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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The New York State Education Department released a new set of graduation statistics on Monday, Feb. 7, which showed a majority of students in the state are graduating without being adequately prepared for higher education. more

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

In one of its first orders of business in the new legislative session, the State Senate passed the Job Creation and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2011 on Jan. 19. Supporters of the three-part plan say it will encourage the creation of new private-sector jobs with a tax credit, ensure fiscal responsibility with the enactment of a 2 percent state spending cap and require a two-thirds “super-majority” vote to increase taxes if the Assembly, and then voters, approve a constitutional amendment. more

County officials have confirmed that the long-awaited renovation of the Nassau County Aquatic Center in East Meadow is expected to begin in July.  According to county officials and … more

The Nassau County Legislature approved more than $3 million in contracts on Jan. 10 for new equipment and upgrades at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant, in an effort to end months of illegal sewage discharge into Reynolds Channel, which many residents and local officials have called a serious environmental health hazard. more

Long Island’s nine senators will become part of the Republican majority in the New York State Senate next month, and as their leader, Sen. Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre is expected to have their … more

State Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. is reminding Nassau County residents that the deadline to file applications for New York’s STAR program and other property-tax exemptions offered by Nassau County … more

During his campaign, Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo’s transition team released a detailed and well-annotated report outlining plans for “Rightsizing Government.” The report’s findings and recommendations reiterate much of what the previous columns in this series have suggested: that New York state’s Public Authorities and agencies have “become too big, too expensive, and too ineffective — an ever proliferating tangle of boards, commissions, councils, departments, divisions, offices, task forces and public authorities, [that] the taxpaying public can no longer afford.“ Amen. more

The Herald sat down with newly-elected NYS Assemblymen Brian Curran and Edward Ra. more