America’s campaign finance system has been awful for many years. But thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, that bad situation has gotten worse. In its landmark decision Citizen United, the Court ruled that corporations have the same free speech rights as flesh and blood human beings. As such, corporations can spend as much as they want on elections, as long as such spending is not coordinated with a candidate.

The Court’s rationale is based on the need to protect the constitution’s free speech provisions. Of course, there should be a big difference between the speech rights of humans and those of legally created and regulated corporations. But in its zeal to ensure free speech, the Court has extended those protections to corporations as well.

In reaction, the U.S. Senate has advanced an amendment to the federal Constitution reversing two major Supreme Court rulings and reestablishing the authority of Congress to set campaign finance limits. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico and cosponsored by 48 Senators, including both Senators in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, is an effort to overturn the Citizens United and McCutcheon v. FEC rulings.

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New Yorkers will get to vote on three proposals to change the state’s Constitution this November.  An important question being voted on is a plan to change the way redistricting is done in New York.  This past week, the state Board of Elections approved the language of the ballot question that will be put before the voters.

And they have twisted the language in order to help drive New Yorkers to vote “yes.”

Here’s some background on the process.  New York law requires that the state Board of Elections develop the ballot language that goes along with a constitutional amendment.  Sometimes those amendments are quite technical and need a common sense explanation.  The stated reason for the Board’s explanatory language is to make these ballot questions understandable for voters who often have limited information on the issue.

However, the law is weak – there is no requirement that the Board’s ballot language must be unbiased; there is no requirement that the public have a meaningful opportunity to comment on the drafted ballot language; and there is no place where the public can go to get unbiased information on the potential benefits and costs of the proposal. Read the rest of this entry »

The big news last week was the blockbuster story by the New York Times that carefully examined Governor Cuomo’s involvement in the activities of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption.

The Moreland Commission was created by Governor Cuomo last year.  The goal of the Commission was to investigate the unending scandals that have plagued Albany.  The Commission was touted as independent of political pressure and Governor Cuomo said at that time that it would be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it led, “Anything they want to look at, they can look at — me, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the comptroller, any senator, any assemblyman.”

The Times’s story unveiled a disturbing picture of the Cuomo Administration’s strategy to improperly use the Moreland Commission as a political tool instead of allowing it to act as an independent investigative body as promised by the governor himself.  Instead of allowing the Commission to independently investigate political actions as it saw fit, the Administration directed the Commission to instead focus on the state Legislature, not the governor’s office or his political allies.

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We’ve hit summer’s midway point and for many New Yorkers it’s time to plan for the opening of college at the end of next month.  In addition to buying bedding, books and clothes, the big issue is how to pay for college tuition and fees.

And the answer for many Americans is to take out loans.

For decades, the nation has systematically slashed funding for public colleges.  In New York for example, state policies have reduced support by $1.7 billion.  During that same period of time, states – including New York – have hiked public college tuitions to cover the reductions in public spending.

Since wages have remained largely stagnant for many Americans, increased tuition costs have led families to take out loans to cover the cost of attending college.  As a result, student debt has soared. Read the rest of this entry »

After years of debate and relentless partisan battles, the impact of the Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – is starting to become clear. According to reports released last week by the Gallup polling company, the Commonwealth Fund and the Urban Institute, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of uninsured.

Gallup found that the uninsured rate in the U.S. fell an additional 2.2 percentage points to 13.4%. This is the lowest quarterly average recorded since 2008.

That translates into a significant impact on the number of uninsured. Nationwide, roughly 1 in 4 people who were uninsured last fall now have received coverage, which translates into a whopping 11 million Americans. In New York State, almost 1 million have received coverage as the result of the federal health care reform law.

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