30 The Queens Courier • FEBRUARY 13, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com GREAT EXPECTATIONS Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered his very first “State of the City” address on Monday in the auditorium of LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, under a banner which read “One New York, rising together,” and mentioning “all five boroughs” no less than three times in his 43-minute discourse. In that time, he went on to raise expectations for everyone except diehard cynics who will be making line by line comparisons between the speech – always a mayoral wish list more than a plan – and his budget. The mayoral budget marks the traditional start of another Gotham festivity, the Budget Tango, where Hizzoner and the Council take turns dragging each other across the fiscal floor until the music stops on June 30 – the last day of the city’s fiscal year. De Blasio reprised his demand for fullday pre-K and “quality extended learning programs” for every middle school student, paid for by a city-controlled tax on those “making” more than $500,000 a year. Hizzoner further put Albany on notice that he wants the city to set its own minimum wage and issue its own ID cards to anyone who happens to be here. He also promised to extend paid sick leave to hundreds of thousands who work for businesses with as few as five employees, immediately. He promised to shift money from “corporate subsidies” to tuition assistance and to create an “Entrepreneurship Fund” and a “Fashion Manufacturing Fund,” although entrepreneurs and fashionistas do have a habit of incorporating. Sour notes abound in the form of those pesky details, like the 150 expired labor contracts the city has to renegotiate with 300,000 employees. After all, the biggest single expense in Big Bill’s big educational plan is the compensation package for those who will be tending kids, whose numbers nearly equal the population of Wyoming. Until we know that cost, there’s no way of calculating whether Bill can pay the bill. Small business owners also have to wonder what these plans portend, especially business owners on the far side of Queens – like those in Little Neck competing with Great Neck outfits, or those in the Queens section of Floral Park, competing with Floral Park shops in Nassau. Meanwhile up in Albany, where a “home rule” message would have to be POLITICS FROMHERE by VICTOR G. MIMONI [email protected] approved before the city can enact the proposed tax, State Senate co-Majority Leader Dean Skelos made it clear that nobody should hold their breath. It seems there are about 160 such requests ahead of ours in the pipeline, and no amount of Draino is going to convince him to back the city tax. Skelos insists that, unlike a request from some deep-in-the woods hamlet in the North Country, penny-pinching plutocrats would flee the state if this tax passes. This isn’t sitting well with Skelos’ counterpart, Jeff Klein of the Independent Democratic Caucus, who promises that he will put the brakes on the entire state budget, unless Bill’s Pre-K package (and presumably the tax) is included. After boasting about how we’ve been cranking out on-time budgets lately, one can only assume that Governor Cuomo is less than happy with the solons of the senate. In other developments, Grace Meng, the only member of Congress exclusively representing our borough, is establishing her bona fides as a veteran member of the House by starting her very own Political Action Committee, with the Twitter-ready name “@theTable.” Meng, busily fundraising halfway across the country to collect IOUs from candidates who could be colleagues come next January, also has to keep an eye on another Flushing favorite, John Liu. Liu, whose schedule and press operation has barely dropped off since he left office, is rumored to be considering a primary challenge to his erstwhile colleague… one wonders, would this be considered a dis-Grace? Having such a “progressive” as de Blasio under a banner channeling the Reaganesque notion that “a rising tide lifts all boats” struck me as odd. I do hope some beneficiary of the proposed Fashion Fund will tell Hizzoner to never wear that tie with a brown suit again. Family of slain National Guardsman settles suit BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] The family of slain National Guardsman Noel Polanco has reached a $2.5 million settlement in their wrongful death lawsuit against the city. “While the family of Noel Polanco does not believe justice was done on the criminal side of our legal system, certainly there was a measure of justice from the civil side with the settlement of damages for wrongful death,” said Sanford Rubenstein, the Polanco family’s lawyer. The 22-year-old Army Reserve member was fatally shot by NYPD police officer Hassan Hamdy during a traffic stop on the Grand Central Parkway in October 2012. Polanco was pulled over when he was seen driving erratically in his car, weaving between lanes and speeding on the highway before allegedly cutting off an unmarked police vehicle. Hamdy allegedly fired the single shot that killed Polanco when he told him to put his hands on the steering wheel and Polanco reached under the seat. Last February, a Queens grand jury concluded that there would be no criminal charges filed in connection to the death of Polanco. By the end of the month, Polanco’s mother, Cecilia Reyes, announced a $20 million notice of claim to file a lawsuit against the city, NYPD and the officer who shot her son. HEATING SUPER DISCOUNT OIL Premium #2 Fuel • Full Service • PROMPT DELIVERY • TUNE UP & EFFICIENCY TESTS C.O.D. $10 OFF with this ad 718 647-1271 WE WILL BEAT ANY CURRENTLY ADVERTISED PRICE Absolute Lowest Prices EMAIL: GOTOILNYC.COM
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