Introducing The Point

This is the first edition of The Point newsletter that was sent out on Sept. 30, 2015. 

Welcome to The Point!

Good afternoon.

The Newsday Editorial Board invites you to take a seat at our table. Our newsletter delivering an insider take on politics and policy in New York will arrive each afternoon, Monday through Friday.

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-- Rita Ciolli, Editor of the Editorial Pages

The Talking Point

Talking politics with one of Albany's three men in the room 

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie met with the Newsday Editorial Board Tuesday. Heastie is letting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo know he doesn't want to see so many policy issues stuffed into the governor's budget, a powerful tool to push through new laws. Heastie said he has privately told Cuomo, "I hope you don't load up next year's budget with a lot of stuff we should be doing legislatively."

This tactic "puts a gun to legislators' heads," Heastie said, because the choice becomes either to pass a budget extender or to shut down government. The biggest political blowup of Cuomo's tenure as governor -- evaluating public school teachers -- could have been avoided, Heastie said. "Teacher evaluations would have been better if I hadn't had a gun to my head."

The Assembly speaker also said:

• Cuomo's new NY Education Reform Commission probably won't decouple student test scores from teacher evaluations.
   
• Ninety percent of persistently underperforming schools are in economically struggling districts. "They didn't all hit the lottery on bad teachers," he said. The speaker wants to look at education, health and poverty together to find a solution. "The governor is beginning to understand that," he said.
   
• The MTA five-year capital plan should be fully funded, and NYC has to pay its share, but he wouldn't break down who has to give what. Heastie wouldn't rule out a new tax and said he expects bonding the capital plan to be considered as well. (Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan was a lot clearer Wednesday morning when he backed up Cuomo's demand that NYC pay more.)
   
• Homelessness in NYC is going to be "front and center" in the next legislative session, and Heastie expects Mayor Bill de Blasio to request more state money, more than the $1 billion funded. But the speaker wants to see more delivered in terms of better-quality shelters and social services.

-- Anne Michaud

Pencil Point

The Planned Parenthood hearings

Reference Point

What a difference 17 years makes

Al D'Amato likes a winner; being associated with winners is good for consultants. But D'Amato, as transactional a politician who ever has lived, set a new bar this week when he got to the front of the line to endorse Sen. Chuck Schumer for re-election. It's 14 months before Schumer will be on the ballot and Republicans haven't found anyone serious to run against the incumbent. Schumer won re-election in 2004 and 2010 with 71 percent and 66 percent of the vote. And it looks like he'll be Senate minority leader come 2017 -- or majority leader if the national election goes well for Democrats.

So D'Amato's got nothing to lose to by standing with the man he lost to in 1998. It's just business.

-- Michael Dobie

Bonus Point

A rare Powerball drawing tonight -- the odds are only getting worse

Not only is the jackpot for tonight's Powerball drawing projected to be a life-changing $301 million, but it's also one of the last chances players will have to cash the big jackpot at the relatively easy odds of 175,223,509 to 1. Starting Oct. 4, when the rules change to make it harder to match all six numbers, the odds zoom to 292,201,337 to 1, because the contest will increase the range of numbers available on tickets.

The odds are better that Hurricane Joaquin, now making its way up the East Coast will hit land as a Category 3 storm.

-- Lane Filler