Limba

Intermodal Freight in Brkhvn Gerald Drumm & Andrew Kauffmann
2009-10-30 00:00 (America/New_York)
Presentation by Andrew Kaufman and Gerald Drumm – Sills Road Realty and US Rail
This morning we had two speakers that gave us information on the new intermodal yard that has been proposed and permitted at Sills Rd and the Long Island Expressway. Andrew Kaufman and Gerald Drumm brought a large design plan for us to see as they spoke.
The facility has partners that are in the asphalt business and presently move 340,000 tons of stone and aggregate onto Long Island. This is done using mostly trucks. This facility is designed to remove that truck traffic from the roads when this project is finished. The site has the benefit of having the LIRR tracks close-by. A short spur will have to be built to service the yard.
The yard will be operated by a midwestern company, US Rail, that has a lot of rail experience. It will still be serviced by NY & Atlantic Railroad, the company that owns the freight franchise on Long Island.
One of the reasons that this site was chosen is the American Power and Light had purchased it to build a power plant, and had spent $7 million on an extensive environmental review. They did not win the bid to build to service LIPA,so they were interested in selling the property. Having that extensive review behind them made the property that much more attractive. It, more importantly, is in a strategic place to receive and distribute freight.
The aggregate business will be the anchor tenant, but the facility will also be able to bring in lumber and sheet rock as well as other heavy loads. These heavy loads lend themselves to movement by rail. Removing trucks from our roads will save our roads from considerable wear and tear.
The facility is large enough to be able to accommodate a large train and off-load it quickly.
This facility is one of several that will be needed to accommodate future rail projects, including the rail freight tunnel from Bayonne to Brooklyn that congressman Gerald Nadler spoke about when he came to LIMBA awhile back. The Port Authority of NY & NJ has expressed interest in making that link a reality and is appropriating funds to design it.
All of this fits into the picture that was outlined by LIMBA a few years ago of moving up to 10% of our freight by rail instead of the present 2%

If you would like to see the entire discussion by streaming video use this link.http://www.proimagegroupinc.com/limba/10-30-09

Gary Bixhorn Chief operating officer Eastern Suffolk Boces
2009-11-06 00:00
This morning our speaker was Gary Bixhorn. Mr. Bixhorn is the Chief Operating Officer of Eastern Suffolk BOCES. We generally think of BOCES as the special education arm of our education system. That was its original function, but over time it added the vocational training, then the buying cooperative services was added. Today BOCES has a substantial mission in many areas that service the school districts in that area. It has no separate tax base for funding its operations. All funding comes from the school districts on an apportionment basis.
Mr. Bixhorn spoke about the cost of schooling on Long Island and stated that the Long Island region was not getting its fair share of state revenues that are allocated to all schools in the state.
As the conversation about costs were explored the questions from the audience asked; Why in hard economic times, do the schools maintain their budgets as if all were normal?
The discussion revealed some important ways that savings could be realized. For example; there is little doubt that consolidation of districts would save some money when most of the $200K plus administrators would not be needed.
While industry has changed the way pensions have been funded, the school personnel have the same high cost defined benefit plans they have always had. Modifying pensions would provide additional savings. Another problem that is directly related to the multiple school districts is labor contract negotiations. Each school district negotiates its own contracts and those contracts are jack-sawed by comparing their salaries to the last contract that was signed. Each new contract is incrementally higher than the last. The solution to this never-ending escalation in costs is to have salaries and benefits. negotiated on a regional basis.
Unfortunately no politician has had the courage to fight back. Each year goes by and the tax burden gets worse. Now we are at a juncture where we have an angrier taxpayer than anytime in my memory. The education industry has held these politicos in check by virtue of their vast campaign resources. Maybe the taxpayers will just fire these elected officials now that we are a lot angrier.
See video of todays meeting http://www.proimagegroupinc.com/limba/11-6-09/

LIMBA Networking and Karaoke night at Dave & Busters
2009-11-12 00:00
This event is always a big hit. The last time we had John Kominicki and Richard Kessel sing. They rocked the house. John will likely sing again and we have a surprise celeb waiting in the wings.There will be some of the great singers in our midst that you did no know existed.
The media room at Dave & Busters works great for this event. there will be a buffet and soft drinks as well as a cash bar
We will have the always enertaining and vivacious Anita Bloom guiding us on our Karaoke songs. What a knockout, Holy Cow!
LIMLong IslanBd Metro BAusiness Action
Presents the
3rd Annual Karaoke Night
When: Thursday, November 12, 2009
Where: Dave & Buster’s
1856 Veteran’s Memorial Highway, Islandia
Time: 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Donation: $35 LIMBA Members, $40 Non-Members
Long Island Metro Business Action is hosting an entertaining
evening of networking, food and fun!
This after-hours event of singing & karaoke will be held in
the showroom at the Dave & Buster ’s in Islandia.
You and your colleagues are invited to get up and belt out a tune!
Guest singers include some of Long Island’s most recognized
business leaders including John Kominicki, publisher of the
Long Island Business News.
For pre-registration: 631-757-1698, e-mail info@limba.net, or
pay on-line with paypal at www.limba.net.
Become a sponsor for only $300:
Includes premier event recognition and two event tickets. Call 631-757-1698
for more information.

No scheduled meeting
2009-11-13 00:00

John Waffenschmidt- Covanta Power
2009-11-20 00:00
This morning we had a presentation from John Waffenschmidt, Vice President of Covanta Energy. Covanta is an energy from waste
operator. The plant in Hempstead is a state of the art facility that converts some of Long Islands waste stream into energy. The recovery of electric power from waste has been done successful elsewhere. In Europe they are way ahead of us in various conservation measures. According to John, the pollutants from energy to waste are substantially less than that which would be emitted by trucks if the waste stream were carted off-island and landfilled.
The plant is able to segregate metals and recover them. One of the most cost effective recovery of metals is aluminum. Making new metal from recovered aluminum uses 85% less energy than making aluminum from bauxite ore. But other metals are successfully and profitably recovered as well, and metal coins are found every day in the recovery process and that too is part of the salvage stream.
The co2 that is emitted in burning is of course a by-product of the process, but no methane is created. This is important because landfills do create methane, and methane is many more times more damaging to the atmosphere than co2.
Mr Waffenschmidt did not limit his talk to his project but spoke about the larger problem of global warming and the potential for improvement. The United States has the potential of reducing greenhouse gasses by a giga ton. That’s a huge amount, but it also tells us that we have not been doing as good a job as we could. Waffenschmidt made these remarks after going through the dangers of global warming, and the exposure this area has to it.
Covanta is building an extension to it’s present operation and made reassurances that the new plant as well as the old one will not contribute to producing odors in the surrounding area. The plant contains odors by creating a negative pressure inside the plant. As air is sucked into the building it is fed to the burning process. The air leaves the plant after the burning has taken place.
The existing facility creates a net of 600KW/ton and the new facility will produce 675KW/ton. The plant itself uses a lot of power to operate all its equipment, but these figures are net after all that is considered.
To see this entire meeting on video go to http://proimagegroupinc.com/limba/11-21-09

NO MEETING Thanksgiving week
2009-11-27 00:00

Hon. Ed Romaine Suffolk County Legislator (cancelled)
2009-12-04 00:00
Due to the death of Mr. Romaine’s son Keith, he has cancelled all appointments. there will be no meeting

Holiday Party
2009-12-11 00:00
Jimmy Graseck on his fabulous violin and Vintriloquist Vince Dantona and his sassy puppet make the Holiday Party a well attended and enjoyable event.
Please join us for a real fun time. It’s early in the morning but it’s a great day to begin with a smile.

LIMBA -Former Congressman Rick Lazio in governors race
2009-12-18 00:00
Today our speaker was an ever-youthful former congressman, Rick Lazio. At age 51 he is a little bit wiser and appears to be as determined as ever to serve in the political arena. Mr. Lazio will be running in the Republican primary to run for governor of NY State
According to Rick the state government is dysfunctional, no one in the room disagreed. He then proceeded to tick off a number of things to make his point.
In the measure of school performance Lazio stated that we were 37th among to 50 states.
25% of our young people leave the state.
The governor has no power to control the budget process.
Mandates are decreed by the state, but not paid for by the state, and lower level governing bodies are stuck with the task of making things happen.
He alleges that legislation is purposefully pursued so that matters cannot be resolved, resulting in the three kingmakers delivering the final decisions. Rick had other criticisms as well, but he felt that there are some positive actions that a governor could initiate.
Taxes must be reduced.
Mandates must be paid for
Enact aggressive jobs strategies, such as, building infrastructure that will later make us more competitive.
Reform the state pension funds by changing all new pensions from defined pensions plans to defined contribution plans, saving billions.
Lazio suggested that we could do a lot better with our universities by making them a catalyst for economic growth.
He would increase the tuition costs for out of state and foreign students and using the surplus to create low-income scholarships for local people.
Rick admitted that these measures might get him an early retirement from politics, but that would be Okay with him.
To see entire meeting go to this link http://proimagegroupinc.com/limba/12-18-09
***
Ernie Fazio

No LIMBA meeting Christmas day
2009-12-25 00:00

No Meeting New Years Day
2010-01-01 00:00

OPEN Forum Round Table Discussion
2010-01-08 00:00

No Meeting MLK Holiday
2010-01-15 00:00

energy panel for homes business and transportation
2010-01-21 00:00
This week we will have a panel of energy use innovators that will talk about zero fossil fuel heating and cooling of homes as well as commercial and industrial buildings. One of the panel members will address low and/or no emissions transportation ideas.

Ross Ain and Harry Davitian Caithness II
2010-01-22 00:00
We started the meeting with a remembrance of Rick Portes, from Pro Image Group, who started the videotaping of LIMBA meetings, and we are appreciative of his partner Bart Pellegrino continuing this effort.
Ross Ain opened the talk with a description of what the plant does and the technology it uses, a combined cycle plant. He described the gas turbine primary generation process, and then the recovery process from the exhaust gas. The heat recovery process generates steam to power another turbine and generator set. Taking the 1100 degree exhaust gas and cooling it to about 350 degrees makes the steam to turn the second turbine. The capacity of the plant is 350 Megawatts, about 10% of Long Island’s total average demand, and covers about 5% of peak summer load.
Caithness also has an important difference in cooling the steam to recycle it that differs from the older plants. Once through cooling is used in Northport, in and out to the Long Island Sound, killing fish and producing thermal pollution. Evaporative cooling is used at the Holtsville plant, which consumes a large amount of ground water. Caithness uses 95% less water than an evaporative cooling power plant uses. The method is similar to a home airconditioner’s refrigerant cooling system and consumes about 35 gallons per minute.
The primary fuel is Natural Gas, but is allowed to burn a liquid fuel up to 30 days a month.
By far, Caithness is the cleanest plant on Long Island, measured in Carbon Monoxide and Nitrous Oxides by virtue of its Natural Gas fuel and catalytic scrubbing of the exhaust. The exhaust stack is 175 feet high, much lower than other plants. It doesn’t have to be so high because of the lower emissions.
Caithness has a 20 Year power purchase contract with LIPA. 45 Megawatts of their output is sold on the spot market through the NYISO. Caithness is also twice as efficient as LIPA’s most efficient plant, producing double the electricity for the same amount of energy consumed.
The buffer zone for the plant is about ¾ mile from any private homes. Built on a greenfield site, constructed by Siemens, the permanent operations staff is 16, split among three shifts. Commercial generation started on the 1st of August 2009. The plant was built on schedule, on budget with a project cost of about $500MM
Harry took over talking about the economics of the plant and the LIPA/National Grid contract. In 2013 the contract expires. Going through LIPA’s on island generating mix, 2/3 of their capacity is from the existing plants that are an average of 45 years old. Most of those are coal plants converted to use oil and are much less efficient than the newer plants. National Grid’s older plants are expensive to run, and produce more emissions than newer plants.
The current contract is based on Cost-Plus pricing, which is advantageous to National Grid. Newer power purchase agreements put the onus on the power producer to maintain efficiencies and their cost structure.
Once again the session wrapped up with a lively question and answer session.
Two key questions from the audience stood out from the rest:
Q: What are the prospects for Caithness 2?
A:You need a long term contract, and LIPA’s decision about the next power contract will greatly influence that.
Q:Will more of these plants lead to rate reductions?
A: LIPA needs the base load power, and they save on fuel costs. LIPA should be obligated to pass those savings to ratepayers.
You can see the video of the speakers’ talk at Pro Image Group’s Website. We look forward to having many more interesting speakers that our audience can interact with this year. See the up coming roster at www.limba.net http://proimagegroupinc.com/limba/1-22-10
Report done by
Craig.Plunkett@cedx.com
516-672-3146

Steve Bellone -Supv -Twn of Bbylon -GPI engineers spnsr
2010-01-22 00:00
Mr Bellone is an innovative leader in local government. Please join us for an interesting insight into local government.
Ernie Fazio

Greenman-PedersenI shall be pleased to sponsor this LIMBA breakfast meeting scheduled to Friday, October 8th.
Mayer Horn

Neil Sieden Jan 29 Financing Challenges & Solutions
2010-01-29 00:00
Neil Seiden gave an illuminating presentation that explored the means of financing that may not be that desirable when things are easy but are used when the going gets tough. He ticked off the various means of financing stating the pro and con of each method. He starting with traditional bank financing, SBA Financing, Friends and Family, Angel Investors, Purchase Order Financing, Factoring, Venture Capital, Trade Financing, Asset based loans, Monetized Foreign Receivables, and Mezzanine Financing. Each situation has its own useful niche and Neil gave an excellent walk through of each example. The lesson taken from his talk for me was that when the banker says no, it is not the end of the road. The questions that followed indicated to me a high level of interest in the topic.
Neil’s company is; Asset Enhancement Solutions LLC and they can be reached at 516 767-0100 or fax 516 706-0028 neil.seiden@assetenhancement.com
Ernie Fazio

Congressman Tim Bishop
2010-02-05 00:00
Members and Friends,

This morning we were pleased to welcome Congressman Tim Bishop, of the 1st District in New York. Mr. Bishop’s talk today was on the economy and job creation. You can see the entire meeting on video including the feisty Q&A session on Pro Image Studios website: http://proimagegroupinc.com/limba/2-5-10 In his opinion, there are three keys to recovering from the recession:

Putting people back to work so they can begin to spend again and get economic demand stoked.
Stabilizing the banking system to get lending moving again, providing working capital to business.
Foreclosure mitigation, keeping homeowners in their homes.

Mr. Bishop went on to describe the stimulus program (ARRA) as a modest success against those three goals, and a singular success at pulling our financial system back from the brink of a total depression. It is easy to take shots at TARP, but it worked to avoid a complete collapse. The ARRA has served to begin the process of bringing us out of a deep hole, with GDP swinging to a positive direction during the year since its announcement. The Congressman provided many statistics to reinforce his assertion. He claimed the best evidence for the ARRA’s influence on Long Island is to look at education on Long Island. He said that the program backfilled the cuts that would have had to happen without the injection of $157 million dollars to the local education authorities. It saved local jobs, avoided a property tax increase, and preserved the quality of education on Long Island.

Tim went on to say that until the recovery of jobs takes place, we can’t claim to be out of a recession. We desperately need infrastructure investment, as these are investments whose benefits remain with us for a long time. The ARRA didn’t include enough for infrastructure, the Jobs for Main Street program does. This program also has money in it to continue to backfill education cuts at the state level. This will hopefully help us avoid a double dip recession which is possible with the upcoming negative stimulus of state budget cuts.

The congressman went on to describe the differences between the Obama administration’s budget proposal and the House and Senate versions. The President’s budget focuses more on small business and less on infrastructure. Four important points in the budget are tax credits for new hiring, rebates on the employer portion of the Social Security tax, an increase in the SBA’s 7A loan program, and the creation of a small business credit facility from the remainder of unissued TARP funds. This facility would be geared to small businesses of under 500 employees and administered by smaller community banks. He described this year’s budget as a set of efforts among the administration, House and Senate that he feels confident will be hammered out into a set of good policies to get us back on track. Time will tell us whether it is successful, we have begun to turn things around today. In closing, the Congressman said nobody s! hould be crowing about where we are now, but he asserted that we are in a better place than where we were a year ago.

The Q&A program was feisty, focusing on infrastructure investment and research. There were questions on MAGLEV, the Gas Tax, and the US National debt. It was punctuated by a sharp exchange between one of our guests and the congressman. See it for yourself on your computer or smartphone at http://proimagegroupinc.com/limba/2-5-10 Come to a LIMBA meeting to participate, network and greet our elected officials and community leaders.
Craig Plunkett
Our efforts to provide the video of these meetings has been very helpful in getting our comunications to our readers. This would be a high profile opportunity for you to sponsor the efforts of our video team. Pro-Image Studios have been sponsoring the work themselves. and we thank them. Call me I’ll tell you what is involved.
Ernie Fazio 631 757-1698

Presidents Day Weekend NO MEETING
2010-02-12 00:00

Assembyman Michael Fitzpatrick
2010-02-19 00:00
Pension Reform for the Political Class
Mr. Fitzpatrick arrived this morning to speak to us about what is wrong with New York State, and how to fix it. In a refreshing perspective, he described to us how the pension system for the Political Class works. In opening, he said if you want to change politics, you need to change the defined benefits plan pension system. (DBP). The path of least resistance is the road most often taken in Albany. DBPs are the place to focus on. Term limits are not the answer, because as we have seen, politicians move to find jobs within the patronage system as they are term limited out. This keeps them in the pension system and it operates at all levels of NYS government, from the state down to the town and village levels. Term limits don’t remove people from politics. Mr. Fitzpatrick handed out reprints of! several articles that appeared in the Wall Street Journal ( Henninger, Merrick )and New York Post regarding political spending and benefits. He also called DBPs “Fiscal Carbon Monoxide”. Very few members of the public understand how the system works, and we need to get people to focus on the issue. Moving the Political Class to Defined Contribution Plans like 401K’s would clean up the system and eliminate the practice of “pension spiking”, where an official in the system moves to a high paying job for the last three years! of their career to boost their pension.
Mr. Fitzpatrick is happy to be known as one of the most conservative assembly members and is sponsoring a pension reform bill. Right now, there is no incentive to be fiscally responsible in government. The unions and the government don’t really negotiate with one another for the common benefit, instead there is much public posturing and threats to oust the incumbent. The reform bill is designated A.06932. The bill would cap present pensions and introduce a Defined Contribution Plan for retirement. Changing the rules of the game is what is needed, and this bill will be a start on the road. Term limits don’t change the game rules, they simply force the players to find new spots. He gave the illustration of an elected official moving to a patr! onage job to boost that last three years of salary, which determines the pension payout.
Allowing pension contributions to be amortized over time, simply makes them more expensive and puts it on the governmental credit card. Government is operating on an antiquated business model and the time of reckoning is arriving quickly. Quoting Herb Stein, “Anything that can’t go on, won’t”. His bill is not addressing the vast majority of public employees yet, it is addressing the Political Class. He is expecting a fight over the State Constitutionality of the bill around the diminishment of benefits, and described a debate that he had with a staffer in the Comptroller’s office around this. His assertion is that if you don’t carve out the Political Class from DBPs, you will not change the culture of Albany. The Political Class will no! t do anything against their self-interest unless it is forced to.
The Assemblyman wound up his passionate pitch by emphasizing that pension reform is the place to start. As an ex-banker he understands the pension system, and how it works. The Political Class’s benefits are far outstripping the benefits available to the general public, and it is sowing the seeds of revolution. To have a healthy public sector, you need a healthy private sector, and the path that the government is on is the wrong direction. A Defined Contribution Plan stops the gaming of the pension system. Starting with the Political Class, create new tiers of pension systems, eventually moving the entire state employee system to Defined Contribution Plans. He closed with a plea to ask candidates for office their stand on the following question: “Should taxpayers continue to fund Defined Benefit Plans for Politi! cians?” and listen very carefully to their answers.
The Q&A portion of the program was excellent, as usual.
A question from Jovanna Little about Section 211 waivers prompted an explanation. A section 211 waiver is something that allows a pension collector to draw a salary from a new job, essentially double-dipping. This is often illustrated by the case of a police officer retiring from the force in their mid-forties and starting another career in the public sector while drawing their police pension. The Assemblyman related that the screams about these waivers will get louder as the fiscal walls keep closing in, and that State Senator Jeff Klein is leading the effort to close this loophole.
Once again, a revealing look at a subject that not many of us know about, but affects us all greatly. LIMBA offers you the chance to interact with knowledgeable people in positions of power for a very reasonable price. The heaviest price is getting an early start on a Friday morning, but it is well worth the effort.

Craig Plunkett
Test

Program Cancelled because of weather
2010-02-26 00:00
Anticipating sever snow particularly in Nassau County we cancelled the meeting that featured Regional Plan chairman, John Cameron. Mr Cameron will join us on May 14th and there will be some other items to report at that time.
Anyone who was preregistered will be given credit to that meeting or another meeting.

Joint meeting with LIMBA/LICA (L I Contractors Assoc)
2010-03-05 00:00
LICA Executive Director,Mark Herbst has invited all LIMBA members to attend a legislature meeting at the Melville Marriott located at 1350 Walt Whitman Rd.
There is no charge, but please confirm your attendence ,by;
Fax 631 7573607
Phone 631 757 1698 or
Email ernie@limba.net
Do not attempt to register on the website

Richard Kessel, President & CEO NY Power Authority
2010-03-12 00:00
Members and Friends:
We were pleased to welcome again Richard Kessel, electricity maven for the state of New York. The unsinkable, energetic Richie gave the capacity crowd a rundown on the what the New York Power Authority (NYPA) is, where its going, and what its pressing issues are.
Very fashionably late, Richie joked about knowing how to get to ALCOA’s North Country plant in Massena, New York better than the Long Island hometown hotel we met at this morning. Opening with a hello to the many people that he has worked with on Long Island over the years, he emphasized that in the energy business you are only as good as the crew that works for you, and was effusive in his praise for the folks running LIPA and the Transmission and Distribution ( T&D ) network for National Grid. Richie was also proud of LIPA’s record of performance, having resisted a base rate increase for the twelve years since its founding in 1998, and the $12 Billion invested in the T&D network on Long Island.
NYPA is a statewide enterprise operating T&D and electric generating facilities. Richie estimated that he spends 30-40% of his time traveling the state, and the challenges in running NYPA are much the same as running LIPA. The main thrust and mission of NYPA is to utilize energy to keep and create jobs in New York. Returning to Massena, he described NYPA’s agreement with Alcoa that allowed the smelter to remain open, preserving hundreds of jobs. He estimated that over two thousand jobs have been kept in New York during his tenure at NYPA so far.
Richie went on to describe the efforts of NYPA to help Globe Metals to stay in New York, Computer Associates to retain and expand its data center on Long Island, and keep International Wire and Cable in Camden, New York afloat. Job creation was a theme also with attracting Yahoo’s newest Data Center to Lockport, NY.
Along with utilizing electric subsidies to preserve and create jobs, building electrical infrastructure is another job creation strategy. Richie defended his record of T & D and generation investments at LIPA, while describing the repowering efforts in Astoria Queens, and his championing of the creation of a new "Electric Thruway " between Long Island and Canada along existing rights of way. Working closely with Hydro-Quebec and National Grid, the thruway would bring cheaper hydropower from new projects in Canada down through New York state and Long Island. Richie also described a new Trans-Hudson cable that is estimated will save ConEd ratepayers $2 Billion over the next 20 years and increase the reliability of the grid.
He also detailed his long time efforts to bring renewables and energy efficiency to the fore with the LED Traffic light program in Nassau County, upgrades at the Bergen Point Sewer Plant in Suffolk, and the new 100 Megawatt Statewide Solar Project, which will quintuple the solar generation in the state. An infamous supporter of wind projects, he also described the Great Lakes offshore wind project, which is targeted to generate between 120-500 Megawatts of power in an area where wind power is already embraced.
The meeting contained a lively, wide-ranging Q & A with Richie addressing local issues of ESCOs and strategic efforts of financing solar power, extending the meeting past its close but being very gracious and generous with his time and knowledge. Again, a friday morning well spent at LIMBA in the company of one of the state’s literal power players, and a room full of movers and shakers of the local economy.
See the video for this meeting at http://www.proimagegroupinc.com/limba/3-12-10/
Craig Plunkett

Bill Schoolman -STOP THE MTA Tax
2010-03-19 00:00
Bill Schoolman is the owner of Classic Coach and Hampton Luxury Coach. He has been successful as a businessman and in that pursuit he has shown himself to be an innovator. He came to LIMBA this morning with a message that is difficult to refute or ignore. He accused the MTA of having a 45-year history of fiscal irresponsibility.
The MTA tax was recently imposed on businesses of all kinds, not for profits, municipalities, and in fact any entity that has employees. Mr. Schoolman is appalled by the tax, and believes it should be repealed. However he has no faith in the legislature in rescinding the tax, but he believes a lawsuit could be successful. He then went into some detail as to why we should expect very little from the legislature. The biggest factor is that the NYC politicians want the tax and they would be able to prevent a 2/3 vote it would take from happening.
Schoolman bases his case on the apparent unconstitutionality of the legislation that created the tax. After researching the state law and the authorities law Schoolman concluded the state constitution was violated 5 times, and once under the Public Authorities law
After focusing some intention on the viability of the lawsuit, Schoolman asked the question, "How is the money at MTA spent". He then cited several bizarre examples for the audience on how they have spent money in the past

Example 1. A train mechanic had a gross income $283,000. By manipulating the overtime rules he was able to generate that income so that his retirement can be boosted to $10,000 per month.Mr. Schoolman pointed out that the maximum labor cost in the transportation business should be 41% or less, at the MTA it is 67%
Example 2 The MTA uses dogs as part of their security program. The spent $7 million on a new dog house.
Example 3 The MTA is building or has built an employee lounge at Grand Central Station costing $20 million
Example 4 The MTA built a headquarters building in Manhattan that was scheduled to cost $145 million, but the final cost was $845 million.

Schoolman alleges that these extraordinary contract costs are caused by fraud and total lack of oversight. "The business model is a failure. The MTA should go bankrupt and be sold off to people who know how to make money" according to Mr. Schoolman.
He has a website for his not for profit he has created to fight back. Anyone who would like to join him in his lawsuit go to www.mtataxpayerabuse.org
— # —
Video taping by Pro-Image Group, Bart Pellegrino, President. Thanks for your proffessionalism in your craft. Link to video will be available here on the wbsite as soon as it is available.
Mike Allen of Soundview Studios will be helping us with the video in the future. Photography for our website is provided by Eagle Eye photography- Jim Mooney

Helena Williams, President LIRR
2010-03-26 00:00
LIMBA Recap March 26, 2010 Helena Williams, President of the Long Island Rail Road, East Side Access Update
Ms. Williams last came to LIMBA during her stint as the Interim Executive Director of the MTA. Today, she opened her talk with the tale of helping to recruit Jay Walder from Transport of London to the MTA, bringing him from the frying pan into the fire. Her introduction was a good segue into a description of that fire, and the dire circumstances that the MTA and its member agencies are facing. Preservation of some service to Greenport was a small victory, to give that up would have severed a long standing historical tie for the LIRR. Right now, Ms. Williams is fighting a holding action to keep the LIRR in good shape while waiting for the economy to turn around and be robust again.
Addressing some of the transit-oriented development advocates and freight rail enthusiasts in the audience, she spoke of Transit Oriented Development as bringing future LIRR customers into the fold and having plenty of capacity to support more rail freight to take more trucks off Long Island roads. More rail freight means more revenue for the LIRR.
The main topic of her talk, East Side Access, helps the Suffolk County housing market because it makes commuting from eastern long island more possible to the east side of Manhattan, preserving that quality of life in the suburbs. The new LIRR terminal in Grand Central Terminal will be served by the current M7 electric cars, which the railroad is very happy with, and they are beginning to design the next generation of cars, the M9 fleet. The entire railroad is eagerly anticipating the connecting of the LIRR and Metro-North Railroads, but there is lots of system integration work to do. Harold Interlocking needs a tremendous amount of work to connect the new tracks that will run to GCT, and a new platform will be built in Jamaica to serve Brooklyn with a new type of shuttle service. The creation of Moynihan station will primarily benefit intercity rail run by Amtrak, but the LIRR is looking to get some Penn Station improvements out of that project! , particularly an expansion of the main Penn Corridor that runs between the E and 2&3 subway lines to increase pedestrian capacity.

underground construction

The next phase of her talk was the presentation of a great video on the progress and methods of construction of ESA. Animations of the tunnel boring, maps of the rail routes, and depictions of the new concourse were shown. It is a great project that Ms. Williams is justifiably proud of being a part of. It is a grand new public works project, a great expansion of the railroad, a very positive development. Funding for the next two years is fully in place, for the present capital program, but the final years of the project need to be implemented and funded in the next MTA capital program. Ms. Williams asked us for our support for this funding. Another project that will require financial support is the double tracking of the mainline between Ronkonkoma and Farmingdale. Unlike the third track project, this does not require additional land, and will help reverse commuting and take better advantage of East Side Access.
Closing her talk, she referred to the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations; where there really needs to be some relief for the railroad around work rules and penalty pay. These efforts will help the LIRR ease some of its costs. The Q & A portion of the program opened with a tough assault on the MTA taxes and some large ticket projects by the MTA, which Ms. Williams ably handled, although the projects mentioned were not LIRR projects.
A follow up question on disability reform progress was again tackled by a frank discussion of what the LIRR could and could not control. The LIRR has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the State AG’s office to cooperate in its investigation of disability fraud. A lot of this is out of the control of the LIRR and under the jurisdiction of the Federal Rail Road Retirement board.
Again, a well spent Friday morning at LIMBA, where we got to hear from and talk to an important leader of one of the most vital links in our region’s economic health and stability.

GOOD FRIDAY - NO MEETING
2010-04-02 00:00

Frank MacKay, National Chair of the Independence Party
2010-04-09 00:00
LIMBA Meeting Recap – April 9, 2010 – Frank MacKay, National Chairman of the Independence Party of America
On this rainy spring morning, we were treated to a master class in Political Science by Frank MacKay, the leader of the Independence party. The goal of the party is to become the third Major party in the USA. Lest the audience scoff at their goal, Frank opened his talk by suggesting we turn our time machine back to 2008, and ask: would anyone have guessed correctly who today would be the President or Governor of New York.
The rapidly changing nature of politics and the electorate feeds MacKay’s confidence that the events necessary for the party to achieve national prominence will present themselves at some point in the near future. The current disaffection of the populace from the two major parties feeds the membership ranks of the Independence party. Frank’s talk was wide ranging and covered many areas of interest, ballot access, the New York gubernatorial race, focusing on the conditions that need to line up in order for Steve Levy to run in the general election as a Republican candidate. Some of the aspects of election law in New York were covered, such as the necessity of a party to get 50,000 votes for its candidates to survive and maintain a line on the New York State ballot.
This fed into lessons in candidate endorsement techniques and timing by parties and a lot of “inside Baseball” talk about the current machinations around what the rest of the parties in New York are doing in the gubernatorial race. The possibility of Mike Bloomberg emerging as a Presidential candidate was discussed, along with the general conditions necessary for the party to field a Presidential candidate, Bloomberg or not.
It was again, a very-well spent morning learning about the mechanics of electoral politics from a well-versed speaker. This is the stuff that generates what you read in the newspapers and the people behind the scenes come to LIMBA and educate us on topics that genuinely affect our lives. LIMBA shows how to make a difference and introduces you to the folks that can generate momentum and effect change in our lives, in business, politics, and the environment. Get out of the house early on a Friday morning. Join us for breakfast and get educated.

Regional Plan of NY scheduled NO LIMBA MEETING
2010-04-16 00:00

LIMBA April 23 Yves Michel Suff County Economic Dev
2010-04-23 00:00
LIMBA Meeting Recap – Yves Michel, Commissioner, Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Workforce Housing – April 23, 2010
Commissioner Michel began with an offering of thanks for the opportunity to get community input. For the uninitiated, Yves listed all the various functions that come under his department in addition to the titled ones: The Inventors Club, the Aviation Department, and the Department of Film and Television production are just a few. The Film and TV production department is admittedly the most glamorous job in the portfolio. He recounted the story of the production of the movie Paper Man, opening today and starring Jeff Daniels. Filming generates direct revenue to the county from permitting and property rentals, but also indirect revenue by production spending. There was a run on ladders among Hauppauge hardware stores when Sean Penn was filming the forthcoming Fair Game at the Dennison building.
The Department works with state and town departments to accentuate the good aspects of Suffolk County, mitigate the bad to the extent that it can, and help people deal with the ugly. The main mission is to help foster “Suffolk-Grown Businesses”. In keeping with the premiere theme, the Commissioner announced the launching of the department’s new website, www.suffolkbetterforbusiness.com a virtual tour of the county for those considering locating firms here.
One of the major efforts of the department is to develop a county-wide unified permitting web portal, that will make it easy for developers to find the information they need in one place for all the levels of government that they have to deal with in a particular building location in the county. This effort is in its nascent stages and the commissioner is working hard to pull together the various groups necessary to make this work for all the towns and villages that make up the county.
The major theme of Yves’ talk was providing information about all the programs that business can take advantage of for financing, the coordination that his department provides for business to access programs at different government levels and the open door policy that his office has. He invited the audience to call in with questions at 631-853-4800, or submit them via email at ecodev@suffolkcountyny.gov
The general impression was given that in these tough times, the Commissioner and his staff are doing their best to make the most of scarce resources, help businesspeople access those resources, and be a strong marketing advocate for the county.
The Q&A was centered around using accessory apartments for workforce housing, and sewers.
The Commissioner expressed his support for fostering accessory apartments in each town, but emphasized the need for the towns to get on board with the concept so it could be county-wide.
Bob Bender brought up sewers being a chokepoint on development, and the commissioner concurred, describing the draft report on the county’s sewer situation. Mitch Pally gave kudos to the commissioner for helping to use the innovative concept of Sewer Credit Rentals in keeping an important development project on track while waiting for sewers to arrive at the project’s location.
A well spent Friday morning meeting one of our important county officials in a conversational setting, getting a good view of county government and the efforts it makes to foster business here. Join us at LIMBA and be a part of a well-informed electorate.

— Craig Plunkett

Roundtable
2010-04-30 00:00
On this date we had a last minute cancellation from our speaker, but managed to have a fruitful and interesting meeting in spite of that. In the rare instances where we encounter speaker issues, we hold a roundtable discussion on a topic of interest, usually related to one of LIMBA’s development goals. In this case we addressed the prospects for local implementation of magnetic levitation transport (MAGLEV). In light of the Long Island Rail Road’s impending purchase of lightweight self-propelled cars to preserve east end service, we kicked around where would be the best place to install a demonstration project that would provide real value.

The Port Authority is reviving the Cross Harbor Rail Float operation, and the Bay Ridge branch of the Long Island Rail Road could be used to move cars from the float bridge to the New York and Atlantic yard at Fresh Pond. Revamping the Greenport to Ronkonkoma line was also discussed. As a home grown technology, we discussed the prospects for domestic production of this high speed, high capacity infrastructure component as opposed to importing other countries’ high speed rail technology and materials.

We also went around the room and introduced our selves and our businesses. A couple notable folks and businesses were Ray Palumbo and Jaime Rodriguez from AT&T Advertising solutions. Who knew AT&T sold Search Engine Optimization? Peggy Sutherland gave us some insight on her business, Long Island Science, which is currently working on radiation exposure management solutions for Brookhaven National Labs. A fascinating topic very important to the workforce out there.
