Gov. David Paterson insisted the $750 million in scheduled payments to schools and local governments that will be withheld tomorrow are not a “cut” or an “impoundment.”

“The state has run out of money,” Paterson declared. “…We think we are well within the bounds of legal authority.”

NYSUT is reviewing its legal options.

Paterson defended his actions in a Plattsburgh Press-Republican OpEd.

One in five legislators have staffers who do double-duty as their campaign treasurers - an arrangement good government advocates warn could present a conflict of interest.

“Albany’s entrenched pay-to-play culture doesn’t get much more naked than this,” the DN says.

The relationship between the governor and the Legislature is so bad that Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson is refusing to attend formal events with Paterson.

Tired of living on the 32-30 knife’s edge, Senate Democrats are negotiating to make Republicans committee chairs in hopes of improving relations with the minority.

The MTA unveils its new austerity budget this morning, and drastic service cuts are expected.

Paterson said his “hands are tied” when it comes to the MTA because the state has no money.

Andrea Peyser thinks Eliot Spitzer, “whose cast-iron ego will outlast the cockroaches in a nuclear war,” has a good shot at success if he tried for a 2010 comeback.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum was once so close to ex-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi that she hired three people close to him, including one of his sons.

Chris Smith marvels at the “indomitability” of New York’s elected officials, writing: “They refuse to go away, even when the law, the voters, or sanity says they should.

The state’s system of juvenile prisons is so riddled with problems the agency overseeing them wants all but the most dangerous of youthful offenders to stay out of them.

The Post likes the idea of letting AG Andrew Cuomo have subpoena power to go after corrupt state lawmakers.

Cindy Adams is standing by her story about Paterson saying he wanted to piss “on” the Legislature.

It’s D-Day for the Kingsbridge Armory project, and so far things are not looking good.

Jordan Moss says Bronx officials can “proudly cross the finish line or meekly toss the keys back to Mayor Bloomberg.” Read more..

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Irene McKenzie, who suffers from allergies, shows letter from Parks Department about free trees she doesn’t want

Stuffy noses have fallen on deaf ears at City Hall.

Irene McKenzie, 76, has been fighting the city trying to stop it from planting two trees in front of her Claremont home because trees kick off her allergies, but to no avail.

She has written Mayor Bloomberg, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and her local community board trying to stop the trees from taking root outside her Teller Ave. home.

Last week the city told her it plans to go ahead anyway.

A number of other Bronx homeowners have been fighting Mayor Bloomberg’s Million Trees campaign to plant 1 million trees in the city by 2030. Read more..

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Former Bronx Borough President

Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer will endorse Brooklyn City Councilman Bill de Blasio for public advocate on Tuesday, passing over the man who beat him in the bruising 2001 mayoral primary.

“Looking over the field of candidates in this race, to me there is no question that Bill is the only one who will make sure the people’s voice is heard in City Hall,” Ferrer said.

Ferrer passed over former Public Advocate Mark Green, one of four Democrats in a primary skirmish to replace the departing Betsy Gotbaum.

Ferrer and Green tangled bitterly when both ran for mayor eight years ago.

Green’s campaign was accused of distributing a cartoon depicting a fawning Ferrer kissing the backside of an obese Rev. Al Sharpton.

Green won the 2001 primary against Ferrer - only to lose the race to Mike Bloomberg in a squeaker following the terror attacks of Sept. 11.The following year, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes officially cleared Green of any wrongdoing in the flyer flap. Read more..

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Mike Murphy Ditches Carion For Manhattan Development Corporation

Adolfo Carrion’s communications director, Mike Murphy, is leaving for a job with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

While it’s a loss for Carrion, it’s something of a win that Murphy wasn’t hired by another city comptroller candidate.

That’s more or less what happened with John Collins, who was hired by Anthony Weiner, a likely mayoral candidate.

Collins had recently worked for two possible mayoral candidates before going to Weiner: Christine Quinn and Betsy Gotbaum (who had been considered a longshot candidate until this interview put that notion to rest).

Here’s the email Murphy sent to friends:

Just wanted to let everyone know that I will be leaving The Borough
  President’s Office at the end of the week. It was a great year and a
  half!!!

I have accepted a job as the new Press Secretary for the Lower
  Manhattan Development Corporation. I look forward to working with
  everyone in my new capacity. I will start at LMDC on next Tuesday. I
  can be reached at this email ### (once I get my new
  email I will send it around) and on my cell 646-###-####. Thanks talk
  to you soon and remember only 48 more days to Opening Day of MLB….GO
  RED SOX!!!!

SOURCE: Observer.com

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  Yvonne Caballero, a teacher at the Lucille Murray Child Development Center for 34 years, with Gyashi, left, and Jacarigao.

Children Get Shorted For Bronx Center Funds Abuse

A South Bronx day care center being investigated by the city for financial improprieties will lose its city financing next week and have to close, the fourth day care facility to be shuttered in the neighborhood in four years, officials said Wednesday.

The city’s funds for the Lucille Murray Child Development Center are to cease Jan. 11 because of what city officials say has been widespread mismanagement, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in missing funds.

The city’s Administration for Children’s Services has decided against hiring another firm to supply children’s services there because it says the building is in substandard condition and should not be used for day care any longer.

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