Posted on 05/01/2009 6:18:36 AM PDT by St. Louis Conservative
ALBANY -- Gov. Paterson, who raised state taxes by $8 billion last month, just cost state taxpayers $300,000 more.
The state has secretly settled an embarrassing federal racial-discrimination lawsuit, The Post has learned. The suit accused Paterson, back when he was Senate minority leader in 2003, of firing a white Senate photographer in order to replace him with an African-American.
The lawsuit had been scheduled to go to trial in federal court Monday in Syracuse, with Paterson, the state's first black governor, as a key witness. The case was settled earlier in the week, although a few glitches delayed the final deal until yesterday, legislative sources said.
The settlement ends a civil-rights action first filed in 2005 by Joseph Maioriello, 56, of Schenectady, a 26-year Senate employee who originally sought $1.5 million.
He was fired from his $34,000-a-year job as a photographer two years earlier and replaced by a black employee, El-Wise Noisette. The shakeup happened after Paterson ousted then-Sen. Martin Connor (D-Brooklyn) as the minority leader.
Connor was expected to testify that Maioriello was a good photographer.
While neither Paterson nor the state admitted that Maioriello was a victim of racial discrimination, the size of the settlement means "that the state wouldn't have made out very well if it had gone to trial," said a source close to the lawsuit.
"If nothing wrong happened, why is the state paying out this kind of money?" the source asked.
Maioriello's lawyer, Anne-Jo Pennock McTague of Albany, told The Post that her client was "satisfied with the amount and the fact of a settlement."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The money comes not from Paterson but from the taxpayers.
It's not like Paterson has any shame or anything.
You severely misunderestimate the stupidity of a vast majority of voters in New York. These are people who are stupid enough to send 3 different non-residents to the US Senate, as well as continue voting for tax-and-spend liberals year after year after year.
My new FR screen name.
What Paterson allegedly did is horrible. That said, doesn’t the government routinely do, and coerce private companies into doing, more or less the same thing, and call if “affirmative action”.
Nobody cares. No big deal.
Just look at the flogging that NY taxers are already taking. A small settlement over a tempest in a teapot isn’t going to make them hate Mr. Paterson.
But, we’ll see, ay?
As a NY resident, normally I would agree with you. However, Paterson’s approval rating is in the teens and has been steadily dropping. He will not be re-elected.
That doesn’t mean we’ll get a Republican governor, though. Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo will probably win the Democrat nomination (I’m predicting Paterson won’t even run) and would probably beat any Republican, except Rudy Giuliani, who would give him a very, tough fight.
These charlatans are such healers and unifiers
So is Mr. “El-Wise Noisette” still doing the clicking in the Senate? What does that pay?
“That doesn’t mean we’ll get a Republican governor, though. Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo will probably win the Democrat nomination (I’m predicting Paterson won’t even run)”
Governor racist announced yesterday that he WOULD run. I predict the racist thing wont force him out. I am already hearing excuses and rationalizations from RAT supporters.
Frankly, I’m getting tired of seeing a lower case ‘whites’, followed by capitalized and hyphenated ‘African-Americans’.
If we are ‘white’ then they are ‘black’. If we are to get technical, Caucasians and Negroes.
“doesn’t the government routinely do, and coerce private companies into doing, more or less the same thing, and call if “affirmative action””
Yeah, but he loses a bunch of style points for being so blatant.
Colonel, USAFR
Does this do any real good, though?
Probably not but CHEERS to a man having the guts to take this on. We have been called racists for so long we find ourselves allowing this sort of treatment to go on without protest.
Out of the $300k he'll only see $200k (std lawyer fee of 1/3) and at his old pay of $34k a year, that's 5.88 years worth of pay. And since he's already been out of his job for four years (2005), he's getting a net of $63,920. BUT, basically he's getting negative money since he'll have to pay the high NY and and Fed taxes on the whole $200k. Then considering his age of 56 its not like jobs will be easy for him to get - even at his old pay of $34k per year.
So IMHO he should have held out for the $1.5 million. The money he'd have cleared -after Lawyer and taxes - would have let him make it to 65 - when he can get his S.S. retirement and medicare coverage. (that's sarcasm ;-)
I long ago stopped allowing stupid words to hurt me. I fight back, dirty.
Oh, I forgot...in New York a Democrat Party politician is something like a cow in India. They are considered Gods by New York's “sophisticated” electorate and it is considered a privilege to pay for their malfeasance.
I don’t think court settlements are taxed, but I could be wrong.
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