New York state government has a well-deserved reputation for ineffectiveness. Ask most New Yorkers what one word best describes Albany, and the most common response would be “dysfunctional.” That’s the term that New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice used in a study in 2004, in its follow-up in 2006 and in its 2008 update, “Still Broken.” more

Politics is a quirky business. This is the story of six governors who have proposed similar programs aimed at cutting expenses and holding the line on taxes, with completely different reactions from the voters. more

This one was never in doubt. Legislation that will put a cap on property tax levies passed by a 57-to-5 margin in the State Senate before it made it through the Assembly and was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last Friday. more

State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos says he is optimistic that despite the difficult choices they face, this is the year when Albany lawmakers will finally make the structural changes to the state budget needed to rein in spending. more

I have to admit, I’m having a problem understanding how, in just 33 working days, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team was able to recommend 79 cost cutting measures to save $2.3 billion in the upcoming budget. I’ll address this concern from three viewpoints. 
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My last column, “Stop playing games with the budget deficit” (Feb. 3) was written one week before New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli issued his analysis of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget draft. The irrationality I outlined fell short of anticipating the following mea-culpa expressed in the comptroller’s analysis. “The SFY 2010-2011 enacted budget relied on $16.7 billion in non-recurring or temporary budget resources; and overly optimistic tax revenue projections, causing a dramatically worsened state structural deficit.” How dramatic? These tenuous entries constituted 30 percent of all the monies in the state’s operating fund. more

The rainy day is here. At least that’s what Gov. Andrew Cuomo hinted recently when he pointed out that school districts maintain special reserve funds for economic times like … more

As members of the East Meadow Board of Education delved into the 2011-12 preliminary school budget proposal last week, they received some grim, yet expected news from Governor Andrew Cuomo. In … more

With the inauguration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday, New York state officially ended its brief but disastrous Spitzer era. Eliot Spitzer, the former attorney general, was elected governor in 2006 in a landslide and then entered office not to make friends in Albany, not even to govern, but to rule the land. He crashed and burned in one of the country’s most notorious sex scandals, after which he resigned and Lt. Gov. David Paterson assumed the state’s reins. more

Nearly a dozen New York state legislators, including Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper (D-Hempstead), will collect two checks from taxpayers next year: one for their salaries and another for their … more