As New Yorkers rang in the New Year, Albany’s budgeteers were developing a fiscal proposal for Governor Hochul. As directed by the state Constitution, the governor must unveil her budget plan within a few weeks and with it her policy priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

“Affordability” will be the buzzword of the session and the big-ticket items, like spending on health care and education, will dominate the budget debate. The impact of the federal budget put together by President Trump and the Republican-majority Congress will also impact budget decisions.

For example, how does the federal budget impact higher education? A recent opinion piece jointly authored by New York State Comptroller DiNapoli and the head of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) highlighted key issues.

In their commentary, they wrote that the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” represented the most significant overhaul of federal student lending in decades. They opined that “the new law sharply restricts access to higher education based on wealth.”

They concluded, “The consequences go far beyond college campuses. When students can’t afford to attend college, entire communities feel the loss” and “The financial effects will be immediate: reductions in student and visitor spending, lower revenues for local businesses, and thousands of campus and spillover jobs lost.”

They were quite right to look at the economic losses from a weakened higher education system, beyond the obvious impacts on college students themselves. They are also correct that the Trump Administration and its allies in Congress have enacted measures that will harm colleges and universities in New York and the communities where they are located.

Yet federal harms are just the latest hits to higher education. Over the past decades, state policies have undermined both public and private institutions. The biggest impacts have been on private colleges.

For example, state policymakers have hammered public support for private colleges found in the Unrestricted Aid to Independent Colleges and Universities (known as “Bundy Aid”). Bundy Aid directs financial support to independent colleges. The program was established in 1968 with the goal of providing an answer to the question “how the State can help preserve the strength and vitality of our private and independent institutions of higher education and at the same time, keep them free.” In response, the state decided that “the moderate but real level of need calls for direct assistance from New York to private colleges and universities.”

Once a vital component of independent colleges’ finances, the program has been decimated by cuts over the past four decades. The peak state support occurred during the 1989-90 fiscal year, when nearly $114 million was appropriated. During the current fiscal year, that amount has been reduced to under $20 million. If New York had merely kept pace with inflation, the amount of Bundy Aid would be around $260 million – not less than $20 million.

The result? Not surprisingly, many colleges – usually small ones – have seen their finances become damaged or worse. According to New York education officials, over the last 18 years, New York has lost seventeen independent colleges, universities, and other degree-granting institutions. Ten of those seventeen shut their doors in only the last few years, throwing their students into educational uncertainty and potentially, entire communities into economic insecurity. One example was the closure of the College of St. Rose in Albany, N.Y. Another more recent controversy surrounding the financial stability of Siena College in the Albany suburbs.

Those campuses are, unfortunately, not alone when it comes to financial concerns. In a recent review of colleges conducted by Forbes, nineteen of New York’s 72 colleges and universities (26%) scored poor financial grades (C- or D).

Why should we care?

The answer is that colleges not only educate the adult leaders of the future, but they are also dynamic “economic engines.” These economic engines create jobs that stimulate and anchor local economies. Independent colleges and universities in New York State contributed an estimated $97 billion to the state’s economy and supported more than 400,000 jobs. These institutions also provide cultural and educational resources to the larger community, contributing to the quality of life in the area.

New York’s elected leadership hasn’t considered the independent sector of higher education an important component of the budget. But as independent campuses close and others struggle, New York’s decisions are costing jobs and economic activity. Here’s hoping the governor’s upcoming budget reverses this not-so-benign neglect.

Planning is an important component of success in life. The same is true for government. Developing a plan that relies on broad input, is based on the most recent science and best practices, and recommends specific actions is the hallmark of high functioning government.

New York often follows that blueprint when it comes to planning, but too frequently falls short when it comes to acting on its own plans.

Attacking the problem of the worsening climate is one example. The planet is heating up and 2024 was the world’s hottest year in recorded history. The world’s climate scientists have agreed that “Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming” and that “limiting human-caused global warming requires net zero CO₂ emissions.”

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (“Climate Law”) was approved six years ago and was designed to set the state on a path toward “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of this Century. The “net zero” goal is consistent with the standard set by the world’s climate scientists – who have warned that in order to avoid the worst consequences of global heating, all nations need to adhere to the net zero goal.

New York’s Climate Law set interim goals designed to guide policymakers as benchmark steps to meet the targets advised by the world’s climate experts. Those interim goals commit the state to generate 70 percent of its electricity from renewable power sources and achieve a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – just five years from now.

After the Climate Law was passed the state convened a panel of “stakeholders” to develop a detailed blueprint to meet the law’s milestone goals. That blueprint was released at the end of 2022. Yet, once the fanfare of signing the bill passed and the rollout of the blueprint was over, little was done to meet the challenges set in the Climate Law.

Since so little was accomplished, the oil industry, its allies, and other opponents have pounced and argued that the Law needs to be rolled back. They contend the Climate Law not only increased energy costs, but also has goals that are too ambitious.

Both of these arguments are not backed up by the facts. The European Union recently reported that it will have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% by the year 2030. That goal was set as a midpoint measure to meet the science-based goal of virtually eliminating all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. If the EU can do it, we in the United States can, too.

New York’s residential electricity rates are high, however, relative to the nation’s. But that has been true for years. For example in 2018 – the year before the state climate law was signed – New York’s residential electricity rates were ranked the seventh-highest in the nation. Now they are ranked eighth highest. Still high to be sure, but the impact of the Climate Law’s passage didn’t make a meaningful difference.

Unfortunately, as a result of the oil industry’s expensive propaganda campaign, the Hochul Administration is in retreat on the state’s climate-fighting initiatives.

Another example of the failure to aggressively implement its own blueprint is New York’s mounting garbage crisis. Two years ago this week, the state Department of Environmental Conservation issued its “New York State Solid Waste Management Plan” to tackle that emerging problem. Among its recommendations, the DEC argued that the state should reduce or recycle its solid wastes at the rate of 85 percent and do so by embracing a “circular economy” approach, one that relies on ensuring that the producer of the waste is responsible for it – not the taxpayers. The plan urged action to, among other things, expand the state’s bottle deposit law and reduce packaging wastes.

Right now, the number one place that residential trash goes to is a landfill; number two is export for disposal; number three is burning; and the last is to be recycled. There is no evidence that the problem is getting better. In fact, the state’s residential recycling rate has been dropping over the past decade.

The state’s capacity to tackle this problem is dwindling. According to the DEC, “New York’s 25 municipal solid waste landfills have a combined landfill capacity of between 16 and 25 years.” If the state’s landfills are filled to capacity in a decade or so, what will happen?

Instead of implementing an aggressive “producer responsibility” program as recommended in its own plan, the Administration is instead working on allowing the existing landfills to expand. For example, it was recently announced that the Administration is considering an expansion of the Seneca Falls landfill.

But as their own solid waste management plan has made clear, landfilling is not the most important solution, reducing the amount of waste, maximizing reuse and recycling, and then disposing of the rest should be the order of priority.

Good planning is essential. But we expect government to follow through in tackling the tough issues, not kicking the can down the road and moving the goal posts. As lawmakers return next month and the governor unveils her budget plan, following New York’s plans to address both the climate and trash crises should be at the top of the agenda.

While many New Yorkers are enjoying the holidays, members of the Hochul Administration are busying themselves for the upcoming session. The first week of January is when lawmakers return for the beginning of the 2026 legislative session. The following week, Governor Hochul will release her “State of the State” address and the week after that, she will release her executive budget.

The State of the State is an annual message delivered by the governor as required under the state Constitution. It leans to the poetry of governing, long on goals, short on the details of achieving them.

It is really the budget that provides the governor’s blueprint for how she will achieve her goals.

So, a lot is happening right now to develop the massive state budget and fashion it to meet the outcomes that the governor will propose in her annual message.

Next year’s budget plan is being developed under the large shadow cast by the changes enacted by the President and the Congress. The state will have to figure out, for example, how to provide health coverage for the tens of thousands of New Yorkers who are facing a complete loss of coverage or huge increases in the costs of providing that coverage. The Trump Administration and its allies in Congress are doing all that they can to reduce Americans’ access to health insurance, a decision that will result in misery and physical harm to millions of Americans.

Proposals that can raise revenues, therefore, will get a closer look as the state budget makers try to address shortfalls resulting from Congressional action.

One idea that has been considered over the years pertains to the use of and addiction resulting from tobacco and other nicotine products.

We all know the score on that front. Tobacco products, when used as directed, addict and kill. Lung cancer is most often caused by tobacco use. But lung cancer is not the only cancer that can be caused by tobacco use. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tobacco use results in cancers of the mouth and throat, voice box, esophagus, stomach, kidney, pancreas, liver, bladder, cervix, colon and rectum, and a type of leukemia. And tobacco users aren’t the only ones at risk; exposure to tobacco smoke by those who are non-smokers raises their risk of cancer.

While past actions taken by New York (and much of the rest of the nation) have dramatically reduced the cigarette smoking rate, flavored products, new forms of nicotine use, and the use of other non-cigarette tobacco products are still dangerous.

Flavored tobacco products are designed to entice youth to a deadly addiction. It is still legal to sell menthol-flavored cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products. While New York now prohibits the sale of flavored vaping products, it has not banned the sale of flavored tobacco. Experts that evaluate the state’s tobacco program have urged a ban on the sale of these flavored tobacco products.

New York policy fails in a key area of the fight to combat nicotine addiction: tax policy. And it is this area that budget makers may be looking at.

New York State currently has the highest cigarette tax in the nation, at $5.35 per pack. There is irrefutable evidence that increasing the cost of cigarettes has been a key component in the state’s tobacco control success.

Yet New York taxes non-cigarette tobacco products and other nicotine delivery products (like vaping) at a different, and lower, rate. In doing so, it essentially drives smokers and would-be smokers to these products, undermining the impact of the increase in cigarette taxes and deprives the state of revenue. Additional revenues that could add tens of millions of dollars to the state coffers.

And that may be the “hook” to get budget makers interested.

Increasing the price of non-cigarette tobacco products by raising tax rates reduces the demand for those products, which, in turn, leads to significant reductions in their use. Those reductions help lower health costs while increasing state revenue.

It makes sense from a public health perspective and makes sense from a state revenue perspective. Let’s see whether and how the Hochul Administration handles it.

Now that leaf blowers are being stored for the season, snow blowers are getting cranked up. Though windows will be closed and most of us will be sheltering inside, the pollution caused by gas powered landscaping equipment of all kinds – including snow blowers – was the subject of debate last week.

Gas-powered equipment is much louder than electric equipment. Of course, the noise is more than just annoying – it poses a significant health threat as well. For example, most gas-powered leaf blowers exceed 70 decibels measured at 50 feet, which is considered dangerous to hearing. Additionally, this noise impacts the immune system, causes adverse cardiovascular effects, and impairs the learning, hearing, sleep, and language development of children. Acoustic research also shows that gas-powered leaf blower’s distinctive low frequency noise penetrates further than other machine-generated sound waves, even through solid walls.

This is not only annoying to the public, it damages the hearing of the landscaping workers, especially when the equipment is used repeatedly over long periods of time. Landscaping workers are more likely to suffer from depression, and are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

These machines are not only staggeringly loud, but they also produce a shocking amount of air pollution. And the pollution from those millions of landscaping machines adds up. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, fossil fuel-powered landscaping equipment emitted tons of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution that can cause serious public health and environmental damage. Overall, New York ranked fourth (behind California, Florida and Texas) for climate pollution from gas-powered landscaping equipment, with emissions estimated at 1.37 million tons, the annual equivalent of the emissions from more than 300,000 cars on the road. The state ranked third (behind Florida and Texas) when comparing fine particulates (PM_2.5). Fine particulates can damage people’s hearts and lungs.

Of course, a national ranking can mask local impacts. At a news conference last week, health, environmental and community groups released data on the impacts on a county-by-county level. Fossil-fuel-powered landscaping equipment releases fine particulates and greenhouse gases in every county in New York, with Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Monroe, Erie counties and the borough of Brooklyn, being the largest generators of greenhouse gases from this source.

The data was released on a regional basis, with Westchester residents exposed to the largest amount of emissions in the lower Hudson Valley, Albany County in the Capital District, and Saratoga County in the Upper Hudson/North Country region.

Westchester residents were exposed to over 143 thousand tons of greenhouse gas, the equivalent of the emissions of 31,500 cars, as well as 124 tons of particulate matter, the equivalent of over 1.3 million cars.

New Yorkers don’t need to give up well-tended lawns; there is an alternative. Gas-powered landscaping equipment can be replaced by cleaner, quieter battery-powered tools that have the same power. For most of us, we purchase our landscaping equipment when the existing one has run out of life. Often that can take years to occur.

However, for big users – local governments, large institutions and landscaping companies, they can go through landscaping equipment within a matter of months – or even weeks. The problem is that usually battery-powered equipment is more expensive, even if it is quieter and cleaner.

Weaning New York off of gas-powered landscaping equipment and moving toward electric was the focus of the groups that released the pollution data. They were urging Governor Hochul to include in her budget a financial incentive program to help offset the cost differences for the big users – municipalities, institutions and landscaping companies – to encourage them to purchase electric equipment as the need arises.

The groups’ request tracks legislation that has widespread support among lawmakers. The concept also has broad-based public support, including from over one hundred public health, environmental and community groups, equipment manufacturers, and equipment retailers like Home Depot.

Electric landscaping equipment is generally cleaner, quieter and easier to use. These electric alternatives are often just as capable as their fossil fuel-powered counterparts and, over a lifetime of use, cost less to operate.

It’s time to join the call for cleaner, quieter landscaping equipment in New York. Hopefully, Governor Hochul, through her executive budget power, will join the call.

It all started innocently enough: When we asked where our stored electronic information went, we were told “the cloud.” Sounds nice. Information stored in a puffy white setting. Of course, there is no information “cloud,” our data is stored in computers. Stored in computers that are housed all over the country – indeed sometimes the world.

The number of computers to store our data, process online transactions, and handle our internet information requests and computations, is incredible. With the rise of the use of A.I., so-called “artificial intelligence,” the projected demand for computer space and capabilities is mushrooming and accelerating.

With that demand comes the need for more and more access to computers, computers that are stored in massive buildings, and now being built all around the nation and at an increasing speed. Those computer buildings are known as “data centers” and their thirst for energy and water (for cooling) is virtually insatiable.

The construction and use of these data centers is driving a rise in utility rates all across the nation and New York is not immune. Indeed, recent government reports now expect a significant rise in energy based on an explosion in industry demands for more data centers and this will result in higher electricity prices. That’s of particular concern for renters, homeowners and small businesses, which are already struggling to pay their energy bills.

Given the “affordability” concerns and environmental threats that result from the massive growth in the number of data centers, New York policymakers must develop policies to protect the state.

So, what should they do? Here are six ideas.

First, insulate the public from getting stuck with the bill if the data center flops or falls short. New Yorkers have seen this movie before; when some “can’t miss” economic development program do miss. There are growing concerns that the need for these data centers is over-hyped. New York policymakers must demand that under no circumstances should a new data center be built using any public support until guarantees and claw-back provisions are contained in required contracts with state and/or local governments.

Second, those contracts must be made available to the public without redaction. One national review of data centers found that required permitting for data centers were shielded from public disclosures using the “trade secrets” exemption allowed under states’ public access laws. New York grants those too. It must not be allowed when granting public benefits of any kind to data center construction or use.

Third, among the provisions of any such agreement between government and data centers, there must be a provision of expected water consumption by the facility. There must be regular, ongoing monitoring and public reporting of whether such water use is being used as expected. Let’s not overlook the noise from these facilities; noise impacts should be carefully considered in the review process and contracts and permits must be in place to ensure the facilities operate quietly.

Fourth, not one residential utility ratepayer dollar should be – directly or indirectly — used to subsidize the data center. New Yorkers already pay among the highest rates in the nation. Data centers are expected to need a fantastic amount of electricity; they must not be driving up utility rates for New Yorkers.

Fifth, every high-energy demand project’s infrastructure and operations should meet the highest current standards for energy efficiency and minimal environmental impacts – from energy consumption, to water use, noise and electronic waste creation. They should be obligated to meet regularly and upgrade their efficiency to meet ever evolving standards.

Sixth, not one electron from the existing grid should be used to power data centers. Another way to jack up utility rates is to subsidize data centers by diverting current electricity in the grid to power data centers. We have already heard the chorus that New York needs more power due to the rising need for electricity as the state moves away from relying on fossil fuels. Part of those estimates are boosted by the purported need for more and more data centers. If the owners of data centers want power, they should get their own. Moreover, whatever power they use must relying on “green” sources, not oil, coal, gas, or nuclear. New York should tell data centers “B.Y.O.R.E.” – bring your own renewable energy.

All across the nation energy costs have risen faster than inflation since 2022, with greater increases ahead. The causes include load growth from data centers, increasing electric transmission and distribution infrastructure and maintenance costs, extreme weather, and supply chain disruptions.

There is little we can do in the near term about the expenses resulting from protecting the grid from extreme weather and rising heat that are the products of a worsening climate. But data center costs – both financial and environmental – must not be part of the mix.

New York already has data centers and other energy “hogs.” But we have not yet experienced the explosion of data center construction and energy use seen in other parts of the nation. We should learn from those other experiences. As ratepayers, we should demand policymakers act on our behalf, not Big Tech’s.