Covering the politics, policies and people of New York State government.
New York continues to lag the nation in job recovery but creating the new profession of “career criminal” is not the answer. Crime across the state, and particularly in New York City, has become completely entrenched in our daily lives. While the Assembly Minority Conference continues to push our counterparts […]
It is nothing short of disappointing that the process to generate a state budget has yielded confusion, a missed deadline, at least one emergency extender and uncertainty for residents and businesses who rely on the critical funding included in the agreement. Considering that the closed-door negotiations are being conducted by […]
As the Executive Budget proposal inches closer to a final product, its insufficiencies and impacts become clearer. One area of especially great concern is the governor’s plan to intercept federal funding meant to help offset localities’ Medicaid costs. Under the governor’s plan, more than $624 million in federal money earmarked […]
To the editor: Listening to Gov. Kathy Hochul at the debate, I would have thought that Donald Trump was the Republican Party candidate for governor. No wonder Hochul followed the Rose Garden campaign strategy. She preferred hiding behind tens of millions of dollars in television campaign commercials rather than face […]
Too often, fiscal and social policies developed by the state’s One-Party leadership are misaligned with the needs of those living here. The overwhelming shortage of direct-support professionals caring for the disability community is a prime example of this. While fast-food and retail employees continue to see their paychecks grow as […]
Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul is following the infamous Rose Garden Strategy by ignoring underdog Republican challenger Congressmember Lee Zeldin and refusing to schedule a series of public debates between now and Election Day. She did the same for the Democratic Primary by only participating in two debates at the 11th […]
To the editor: Early voting has started in the Congressional primary contests. Voter turnout is expected to be very light. New York state could do more to encourage more voter participation in all contested elections. I suggest that New York state does what was done during the height of the […]
To the editor: Too many incumbent elected officials at all levels of government follow the infamous Rose Garden strategy of ignoring their respective challengers, by refusing to participate in as few public debates as possible. As a sitting governor, Kathy Hochul starts out with many advantages not available to her […]