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http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/national-news/2008/January/03/Bruno-Spitzer-sniping-escalates-as-NY-racing-awaits-its-fate.aspx
Bruno, Spitzer sniping escalates as NY racing awaits its fate
by Paul Post

… Silver recently told the New York Daily News that Bruno only wants to talk about racing, while many other state problems need solving.

“The governor has expressed his willingness to sit down and govern,” he said. “The NYRA issue, basically, Senator Bruno has said that’s the only issue you can talk about. I’m sorry, there are other issues.”

… New York is losing huge sums of potential revenue to Canada and neighboring states, such as Connecticut and New Jersey that have full-blown casinos. Also, Pennsylvania has 62,000 slot machines “while we‘ve been fiddling for the past four years,” Bruno said.

… Silver has remained firm in his belief that gaming should be limited to Aqueduct alone. Staff members have declined to explain his reasoning.

“The governor agrees with us,” Bruno said about Belmont gaming. “Where is the speaker living?”

… Bruno also wants the next franchise to include community advisory boards that would provide input and oversight for the way each track is run.

… Bruno said Silver is opposed to community oversight.

… Bruno, however, says that plan [MOU] does not give horsemen a fair share of revenues and he has called for the resignation of the current NYRA board, which he said has been plagued by “mediocrity and failure.“

He said new people are needed to bring fresh ideas and input to the association, but he said top executive positions are an internal matter that should be decided by NYRA itself. …

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/silver-wont-quit-his-second-job/
Silver Won’t Quit His Second Job
By Danny Hakim

… “To my knowledge, I’m not under investigation as a result of my second job,” Mr. Silver said, referring to the fact that Mr. Bruno is facing a federal inquiry into his outside business interests. “I didn’t think I needed to make that statement, so I’m currently contemplating continuing to live within the law, making disclosures that are required by the law, and do that.”

… Last month, Mr. Bruno left his longtime post at a Connecticut investment company, Wright Investors’ Service, after a report in The New York Times detailed the company’s handling of tens of millions of pension fund dollars for more than half a dozen union locals in and around the senator’s district. Neither Mr. Bruno nor the company has ever said what he did beyond “business development.”

... “Let me very clearly state that nobody ever raised any serious questions about the kind of work that I do, it’s on my ethics form, and as far as certain principles that I might believe in, whether I give up a second job or not is not going to change my core beliefs in terms of who should be responsible to causing damages and injury to individual people.”

… He made his comments after a press conference to unveil a new Assembly plan to aid homeowners facing default. Among other things during a question-and-answer session, he reiterated his opposition to putting video gambling machines at Belmont, a sticking point in torturous negotiations over the future of the state’s three thoroughbred racing tracks — Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga.

… Asked about Mr. Bruno’s recent statements that the speaker has become overly beholden to the governor, Mr. Silver said: “The first principle we learned in law school was that if you’re wrong on the facts and you’re wrong on the law, dazzle ‘em with your baloney. I don’t know how far the senator went in law school, but he has that principle down.”