SILVER VS. SPITZER NY Post Editorial

Is the political clock ticking on As sembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D- Tort Bar)? Only Eliot Spitzer, the prohibi tive favorite to be sworn in as New York’s next governor on Jan. 1, knows the answer to that question.

But Albany is scarcely large enough to contain the two men: The chief impediment to the sweeping post-inaugural reforms being promised by Spitzer figures to be Silver - who has nothing to gain, and much to lose, from changes of any sort.

And just how tenaciously Silver will fight to maintain his advantage became clear last week when a negotiated municipal-worker-disability reform bill that would
have saved New York City millions - at the expense of trial lawyers - was shot down by the speaker. The details are unimportant - save for one: Silver is the trial bar’s man in Albany. He is “of counsel” to personal-injury giant Weitz & Luxenberg; he refuses to disclose his salary there, though it certainly dwarfs the $137,000 he “earns” as speaker. The bill in question would have ended public employee “double- dipping” in disability cases.

As it stands, New York City gives a disability
pension to any municipal employee disabled in a work-related incident. But the employee can also sue the city for life-long “future earnings” compensatory
damages. It’s a crock, but it costs local taxpayers millions every year - and New York City and other municipalities have been trying to end the practice for years.

They thought they’d finally succeeded. Wrong. New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo said, “All I know is, we had the votes [Monday] morning.

Three people were added [by Silver] to the [Assembly Judiciary] committee, and we lost, 11 to 10.” Silver, of course, claims not to have known how his
appointees would vote. But nothing happens in the Assembly without Silver’s approval. Especially regarding tort reform. Earlier this year, Silver endorsed the lifting of the five-year statute of limitations for bringing rape charges. He appeared with Manhattan DA Bob Morgenthau to state that the Assembly was on board with the change. The joke was on Morgenthau - who hadn’t been informed that Silver’s bill also removed the statute of limitations on civil suits. It was a gift to trial lawyers - meant to let them go trolling for clients with cases going back decades. Of course, it’s not only tort reform that Silver has blocked.

* He killed the West Side Stadium because it might have competed for development money with his Lower East Side district.

* He refuses to permit creation of a statewide DNA database.

* He resisted efforts to sharply toughen New York’s gun-trafficking law - until this page shamed him into standing down.

* And he’s almost as reliable a lapdog for the public-employee unions - especially the teachers union - as he is for the trial lawyers.

If Sheldon Silver isn’t the poster child for Albany’s ills, he is darn close.

FYI…. Just a little more education about Silver..