Last Monday, the incoming Senate Democratic Majority met in Albany and elected Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) as Senate Majority Leader for the 2019-20 legislative session. She will be the first woman to lead a majority conference in Albany as Democrats take control of the State Senate for the first time since 2010. The Senate Democrats needed […]
Last Tuesday, the Assembly Republican Conference re-elected Assemblyman Brian Kolb (R-Canandaigua) as its leader. He will continue serving as Assembly Minority Leader when the Legislature convenes in January for the 2019 legislative session. Kolb has led the Assembly GOP conference since 2009. Assemblyman Kolb said: “With a changing dynamic in the Legislature, our voice and […]
Last Monday, Gov. Cuomo released a letter to the New York House Democratic Delegation congratulating them on their victory and urging them to push for eliminating the $10,000 cap on the federal tax deductibility of state and local taxes and funding for the Gateway Tunnel. On the SALT deduction, he wrote “The current cost of […]
The Fair Elections for NY Campaign, a coalition of groups pushing for campaign finance reform in New York State, called for campaign finance and voting reforms to be “the first order of business in the 2019 New York State Legislative Session.” The group wrote to Gov. Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Heastie and incoming Senate Majority Leader […]
In January, 17 new State Senators and 21 new Assemblymembers will take office. Some of the new members who will be representing Upstate communities include: Democrat Peter Harckham, who defeated two-term incumbent Republican Terrence Murphy in the 40th Senate District, which includes parts of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties. Harckham previously served in the Westchester County […]
Each week, City & State New York publishes a list of the week’s political “winners” and “losers.” Read last week’s list here.
On December 5, the Assembly Higher Education Committee is holding a public hearing in Albany “to examine the current maintenance of effort provisions for SUNY and CUNY and the potential expansion of such maintenance of effort provisions.” On December 7, the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce holds an Eggs & Issues event on the region’s […]
Last Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo announced that Amazon will establish a new corporate headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, where it expects to eventually employ at least 25,000 people. Amazon is promising to invest $2.5 billion in Long Island City in the coming decade, and up to $3.6 billion when ancillary community projects are counted over […]
The state Division of Budget (DOB) released its mid-year budget update. DOB projects a state budget deficit of $3.1 billion for the state’s upcoming fiscal year. But if lawmakers stick to the planned 2 percent cap on state spending increases – as they have done in each year that Gov. Cuomo has been in office […]
The 2018 New York State Compensation Committee, which has been tasked with recommending whether state legislators and state agency heads should get a pay raise in 2019, held its first meeting on Tuesday. The committee members are state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli; former State Comptroller Carl McCall; New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer; and former New […]