Author Archives: NYPIRG

Forty years ago, 1974, the “Godfather Part II” was a hit in movie theaters, the cost of a first class stamp was a dime, President Ford granted a pardon to disgraced former President Nixon, and the Universal Product Code, aka the bar code, was first introduced.

That was also the year of the establishment of New York’s college financial aid program – the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).

The world has come a long way from the introduction of the bar code – smart phones, twitter and the Hubble telescope are testimonials to how much the world’s technology has changed since 1974.

The demographics of college students have changed, and continue to change, as well.  There are more women and more non-whites attending college now.  There are more students attending college than ever before, both full-time, but also part-time.

In recent years, there has been a faster growth in the enrollment of college students who are over the age of 25 than those between 18 and 24.

As the college student population has changed, so its financial aid needs to change too.

Unfortunately, instead of making college more affordable, state policies have made it less so. (more…)

The Cuomo Administration’s preference for secrecy – even at the expense of the public’s right to know – was criticized in a report by an independent fiscal watchdog. The report examined the Administration’s plan to divert over a half billion dollars from New York City’s water quality program to construction of the new Tappen Zee Bridge. The Tappen Zee Bridge links Rockland and Westchester counties in the southern Hudson Valley. Construction of the new bridge could cost $4 billion.

The report issued by the New York State Authorities Budget Office found that the Administration had violated the state’s open meeting law and that the agency charged with overseeing the arrangement has failed to sufficiently scrutinize the deal. Moreover, the report found that the Administration ignored complaints about the deal from federal officials. (more…)

Now that the election is safely behind them, Governor Cuomo and state legislators have begun to raise the issue of a pay raise.

The governor has repeatedly stated that the salaries of his commissioners are so low that he is having a hard time recruiting capable candidates.  State legislators have said that their stagnant salaries contribute to the temptation for lawmakers to behave unethically in order to bring in more income.

But what are the facts?

Salaries for the governor, his commissioners and state legislators are set in law.  Governor Cuomo’s salary is set at $179,000. State law sets commissioner pay at up to $136,000.

The last time salaries were raised was in 1999.  That their salaries have been frozen for fifteen years is at the heart of the case for raising salaries now.

How do state lawmakers’ salaries compare to other states?  New York State legislators are the third highest paid in the nation.  New York lawmakers get a base salary of $79,500.  Pennsylvania lawmakers get $84,012 and California lawmakers top the nation with $90,526. (more…)

Last week, the nation’s uninsured began their enrollment in the second year of the health reform law.  The end of the first year offers the nation a good opportunity to review the impact of the law, without all of the reports of mistakes, the campaigns of deception and outright lies.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare” was approved in 2010 and has been the subject of a sustained campaign of distortions and partisan attacks ever since.  The law finally went into effect last year.

The goal of the law was to reduce the massive number of Americans without health insurance.  At the time of passage, nearly 50 million Americans lacked health coverage.  For those without health insurance, illness or injury can have catastrophic consequences.  For example, uninsured patients are less likely to get recommended cancer screenings and are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at later stages.  Uninsured women diagnosed with breast cancer are 2.5 times more likely to have a late stage diagnosis than women enrolled in private health insurance.  And lack of health insurance can have tragic financial impact as well:  inability to pay medical bills is a leading cause of bankruptcy in America. (more…)

This past Election Day, all three statewide incumbents were easily re-elected, the Assembly’s Democratic majority got bigger, but consistent with the overall Republican political tsunami seen across the nation, the Republicans took back control of the state Senate and picked up some New York Congressional seats.

Yet, in one significant way, the election in New York was worse than ever in the state’s modern political history:  voter turnout was at a historic low.

As measured as the percent of eligible voters that went to the polls, only 30 percent of New Yorkers voted in the gubernatorial election.  A review of data provided by the U.S. Elections Project shows that that percentage is the lowest since 1980 – the first year that the Project started tracking.

And what makes it worse is that New York ranked 43^rd in the nation in turnout! (more…)