The big news last week was the decision by the Cuomo Administration to prohibit the controversial high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fracking is a technology that allows for drilling for oil and gas reserves that had been inaccessible until the development of this new technology. Not surprisingly, large, industrial scale oil and gas drilling has serious environmental and public health implications.
The Cuomo Administration’s health department was charged with reviewing the risks of fracking. It was its report last week which provided the ammunition for the Cuomo Administration to make its decision.
The Health Department’s report cited potential environmental impacts and health hazards as reasons for the ban. The Department’s research reviewed a large number of studies and highlighted the following concerns: Read the rest of this entry »
Tobacco kills more than 400,000 Americans every year and costs the country about $100 billion in health care bills. Tobacco-caused diseases account for nearly 1 of every 5 deaths annually. These include 46,000 heart attack deaths and 3,400 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke. Despite successes in curbing tobacco use over the past four decades, it still is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
In New York, over 28,000 die from exposure to tobacco products. Treating the diseases caused by tobacco use adds $10 billion in health costs to the state.
So New Yorkers should expect that Governor Cuomo and the state legislature’s top health priority would be to curb tobacco use. The governor and the legislature have a blueprint on how to attack the tobacco menace: the experts at the federal government’s U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers each state a plan on how to reduce tobacco use.
Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
