On Thursday, Feb. 2 — 24 hours after unveiling her 2024 FY budget — Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, breaking down her $1 billion plan to set an adequate standard of mental health care in New York state.  “This is the […]

Earlier today at the Convention Center in Albany, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado was the keynote speaker at the fourteenth annual Stand Up For Recovery Day. This was the first in-person Albany lobbying and advocacy day that Friends Of Recovery – New York have hosted since the pandemic.  Stand Up For […]

  Echoing through the Million Dollar Staircase in the State Capitol on Tuesday, passers-by heard only one thing; “WHAT DO WE WANT? TREATMENT NOT JAIL! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!”  The rallying cries expressed passionate support for a bill introduced by Sen. Jessica Ramos; the Treatment Not Jail Bill […]

Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a $227 billion budget proposal on Wednesday that she says follows through on her pledge to not raise income taxes in the 2024 fiscal year. All-funds spending is $227 billion, an increase of $5.4 billion over the current budget. State operating funds are projected to be $125.2 […]

Below is Gov. Kathy Hochul’s first State of the State Address as an elected governor, delivered before the full Legislature on January 10, 2022 in the Assembly Chamber in the New York State Capitol, Albany: My fellow elected officials, it is an honor to be back in this Chamber finally […]

The New York state Cannabis Control Board has approved the first 36 Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary licenses out of 900 applications so far. Twenty-eight of these licenses were awarded to a person previously convicted of a marijuana-related infraction and eight went to by nonprofits with a focus on helping former […]

New York state continues to move toward a cleaner and greener future with new legislation signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul that will make it easier for New Yorkers living in certain communities to make the switch to electric vehicles.  The Electric Vehicle Rights Act (S.8518A/A.6165) amends New York […]

The Clean Slate Act (S.1553D/A.6399C) passed a Senate vote in Albany earlier this year but has yet to make to the Assembly floor. Advocates and lawmakers have recently begun a push, ahead of the new legislative session, to ensure the bill makes it to an Assembly vote and eventually Gov. […]