How many times have I said that Silver is the most powerful politician in Albany? A million? 2 Million? It doesn’t matter what the Senate does or what Paterson wants with this Property tax cap, if Shelly says no then no it is… It also does not seem to matter what the rest of the Assembly has to say, why is that? How and why does one person wield so much power and control? Did you elect him? I didn’t here in Western New York, so how come what he says goes? These Bills need to go to the floor for debate and a secret ballot, if that happened I would guarantee it would pass.

Sheldon Silver needs to be bounced out on his buttocks and have his head yanked out of his……..

While dysfunction lives, tax reform is ‘DOA’- Syracuse.com
DICK CASE
POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST

I’m here to say that nothing much has changed in Albany, in spite of what we’ve heard.

I had a startling revelation recently when Dean Skelos, who’s from Long Island, stopped by the office to talk with us about himself, and his plans for the state Legislature. Dean’s the guy who replaced Joe Bruno, who stepped down from his job as Senate majority leader.

The new majority leader didn’t pull many of his punches. He gets along fine with “David” (Paterson), who’s also breaking into the job, as governor. “Shelly” (Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker) is another matter.

Nothing gets done in Albany unless Shelly says it’s OK.

This was not good news. For months, we’ve heard about how dysfunctional our state government has become. Even with new pairs of boots on the floor,

the dysfunction stays.

Dean Skelos quoted Shelly as saying the governor’s proposal on tax reform was “dead on arrival” in the legislature.

He said “DOA.”

Dean went on to explain that’s a lousy response to the governor’s program, which he said is all he hears about on his tour Upstate: “property taxes, property taxes, property taxes.” If the governor puts out a bill, Dean thinks “we owe him the courtesy of a real examination of it. To say it’s dead on arrival basically is saying no to the governor.

“It’s also saying that you’re not serious about real property tax relief.”