News

Andrew Cuomo

How NY state closed the projected $4.4 billion budget deficit

It wasn't as painful as some feared, but future shortfalls still loom.

News

Andrew Cuomo

Takeaways from the final 2018-19 state budget

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday evening announced a deal on a $168.3 billion state budget. Hours earlier, the spending plan had been in doubt, due to standoffs over such issues as state oversight of yeshivas and the early departure of state lawmakers for Passover, which began on Friday, and for Easter Sunday – which is also the start of the new fiscal year.

News

New York City

A coyote, a reporter and a state budget

A coyote, a reporter and a state budget: Recapping the top political news in New York this week

News

New York State

What’s been ripped out of the state budget

What’s in and what’s out of the New York State budget

News

Andrew Cuomo

Final budget deal close as lawmakers vote on first spending bills

State lawmakers eager to leave the Capitol before religious holidays this weekend inched closer to a budget deal on Thursday night, even as negotiations stalled on multiple fronts.

News

Andrew Cuomo

Cuomo and legislative leaders inch closer to budget deal

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders inched ever closer to finalizing a deal for the state budget this week, but the news that caught the attention of Albany observers – and even CNN – was the arrest of a veteran reporter, Daily News Albany Bureau Chief Ken Lovett.

News

Claudia Tenney

Giffords-endorsed Anthony Brindisi has a 100 percent rating from the NRA

Assemblyman and congressional candidate Anthony Brindisi recently was endorsed by Giffords, the gun safety group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, as part of its “campaign to elect gun safety champions.” But Brindisi, an upstate Democrat, has a 100 percent rating from the National Rifle Association.

Opinion

Healthcare

State Senate must protect reproductive health care

Access to abortion and contraception is threatened. Will NY act?

News

Andrew Cuomo

Policy items dropping from state budget – for now

Some policy items are reportedly dropping out of the New York state budget talks, including the Child Victims Act, criminal justice reform and early voting.

News

Andrew Cuomo

What to watch for in the final week of state budget talks

With the New York state budget deadline pending and several issues left unresolved, here are the things to watch as the spending plan is finalized this week.

Opinion

New York

Jared Kushner lied to NYC because he could get away with it

The Kushner Cos. filing of false paperwork on rent-regulated units and efforts to expel tenants is a failure of not just the companys integrity, but of state and local law. With the incentive structure of state rent regulations and a two-tiered legal system in which corporations get a slap on the wrist for ripping off the public while the poor go to jail for drug possession, actions like Kushner’s are inevitable.

Personality

Andrew Cuomo

School officials want an extra $1.6 billion. Cuomo offered $769 million.

New York's state budget is due soon, and funding for education remains unresolved. City & State spoke with state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia about the funding levels she would like to see for New York's schools and the governor's less generous proposal, as well as as what her department is doing to protect the rights of transgender students. 

Opinion

Andrew Cuomo

New York keeps shortchanging poor students

New York's Foundation Aid formula has major shortcomings, which include using a decade of inconsistent local share calculations, arbitrary floors and ceilings, old demographic data and guaranteed increases regardless of changing demographics or enrollment. As a result of these distortions, excess aid is sent to wealthy districts and poorer districts get shortchanged. The state cannot afford to fully fund the warped formula, yet advocates are calling for a $2 billion increase in Foundation Aid in the coming year.

News

Simcha Felder

Armed school officers could turn the state Senate blue

The fate of state Sen. Simcha Felder's bill arming guards in schools could impact which party he caucuses with.

Opinion

Alliance for Quality Education

To combat racism, fund needy schools

State Foundation Aid is underfunded.

News

Andrew Cuomo

Cuomo takes on guns, NYCHA and the Percoco verdict

Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined students walking out to protest gun violence. Afterward, he took questions from the press on the conviction of Joseph Percoco, his former senior aide.

Opinion

New York

Why the attacks against my Black History Education bill are racist

Fringe groups like the Working Families Party, Make NY True Blue and Indivisible feel intellectually superior to everyone and believe they determine who is a Democrat and who is not, and define who is black enough and what it means to be a public servant in communities of color. 

With this disconnected view, activists shamefully slammed my effort to pass the Black History Education bill during Black History Month. 


Opinion

Kathy Hochul

It’s time for menstrual equity

The state Legislature should require free menstrual products in public schools, argue Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf.