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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A top environmental debate over the past six years has been whether New York state should allow a natural gas drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing – or fracking.  During those six years, effectively New York State has had a moratorium on fracking.

Concerns about the public health and environmental impacts from fracking have been the reasons for inaction.  Fracking, which injects a mix of water and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to break up shale deposits and release natural gas, is very controversial

But some localities, which thought that the state may ultimately approve fracking, have taken matters into their own hands.  The towns of Dryden and Middlefield – among others – passed local zoning laws prohibiting oil and gas mining activities – including fracking – within their respective town’s borders.

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Now that the 2014 legislative session is finished, the question is what got done?  During this session, high profile bills got passed – such as a new law allowing, in select circumstances, the medicinal use of marijuana.  Over the past four years, the budget was completed in time for the beginning of the new fiscal year, a streak unheard of in modern New York State history.

But what are lawmakers actually doing during the legislative session other than passing budgets and bills?  Thanks to my colleague, Bill Mahoney, the New York Public Interest Research Group has been reviewing the legislative process at the state Capitol.  Here are some tidbits from the most recent review:

658 bills passed both houses in 2014.  While this is a bit more than in the past two years, the overall historical trend in terms of bills passing has been down.  Since 1915, the four years that saw the fewest bills pass both houses are 2009, 2012,2013,and 2014.  It seems that a smaller number of two-house bills is a new reality in New York State.  There are several reasons this might be the case, and they seem to be rooted in both structural changes in the legislative process and in changes in the productivity and total output of legislation (for better or worse) of the state Legislature. Read the rest of this entry »