annual debates with the State Legislature over the powers allocated to the Executive and Legislative Branches on the adoption of the state budget. Pataki argued that the state constitution and court rulings gave him the power to submit a budget that allocated revenue and set policy. Pataki said the Legislature could then only change the numbers but could not change any policy decisions made in the budget document. Pataki and the Legislature ended up in court and the courts ruled in Pataki's favor, giving him more budgetary power. In 2005, the Legislature placed a constitutional amendment on the ballot to allocate more budget power to them. Pataki led a successful public information campaign to defeat this provision and to retain his budget authority. In 2006, Pataki vetoed a large part of the budget adopted by the Legislature because of these rulings.
Pataki had been criticized for not doing enough on the issue of upstate economic development. He created a series of Empire Zones statewide, which served to spur economic growth in cities by providing tax incentives for businesses. In addition, he used the state's banking laws to create banking development zones to entice banks to settle in upstate cities. Pataki considered casino gaming an economic development program for upstate and he sponsored the creation of an Indian casino in Niagara Falls and in Buffalo to spur economic development. He also promoted tourism practices for the upstate economy and created centers for excellence in the sciences in several upstate cities to spur economic growth.
Pataki's tenure had been marked with the long-standing Campaign for Fiscal Equity suit regarding the state's funding of public education. The CFE sued in order to get more state money for the New York City public schools and to guarantee a sound education for all students. Pataki fought the lawsuit, saying that the state should not pay for the increased funding and that the state constitution only guaranteed a sound education until 8th grade. Pataki filed several appeals for the decisions and the final decision will be made after he leaves office.
Pataki has been a long advocate of Native American casinos in upstate New York. He has proposed the creation of several casinos throughout Upstate with the revenue being shared by the state, tribe and municipal government. In the 1990s he was able to secure the creation of one casino on an Indian reservation outside Syracuse. His plans to create new casinos were blocked by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver until after the Sept. 11 attacks, when Silver was persuaded that more money could come into the state government. Pataki soon signed an agreement to create new casinos in the Catskills, Niagara Falls, and in Buffalo. The Seneca Niagara Casino opened in Niagara Falls in January 2003.
As a part of the creation of the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, an agreement was reached to give a percentage of the slot machine revenue to the City of Niagara Falls each year to spend on local tourism projects and projects relating to hosting the casino. Money was allocated for 2003, but disputes have come up since then. Part of the dispute is a claim by Niagara County to receive a share of the money for county government projects and another part had to do with restructuring the local commission charged with allocating the money. Pataki has called for the money to be given to a state entity he created to spur economic development in Niagara Falls, thus leaving the money under his control, a decision that is opposed by local leaders.
By his third term, many conservative Republicans simmered over his continued support of abortion rights.
Polls showed that the majority of New Yorkers wanted the state's death penalty laws restored. A bill to restore the death penalty passed the Legislature several years in a row, only to be vetoed by Cuomo. Pataki made the issue a top priority of his and when the bill reached his desk he signed it into law in 1995. The state's Court of Appeals later ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in the form in which it was written (in the case of People v. LaValle), and the State Legislature has not passed a bill to restore it in a new form. During Pataki's 12 years as governor, not a single person was executed in New York State.
He heavily lobbyed in favor of a gay rights bill that had languished in the state Senate for many years due to the opposition of Senate Leader Joseph Bruno. In 2003, Bruno finally gave in; the bill passed the Senate and was signed into law by Pataki. Bruno also admitted in the spring of 2009 (while out-of-power and facing trial on corruption charges) that he personally favored same-sex marriage but never brought it the floor of the State Senate because the majority of his conference was against it, stating "This is America, and we have inalienable rights... Life is short, and we should all be afforded the same opportunities and rights to enjoy it."[1]
In 1999, Governor Pataki signed into law comprehensive health care legislation that provided health insurance coverage, under Family Health Plus, to lower income adults who do not have health insurance through their employers.
Pataki has long been regarded as an environmentalist and he has made the environment and open space preservation a top priority of his administration. He has long cited that Theodore Roosevelt is his political hero for his work as a conservationist. Pataki has conserved more land statewide and has pushed bond issues in referendums that provided more money to preserve land and clean up the state's rivers and lakes. He has been a long standing advocate for cleaning up the Hudson River and in pushing stricter environmental regulations and penalties.
Pataki has long vetoed increases to spending at the State University of New York and City University of New York. In addition he has vetoed increases to funding for the state's tuition assistance program and equal opportunity program. His higher education policies have included calling for laws to limit the amount of time a student can receive state tuition assistance while in a public university, which he says will increase the rate of graduation in four years. He has also appointed more SUNY and CUNY trustees who are against open enrollment and remedial education policies and who have pushed for a stricter core curriculum program in the public universities. Pataki was criticized for appointing his close friend and former budget director, Robert L. King, as the Chancellor of the State University of New York.
As a part of the CFE lawsuit, education advocates tried to seek state support and funding for mandatory pre-kindergarten classes in the state's public schools. Pataki blocked this measure, which had support from legislative leaders and was a pet issue of former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross.
Pataki's New York City office had moved out of the World Trade Center in the months before the September 11, 2001 attacks to new offices on Third Avenue. and Fifth Street
Pataki and Giuliani appointed the LMDC to distribute nearly $10 billion in federal grants and to oversee the construction of a memorial, though as of September 2008 the latter has not begun. Giuliani had to step down because of term limits and Pataki took the lead on the building process, though the Port Authority is a state-run agency and thus Giuliani had very little control in the rebuilding effort anyway.
The Port Authority owns the WTC site and Larry Silverstein is the site lease holder. Governor Pataki effectively controlled development at the WTC site by the power to appoint half the Port Authority commissioners and half the LMDC board members. In late 2002, the LMDC picked a plan dubbed Project THINK to replace the 10,000,000 square feet (930,000 m2) of lost space and build a memorial. Pataki intervened to support a plan by Daniel Libeskind entitled Memory Foundations. When offered a choice between the Libeskind or THINK plans, the official LMDC poll showed that the public preferred "Neither".
Although eventually most of Libeskind's plan was to be ignored it established two concepts that will define the Pataki legacy at Ground Zero– the placement (and name) of the 1,776-foot (541 m) high Freedom Tower and the concept that the memorial be below street level. A symbolic cornerstone for the Freedom Tower with Pataki's name was laid on July 4, 2004, and after numerous design changes, construction commenced in May, 2006.
The much-vaunted open and inclusive process never acknowledged public support for rebuilding the Twin Towers, including the Belton-Gardner Twin Towers II design, which drew national attention when it was sponsored by real estate developer Donald Trump in May 2005, and is favored by many 9/11 family-members.
In the spring of 2006, Attorney General Spitzer was quoted as saying the redevelopment was "an Enron-style debacle", and stated the LMDC was "an abject failure" that "violated its duty to the public". However in February 2007 as the new governor he unenthusiastically decided to proceed with Pataki’s plans.
There was a growing voter dissatisfaction with how the state government conducted business. Two decades of late budgets and decision making by three men in a room on key issues led to voter anger and the defeat of several legislative incumbents. Pataki started to hold open sessions with legislative leaders on budget issues, and including the minority leaders of the Senate and Assembly in these discussions. In addition he encouraged the adoption of an ontime budget and in 2005 and 2006 the state budget was adopted on time.
Pataki's 1994 running mate for lieutenant governor was Betsy McCaughey, an academic best known for her critique of the Clinton health care plan. McCaughey was selected because of her work on the Clinton health care plan. It is reported that Pataki choose McCaughey over sofa bed heiress Bernadette Castro for the spot. Castro was nominated for the U. S. Senate in 1994.
McCaughey faced problems with Pataki and Pataki's staff from the start. It is reported that Pataki did not like McCaughey's relationship with the press or her public discussion of policy differences the two had. McCaughey also lost support from Pataki when she said that D'Amato had made suggestive comments to her.
In April 1997, Pataki announced that he was dropping Lt. Gov. McCaughey Ross from his 1998 reelection ticket. McCaughey Ross said she would seek elected office in 1998 either as lieutenant governor, governor or to the U. S. Senate. In September of that year, she became a Democrat and unsuccessfully sought the governorship in that party's primary. She was on the 1998 general election ballot as the nominee of the Liberal Party for governor.
After dropping McCaughey Ross from his 1998 ticket, Pataki considered several replacement running mates. In the spring of 1998 he announced his choice of State Supreme Court Justice Mary Donohue for lieutenant governor. It is reported that Pataki also considered State Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro, Erie County Comptroller Nancy Naples and State Sen. Mary Lou Rath for the lieutenant governorship as well. Naples would later join Pataki's Cabinet as State Motor Vehicles Commissioner.
In office, Lieutenant Governor Donohue was relegated to projects outside the governor's inner circle. She worked on school violence prevention, local government, small business, and homeland security issues. Many of her duties consisted of delivering speeches to groups around the state or filling in for Pataki at ceremonial events. Donohue kept a generally low profile around the state.
In 2002, it was reported that Pataki considering dropping Lt. Gov. Donohue from his ticket and asking her to run for state Attorney General instead. It is reported that he considered Secretary of State Randy Daniels and Erie County Executive Joel Giambra for lieutenant governor. Pataki decided to keep Lt. Gov. Donohue on as his 2002 running mate.
Donohue did not run to succeed Pataki in 2006. In December 2006, Pataki appointed Donohue to be a Judge of the New York Court of Claims.