Ceretto’s Switch to Dems in Assembly Seems to Not Prompt Largess

When Democrat-turned-Republican Assemblyman John D. Ceretto left the Republican party seven weeks ago, and became a born-again Democrat, the local leadership of his once again new party cast the move as good news for residents of his district, which stretches from Lewiston to Grand Island, and east across Wheatfield and parts of North Tonawanda.

No one announced this news with more unabashed delight than Niagara County Democratic Chairman Nick Forster: “With the help of the speaker, with the help of the majority leader, they’re able to come up with resources John wouldn’t be able to provide or have at his disposal in the minority – that's the difference.”

However, it would seem that particular promise has yet to manifest itself.

The Niagara Falls Reporter was directed, on Monday, to a document on the New York State Assembly’s website indicating all the pending allocations of funding from the New York State Dormitory Authority’s State and Municipal Facilities Program. For the uninitiated, the Dormitory Authority is, in its own words, “New York State’s facilities finance and construction authority. [The Authority] issues tax-exempt bonds and provides expert construction-related services for public agencies and private not-for-profit institutions.”

For those who can read between the lines, the Dormitory Authority is essentially New York State’s slush fund. It is where many of the “public works” projects that politicians like to trot out around election time originate.

The Reporter decided to check up on how Niagara and Erie counties stacked up in the Assembly allocations, all still marked “Final Approval Pending.” (see http://assembly.state.ny.us/statemunicipal/statemuni.pdf)  With many minority Republicans representing those communities, it would seem, at least by Forster’s logic, many Western New York communities should have been getting the short end of the stick.

The City of Lockport scored $100,000 for a “Bergkamp SP5 pothole spray patching truck” courtesy of a member request by Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, R-Clarence. We’re not quite sure how one of these trucks works, but it sounds like something that Niagara Falls could benefit from.

It’s worth noting that, for Corwin, at least, sitting in the GOP minority doesn’t seem to be a hindrance.

The same seems to have been true of Assemblyman Ray Walter, R-Amherst, the Republican candidate for Erie County Executive.

The Town of Amherst scored $100,000 for a new playground—courtesy of a request by Walter (who, as the GOP candidate against a prominent Democrat county executive, Mark Poloncarz, would have seemed a likely candidate for retribution).

Still, it seems a reasonable explanation that, with several years in the Assembly under both of their belts, Corwin and Walter no doubt benefited from the perks of seniority.

Of course, that explanation only held out until one came upon the $100,000 appropriation for freshman Assemblywoman Angela Wozniak, R-Cheektowaga. Wozniak secured the funding to purchase a 1984 Pierce pumper truck for a fire department in her district.

None of these appropriations even begin to touch the massive infusion of cash that Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, managed to bring to her district.

But, neither did they touch Assemblyman John Ceretto’s figure, which was an astonishing $0.

Zero dollars.

Now all this may change and perhaps Ceretto will come in for some last minute pork.

But for the moment, this zero figure next to the man who left their party, has left county Republicans, still stung by Ceretto’s political betrayal, sealed by a very literal and very public kiss with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, bemused.

Ceretto did not immediately return a call for comment.