Roslyn, NY May 18, 2011

Brad Gerstman, a lawyer, co-founder of Gotham Government Relations, radio talk show host, potential political candidate and head of Gerstman for the People is sad to announce that the Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, are playing politics with the safety of the citizens of the New York Metropolitan area. The Republicans are seeking cuts to security spending all in an attempt to find additional spending cuts.

“I believe that if the proposed cuts in security funding by the Republican controlled House of Representatives were to be enacted it would cause the New York Metropolitan area to have to cut back on security measures, this would have a negative impact on all New Yorkers because New York is seen as the face of America to the world and candidly because of our large vibrant Jewish population and our many cultural and religious institutions and centers including our synagogues.

Just last week on May 11, 2011, the New York City Police Department stopped an attempted plot to launch terrorist attacks on synagogues throughout New York City. New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly last week while discussing one of the men involved in the terrorist plot said that the man “was motivated to a great extent by a pathological hatred of the Jewish people.”

It is clear to me that since New York City and its suburbs have the greatest density of those practicing the Jewish faith outside of Israel, this area is and will continue to be at high risk of a terrorist attack. Any cuts to security spending will further increase the likelihood of a successful terrorist attack here in New York.

I think it is more than appropriate to remind all the Republicans in the House of Representatives not to play politics with the safety of New Yorkers. I would think that Congressman Eric Cantor, who holds an important leadership position in the Republican controlled House, would fully appreciate that those of Jewish descent are too often the target of terrorist attacks and that as such this is not a subject for bean counting or partisan gamesmanship. Ultimately Republicans must remember that “just because Osama Bin Laden has been killed, it doesn’t mean terrorism will cease to exist.”

Source: Brad Gerstman of Gerstman for the People

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY UNCOVERED: SPENDING A BILLION DOLLARS ON OVERHEAD, SALARIES, & MANAGEMENT, DESTROYING SMALL BUSINESSES AND SPENDING PENNIES ON CANCER PREVENTION!

By David M. Schwartz, Esq.

Let me make this perfectly clear. I’m a Government Relations lawyer who represents small businesses throughout the State of New York and beyond. I want to address the government assault, led by its partner in crime, the American Cancer Society (ACS), against the people I represent in this state: SMALL TOBACCO. That’s right, we hear all about big tobacco, but some of the most wonderful, century-old companies, including retail tobacconists and small family distribution companies, are under attack and are on life support because of a policy to tax these companies and the tobacco products they sell into oblivion. These small businesses are an important part of our towns, villages and cities all across New York, employ thousands of people, and are responsible for substantial tax revenues.

Although New York State has seen a small decline in the number of smokers, the brick and mortar retail stores have lost more than half of their revenue because of the intense lobbying of the ACS, which has driven the majority of tobacco sales to illegal, untaxed sources. Indian Reservations, other cheaper taxed states, other illegal Internet sources and street dealers are making millions and not paying a dime of taxes. New York State is losing over TWO BILLION DOLLARS per year due to illegal, untaxed tobacco products coming into the state; this includes the loss of taxing 40 million cartons of cigarettes which, alone, account for a loss to New York of over one billion dollars per year.

Two budget items proposed by the Governor are a new one dollar cigarette tax per carton and a new 90% tax (OTP tax) on cigars and other tobacco products. Both of these taxes are revenue negative and will not bring a dime of new revenue to New York. The new OTP tax will put 300 fine tobacco shops throughout New York out of business overnight. What a shame to shut these businesses and to take away a leisure activity enjoyed by so many. The new dollar tax on cigarettes will create an even more lucrative underground market and will further destroy New York’s economy. For more information on the disastrous effects of these government policies, please log on to www.nyupinsmoke.org and www.gothamgr.com.

High taxes make bootleggers rich. The ACS and illegal tobacco shops are flying high.

ACS has been part and parcel of the destruction of wonderful small businesses, including the shutting down of thousands of bodegas over the past decade. The industry, both small shops and big tobacco, have kowtowed to this organization over the past three decades because they didn’t want an even greater enemy. I sit at my desk and wonder why this organization gets a pass. It seems like their only success is to lobby for higher tobacco taxes which have put our wonderful New York businesses out of business and have led to an illegal cigarette and cigar market that is making the criminals very rich and honest hardworking New Yorkers very poor and out of business. After analyzing the situation further, an abhorrent consistency emerges: it seems like the executives at ACS have gotten very rich off of sick cancer patients, the same way they have made criminals and terrorists very rich off of illegal tobacco distribution in this state.

The gloves are off ACS. You’ve already destroyed a once viable industry in this state and now it’s time to look at what the American Cancer Society does with the ONE BILLION DOLLARS you spend every year of money that is given to you by very hard working people, including my clients. People of New York and People of the United States of America think that you spend this money on the curing, treatment and prevention of cancer, when in reality these contributions fund high overhead, excessive salaries, high expenses, excessive reserves of assets and contributions to political parties. People should understand that through our contributions to what we thought was curing and preventing cancer, we have created the world’s wealthiest “nonprofit” institution.

I want to point out some of the more nauseating facts about this billion dollar organization that should make everyone’s blood boil – especially those whom have somehow been touched by this insidious disease called cancer. The American Cancer Society in a nutshell:

• For every $1 spent on direct service, $6.40 is spent on compensation and overhead
• Only 16% or less of all money raised is spent on direct services to cancer victims
• Based on 2008 financial documents, the CEO, Donald Thomas, earned through compensation and benefits, $1,054,507
• ACS’ Deputy Chief Executive Officer also earned $1,057,507 through compensation and benefits

- The excessive salaries at the expense of cancer victims at the American Cancer Society do not stop there. Other wonderful salary expenditures include: $610,927 for the CEO of the South Atlantic Division of ACS; $573,589 for the CEO of the California Division of ACS; $561,140 for the CEO of the Great West Division of ACS; $535,494 for the CEO of the High Plains Division of ACS; $511,107 for the Deputy Chief Operating Officer of ACS; $456,691 for the Chief Operating Officer for the Mid South Division of ACS; $334,472 for the Interim Chief Mission Officer of ACS; $304,293 for the Chief Financial Officer of ACS; $565,397 for the Chief Operating Officer of ACS; $552,213 for the CEO of the Great West Division; $522,090 for the CEO of the South Atlantic Division of ACS; $425,151 for the National Vice President of Division Services of ACS; $381,588 for another National Vice President of Division Services of ACS; $365,295 for the President of the American Cancer Society Foundation and $333,157 for the National Vice President of Research for ACS

- The above list barely scratches the surface of a clear mission to pad the pockets of this organization’s management and other “friends” rather than treatment and prevention of cancer. In fact, a more detailed analysis of how the American Cancer Society spends the revenue it gets from hard working citizens of our state and country is as follows:

• • ACS spends over 400 MILLION DOLLARS ON SALARIES per year
• • ACS spends over 88 MILLION DOLLARS ON EMPLOYEE BENEFITS per year
• • ACS spends over 60 MILLION DOLLARS ON PROFESSIONAL FEES per year
• • ACS spends over 17 MILLION DOLLARS ON TELEPHONE CALLS per year
• • ACS spends over 45 MILLION DOLLARS ON RENTING OFFICE SPACE per year
• • ACS spends over 19 MILLION DOLLARS ON MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES per year
• • ACS spends over 29 MILLION DOLLARS ON TRAVEL EXPENSES per year
• • ACS spends over 14 MILLION DOLLARS ON “MISCELLANEOUS” EXPENSES per year, whatever that means…

The American Cancer Society with all their salaries and expenses has done a wonderful job putting the little guy out of business. Instead of spending the money on people in need, ACS at the present time has over ONE BILLION DOLLARS in net assets including cash in the bank and land holdings. ACS with all its revenue and holdings is one of the most successful businesses in the country, while the hospitals that provide direct care to patients are closing their doors and fighting to stay open to serve the community. A 1992 article in the Wall Street Journal written by Thomas Dilorenzo, professor of economics at Loyola College and veteran investigator of nonprofit organizations, revealed that the Texas affiliate of ACS owned more than 11 MILLION DOLLARS worth of assets in land and real estate and owned more than 56 vehicles assigned to staff members. Arizona’s ACS chapter spent less than 10 PERCENT of its funds on direct cancer services. In California, the figure was 11 percent and under 9 percent in Missouri.

Can anyone tell me what the correlation is between the spending of ACS and the curing, prevention and treatment of cancer? The bottom line  – the expenditures of this organization stated above have nothing to do with curing cancer and this alone should shock the conscience of all citizens. As bad as the above spending is, it gets even worse. The money that does get spent on direct programs, as opposed to administration, is filled with conflicts of interest. The first conflict of interest is the relationship between ACS and the mammography industry. The mammography industry contributes millions of dollars to ACS and in return ACS takes care of the interests of the manufacturers of mammogram machines and film including Siemens, General Electric, Eastman Kodak and Piker. If every woman were to follow the ACS’ guidelines regarding mammography, it would lead to a windfall of over 5 billion dollars to the healthcare industry. Other conflicts of interest include the defense of the pesticide industry ACS stands by that industry and defends that industry and insists that there is no correlation between pesticides and cancer. Why? Because the pesticide chemical industry donates millions of dollars to ACS. The other noticeable conflict of interest is the relationship between ACS and the cancer drug industry. ACS has turned its back on innovative cancer therapies and, instead, pushes, as hard as it can, the cancer drugs manufactured by the very same companies that ACS is in bed with and from whom the ACS receives millions of dollars of funding. ACS has also shown that it will destroy the reputations of doctors whom try to recommend alternative treatments as opposed to the drugs made by ACS’ preferred manufacturers.

In conclusion, the American Cancer Society is a complete failure in the fight against cancer and it serves as a place for many to become rich at the patients’ expense. It is now trying to destroy the New York State economy by putting so many retail shops out of business; this is just not acceptable coming from an organization that diverts hundreds of millions of dollars away from where it is supposed to be spent.

There are many other places to donate money and many other ways to get the dollars in the hands of people who are on the front lines in developing cures, treatments and prevention of cancer. As Dr. Samuel Epstein, former Chair of the Congressional Committee on Cancer, has stated, “ACS is more concerned with accumulating wealth than saving lives.” The unmitigated gall of this organization! Our government needs to stop taking advice from ACS and start creating policies that will invigorate small businesses to be able to thrive in New York in the 21st century. People should boycott this organization and give their money to places that will assist in the fight against cancer and opposed to making ACS even richer than it already is.

If anyone from ACS has a problem with this article, then come out and let’s debate the issues, any time, any place.

For more information on how tobacco taxes are killing small business and making criminals rich, visit New York  Up In Smoke.

Also check out Gotham’s efforts on behalf of New York’s small business owners.

What’s your take? We would like to know. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

We don’t need to review what bullying is, what causes it, or go through the recent horrors resulting from the actions of bullies. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are hearing about the suicides and depression caused by bullying. As a society we need to start discussing how to handle this epidemic.

I have a few concepts that should be considered to begin attacking the problem with the same zeal that bullies attack their victims. To begin with, we need to put pressure on all sides of the equation, the bully, the bully’s family, and the schools. By putting together a no-nonsense approach we can knock out our neighborhood bullies.

First, I would begin with the schools themselves. I would enact legislation that holds schools liable if they know, or should have known, of bullying that is taking place in the school, off premises, or on the internet. School officials know exactly what’s going on and should be pressured to act quickly and decisively otherwise face potential liability. Putting their collective heads in the sand won’t stop this problem. This law would force schools to be wildly proactive in finding who is causing the problems.

Second, the PTA should take out a page in the local newspaper and name those kids who are known bullies. A fund should be put together to buy the space and to fend off lawsuits by naïve parents. Let’s embarrass the kids and their families by letting the world know that their kid is hurting others and their parents are nowhere to be found in the equation. Once parents find out that their names will be listed, they will be all over their kid to be sure they aren’t the problem.

Next, the Attorney General, or a division of the AG’s office, should be dedicated to bullying. Parents of bullies should be sued by the AG’s office and the cause of action should be negligent oversight. Once parents find out they can be sued for money damages, not by the bullied family, but by the AG’s office, you will see how quickly parents will educate their kids on the dangers of bullying.

Lastly, the local prosecutors’ offices should be seeking to criminally prosecute the bullies in juvenile courts or adult courts (depending on the age of the offender). The act of bullying, whether physically or on-line, should be treated as a crime and cannot be overlooked. It has been overlooked to date and we have now seen the fatal consequences of such inaction.

We must decide whether we will be treating this problem seriously or just want to pass weak and meaningless legislation that makes us feel like we’ve actually done something to address the problem. I suggest we take real decisive steps to stop this now and forever.

How can any sports athlete at Hofstra University feel safe considering the decision by the University to terminate their successful football program in order to provide more educational scholarships? A football program at most universities has its ups and downs, unfortunately losing money at times, and this applies to all athletic programs at a university. However, Hofstra took a drastic approach by terminating its football program where other universities would have found a way to restructure and renew the program, especially a football program where scholarships are involved. If the administration continues with the same logic that the money is better spent for nonathletic scholarships, what Hofstra athlete now or in the future can feel secure in its decision to play for the University?

It is clear that Hofstra president Stuart Rabinowitz doesn’t see the benefits of athletics in terms of its tremendous intrinsic value to a university. All Ivy League Universities and other top schools in the country understand the value of athletic programs to their schools. In fact, from 1937 until recently Hofstra use to understand this value as well. That being the case, how can a wrestling or field hockey recruit from high school roll the dice on Hofstra after it has cut it’s strongest and most highly publicized program without any notice?

A high school recruit need only look at how these football players were treated when the news of the termination was disseminated. The school never even notified the parents of the student athletes. They never provided social guidance or advisory services for the students affected after the news was released. The bad news was provided in a cold statement by the athletic director and then he simply walked out of the room to let the kids fend for themselves.

If I was an 18 year old outstanding baseball player considering coming to Hofstra University to play, I would immediately scratch the school off my list. Why take the risk?

Brad Gerstman is a partner at Gotham Government Relations.

More:

Radio: Brad Talks to WFAN Radio about what Hofstra football means to the school, Long Island and student athletics nationwide.

Video: Hofstra Alumni speak out on the end of football

What do you think? Take our poll…

You can learn more and get involved at SaveHofstraFootball.Org

By David Schwartz

New York City, which represents almost half of the people in the State of New York, has one basic government, controlled by the Mayor, the City Council and the various offices under the Executive. The rest of New York State has almost 50,000 separate and distinct governments. It has been identified that New York has approximately 10,521 separate governments that overlap. In order for this state to survive and thrive into the 21st century, we must have massive reform and stand up to the special interests and eliminate these overlapping governments and services. Some of these separate governments were put in place over a century ago, before there were roads, highways and the birth of technology that shapes the way we live today. We need a 21st century government that works for the people because our citizens are being destroyed by property taxes and other taxes in this state and the results of the last election show that the people are not going to accept this situation anymore. Many of our citizens are taxed separately for county taxes, town taxes, village taxes, school district taxes, water district taxes and the list goes on and on. The essential services that are delivered to the residents must continue under centralized county governments. There will be massive opposition from the people benefitting from some of these plumb appointments and elected offices. These employees must be reassigned in the process of reform. Furthermore, it is impossible for new businesses to come to New York under the current set of conditions. This reform is a piece of the puzzle in order to get our State spending under control. We can save billions of dollars by taking bold action and in doing so, allowing us to compete in the global economy and bring real growth back to New York State.

David Schwartz is a partner at Gotham Government Relations

By David Schwartz

The old adage could not be more accurate when it comes to modern political polling, “garbage in, garbage out.” The recent elections have proven, once and for all, that the polling organizations in use by candidates, organizations and the media have lost their way in accurately predicting elections. It’s almost comical when they qualify their poll with a margin of error of 3%. How about a margin of error of 10 to 20%. In all fairness, we have seen a great deal of polling inaccuracies dating back to 1948, when every poll had Dewey beating Truman by 15 points. Even back then, the polls forgot about all of the rural voters who did not have phones and could not participate in the polls. In 1980, the polls showed President Carter in a battle with Ronald Reagan that was too close to call. President Reagan ended up winning by a comfortable ten points and the electoral college vote was a landslide victory. More recently, every poll showed President Obama beating Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Primary by 8 points; Clinton took that primary by 3 points. Now we have the newest set of local inaccuracies in the New York races for Nassau and Westchester County Executive, NYC Mayor, 23rd congressional race; the polls were all wrong. We hear it must have been “voter revolt,” but why did the polls not identify the potential voter revolt?

What is the problem with modern day polling? Very simple, polling is an art and not a science. Unfortunately, the garbage in, garbage out theory is very much in effect in modern day polling. The key problems are that polls are being done over the internet and over the phone. The intake process has no personal contact with the voters. How can pollsters possibly gauge what voters are thinking when they only poll people over landlines? Up to 7% of voters only have a cell phone and they tend to be the younger voters. The more important problem of current polling is that pollsters do not walk the neighborhoods and actually talk to the people and hear about their problems and concerns with the government. The pollsters feel it’s not cost effective. A poll does not have a chance of being accurate without having trained professionals figuring out the true feelings of the voters about various issues and how they really feel about candidates. The only way to achieve this is through a mixture of personal, on the ground polling and at the same time, conducting in depth focus groups conducted by trained lawyers and psychologists in order to get the most accurate answers possible.

At Gotham Government Relations, we are not a polling company, but we provide real grass roots political intelligence. We fix the problems of the polling industry by providing our clients with real on the ground intelligence about how the voters are actually feeling. Our goal is to demonstrate the value of good old fashioned, roll up your sleeves, grass roots campaigns to find out what is really on the minds of the voters and who they really plan on pulling the lever for next November. We will be on a campaign to provide candidates, the media and organizations, with the most accurate data on key issues and races. We will provide in depth analysis provided by trained professionals including lawyers, psychologists and statistical experts. We will be in your community very soon, conducting a listening campaign to get the real answers. We will put the brains back into campaign intelligence, whereby polling is just a piece of a much larger puzzle.

David Schwartz is a partner at Gotham Government Relations

By Brad Gerstman

Our US Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced that terrorist prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be tried in the Southern District of New York. The trials will be around the corner from Ground Zero, which is very symbolic in many ways.

That being said, I have two questions to ask. The first is why hold the trial in NYC? My second question, is why are these Guantanamo Bay detainees being tried in Federal District Court instead of Military Tribunals?

Taking a step back for a moment and looking at the general state of New York, one would come to the conclusion that holding these trials in NYC may not be the best idea. We have a floundering economy, New York City and the Federal Government have budget problems and NYC is the biggest American target for future terrorist attacks. Despite these facts, the Obama administration thinks that New York is the best forum for these trials. However, one must wonder whether the Obama administration thought about the cost to New York for the additional security that will be required to have the trials here? Not only will there be security issues but think about the traffic and disruption this will cause in the lives of NYC citizens who are simply trying to live their day to day lives and take care of their families. New Yorkers who live and work near where terrorists will be held and tried face additional risks of an attack. Think about the fear each of us New Yorkers felt going over our bridges, riding our subways and trains after September 11th. Does the Obama administration appreciate the fact that those fears will resurface as a result of holding these trials in New York?

If the abovementioned doesn’t make logical sense as to why we shouldn’t have the trials in New York, let’s look at it from a legal standpoint. These Guantanamo Bay detainees, these terrorist, are true enemy combatants and therefore are subject to military tribunal trials. Those who commit war crimes are arrested in environments that are very different from everyday domestic crimes. Since this is the case, rules of evidence in these military tribunals aren’t the same as in our Federal District Courts. Moreover, the rules of discovery in the Federal Courts will likely cause many dilemmas in terms of military secrets and classified information, which again puts American lives at risk. Which begs the question, why place a square peg in a round hole? This situation doesn’t make sense from a legal standpoint and I don’t understand how it makes sense to the Obama administration from any standpoint.

Those who would argue that holding the trials in New York is appropriate because all Americans are tried in the same manner, with a judge and jury, wouldn’t be completely wrong. However, even though this may appear to be the most honest and fair-minded approach, these are crimes that were committed during war. We are offering far too many protection to terrorists that are trying to kill us and our very way of life that offers such protections. To make matters worse, we are doing it in our backyard. The questions is, why us?

Brad Gerstman is a partner at Gotham Government Relations

By Brad Gerstman

As everyone is aware, the people of New York are facing a year end deficit of over 3 billion and a double digit BILLION dollar structural deficit in the next budget year.

Of course our economy is the major source of pain. Tax revenues have been thin and nobody expects a significant turnaround for quite a while.

There is no question that State spending has to be curtailed extensively. Our government spending cannot be sustained which is why the Legislature and Governor have proposed a number of ideas, good and not so good, of areas to make cuts. A number of these areas include very emotional and lightning rod issues, such as education, health care, police, individuals with disabilities and the like.

The people of New York State must brace themselves to face such drastic measures. However, there is a way to avoid the drastic cuts that the Governor and Legislature are discussing. There is a way to increase New York State’s revenue substantially which will reduce the needed cuts that will impact us all.

The State is losing nearly 2 billion dollars a year in tax revenue due to ILLEGAL sales of untaxed cigarettes from the Native American reservations to the general public. These ILLEGAL sales have been putting stores that sell legally and fully taxed cigarettes out of business. These ILLEGAL sales occur via the internet and bootleggers in the black market.

Why are we not pulling together to compel our Governor to enforce the law? It is well settled law that these sales from the Reservations are in fact ILLEGAL. Why do we permit ILLEGAL activities by one group and enforce laws against everyone else? I will tell you the reason is because the Native Americans have openly declared war on NY State if we enforce the law against their ILLEGAL activity. Do we back off drug dealers because they are dangerous? Why would we back off Native Americans that threaten us and force our elected officials to make cuts to many necessary services in our State, some of which the Native Americans benefit from as well.

Let’s collect the nearly 2 billion dollars in tax revenue that we desperately need to avoid the draconian cuts that will be coming down the pike.

Brad Gerstman is a partner at Gotham Government Relations

Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago? We all the know the answer and the people spoke with their votes Nov 3rd. Job losses, government cutbacks, government borrowing, no real changes, same partisan fighting…..and the the voters are fed up.

If you look at elections in VA, NJ, Westchester, Upstate NY, NYC, and Nassau County, you will see that people wanted a change. This time change means they want a different party and different person than the one that is currently in the position.

Having had the opportunity to work as an election commentator on RNN, I heard callers explaining the reasons why they voted for the opponent. None could say why they liked the opponent but all were clear in their distaste for the incumbent.

This was a tough election to be an incumbent. Instead of the high re-election rate most enjoy in local elections, the incumbency meant living with a target on their backs. Incumbents were blamed for the horrific economic conditions that exist today.

We can’t look back now but we can look forward to the election in 2010 where so many NYS elected officials and other federal officials will face these angry voters. The question will be whether the anger will continue to will it subside?

By Brad Gerstman

The focus of many Americans is on whether President Obama will add the 40,000 additional American troops requested by the U.S. Military Commanders on the ground or will he resist the pressure to extend the war.

Some argue that “the surge” in Iraq is positive proof that a dramatic increase in troops can turn this war quickly. However, the American people need more information about the current status of the war before we can formulate an educated opinion as to what the right direction will be for our troops and our Country.

In Iraq, the strategy went beyond adding troops. It included forging various alliances with different warring factions, joining forces with Iraqi security troops and spending money to create more alliances on the ground. It was because of this strategy and the increasing of our troop commitment that led to the turnaround in the war.

Something to note is that Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, is roughly the size of Texas and has such unforgivable terrain that many divisions of Soviet forces have been devoured by it. The American public should be educated on the strategy and ultimate goal for Afghanistan in order to better understand a decision by President Obama to send or not to send more troops. It is my opinion, that this critical information should be shared with us, the American people, before we should jump to any conclusions on how many troops to commit, if any at all. Let us remember that 40,000 troops is a drop in the bucket considering the size of Afghanistan.

Brad Gerstman is a partner at Gotham Government Relations