Last week brought “good news and bad news” on the reform front.

During approval of the state budget in March, Governor Cuomo and state lawmakers agreed to create an option for candidates to obtain public financing for running for state Comptroller.  But that agreement was widely – and correctly – seen as inadequate.

The most obvious problem was that the plan relied on the much (and deservedly) maligned state Board of Elections to administer the program.  The plan stated that the Board will instantaneously set up a matching fund system and do it in time for the already-started 2014 election cycle!

Reformers wanted an independent “campaign finance board” to oversee the public financing system.  And they wanted to give this entity sufficient time to consider and issue regulations and develop the necessary procedures for shepherding and safeguarding the public money under its charge.  Yet the budget plan relied on the New York State Board of Elections to administer its newly formed matching fund program. Read the rest of this entry »

As Albany begins its post-budget agenda, it is remarkable how little the governor and state lawmakers discuss environmental issues.  There are the occasional news releases – lip service really – about green initiatives, but little about policies that seek to reduce the pollution.

There are big environmental issues that need to be addressed – most notably climate change.

According to NASA, last year was tied with 2009 and 2006 for the seventh warmest year since 1880.  And the trend in the average global temperature has been steadily rising. Read the rest of this entry »

The US Census published a report on voting in America last week that was the usual – the nation’s voters don’t go to the polls as often as they should and in some parts of the country, like New York, and for some age groups – mainly young voters – the turnout has been dreadful.

According to the report, about two-thirds of eligible Americans voted in the last Presidential election.  The older the age group, the more likely they were to vote.  In 2012, for example, the voting rate for the 65 years and older group was over 70 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent report by the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) took a close look at how companies weigh some of the non-driving related factors when they provide price quotes to consumers.  What NYPIRG found was startling.  All else being equal, for three of the top five insurers in New York, a low wage worker with a high school degree could pay anywhere from 19%-41% more than a college educated professional for the exact same coverage.

That’s correct:  the auto insurance rates charged to a high school educated bank teller were higher than those for a banking executive with a college degree – even when they had the exact same driving records.

Is that fair?

To most people, these factors tend to say more about who you are than how you drive, which raises serious concerns about the unfair impacts of their use on some groups of drivers.   For example, according to recent Census data, African-Americans and Latinos are significantly less likely than Whites to obtain a college degree.  U.S. Department of Labor data shows similar trends in the workplace, where African-Americans and Latinos are less likely to have professional or managerial jobs. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, New Yorkers have had to hope that federal prosecutors can clean up Albany.  When Governor Cuomo unceremoniously pulled the plug on the Moreland Act Commission Investigating Public Corruption as part of a deal with legislative leaders in exchange for weak ethics reforms, even the most optimistic New Yorkers were left depressed.

As part of what is increasingly the M.O. of Albany, a weak ethics package was trotted out to provide the necessary “optics” of reform so that the governor and state lawmakers could run for re-election touting their successes in cleaning up Albany.

And so, the shutdown of the Moreland Commission as part of a weak ethics deal seemed to be the end of the latest efforts to reform Albany. Read the rest of this entry »