Covering the politics, policies and people of New York State government.
The Cities Committee in the state Senate passed legislation Apr. 27 that would halt collection of the Commercial Rent Tax from small businesses that pay less than $1 million in rent per year during the pandemic while providing additional relief. The CRT is only charged to commercial tenants in Manhattan […]
True or False T or F: Speaker Heastie has a better job than Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. True: The Speaker is king. He and his people will tell you about the power of his conference. He might say, “They tell ME what to do, not the other way around.” They […]
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday the Buffalo Marathon will return in June for its twentieth anniversary. The governor also joined Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes to announce a new pop-vaccination site in the region just for young people. The race will operate at roughly 50 percent of its typical capacity […]
With the state Senate rescinding a number of executive orders put in place by Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the pandemic, restaurants are celebrating the suspension of a directive that required food to be sold in restaurants and bars to every customer purchasing alcohol. “This will single-handedly boost the bottom line […]
Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration, announced that vaccine providers may once again distribute the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after reports of blood clotting in a handful of recipients. As a result, New York has resumed using the one-shot Johnson […]
Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on Attorney General Letitia James to review legal options to challenge the U.S. Census Bureau’s report after it was announced that New York will lose one congressional seat. Cuomo said that Census takers faced unprecedented challenges last year due to the effect the pandemic has had […]
New York will lose one congressional seat before the midterm elections next year, and upstate districts are most in jeopardy, based on U.S. Census Bureau numbers released Monday. Four regions of New York gained population — New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley and the Capital region — while […]
As a surge of hate crimes escalates across the country, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is directing the New York State Police Hate Crime Force to aid in the investigation of two separate incidents of violence toward an Asian American man as well as vandalism at two synagogues in the Bronx. “We […]
