Silver-dollar doozy
Councilman sees $15B in cost cuts
A federal appeals court’s decision to toss much of ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s corruption conviction means he can keep millions he reaped in what a judge, prosecutors and two juries once deemed an illegal scheme.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers have an agreement in principle to slash by $2.38 million the sum Silver was ordered to hand over to the federal government at a sentencing hearing two years ago, say papers in Manhattan Federal Court.
The $1.36 million Silver would forfeit under the postappeal deal lawyers reached last week is a 64% discount from the $3.74 million in illicit gains he was told to pay the feds in July 2018.
Silver — once one of Albany’s most powerful politicians — will also have to turn over investment gains on the money, the amount of which isn’t stated in the agreement. Part of the $1.36 million forfeiture and the investment gains could be covered by money Silver has already paid the government.
The agreement — to be formalized later this week — hews to the appeals court ruling in January that overturned Silver’s conviction on the most lucrative of his alleged crimes. Manhattan Federal Judge Valerie Caproni will have to approve the deal.
The $2.38 million reduction to the forfeiture Caproni imposed two years ago mostly represents fees Silver received from Weitz & Luxenberg, a Manhattan-based law firm that specializes in representing people with mesothelioma, a deadly disease contracted by inhaling asbestos fibers.
In 2005 and 2006, Silver allotted $500,000 in state money he controlled to a mesothelioma clinic run by Dr. Robert Taub at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Washington Heights. In return, prosecutors said, Taub gave Silver the names of some of his patients, which Silver turned over to Weitz & Luxenberg.
Weitz & Luxenberg paid Silver $3.1 million in the fees
With New York in a budget crisis the likes of which it hasn’t seen in decades, a City Council leader says now is the time to open the books, eliminate wasteful spending and save some serious cash for schools and other causes.
The city should end billions of dollars in tax exemptions and other funding for developers and cancel huge contracts with big firms doing vague jobs, Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), the chair of the Council’s Committee on Contracts, wrote Mayor de Blasio on Monday night.
He identified up to $15 billion in possible cuts and savings, saying nearly $1 billion of that could go to schools, social services and other causes that are facing steep cuts in the wretched economic climate.
Kallos (inset) pinpointed up to $10 billion the city could gain by ending cushy deals with developers including the company behind Hudson Yards, the Midtown megadevelopment that got $6 billion in tax exemptions, among other city perks.
By ending such exemptions, the city could rake in
$5 billion in cash, Kallos said. And by scrutinizing deals predicated on promises of job growth, the city could save another $5 billion if it turns out developers haven’t made good.
“The budget is filled with deals done decades ago by people we don’t even remember and we don’t even know why,” Kallos told the Daily News. “They just stay in the budget through inertia. Now is the time to clean out all of the corruption and waste from the budget … to have a budget where we know where every single penny is spent.”
The proposal comes with de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo yet to announce a plan B for if the federal government doesn’t bail out localities facing billions of dollars in tax revenue shortfalls. President Trump and Senate Republicans have rejected calls for cash help from localities around the country.