For the third time in three years, health-care interests are airing TV ads favorable to Governor Cuomo in the thick of high-stakes negotiations over Medicaid funding. Read More
Blog
For decades, "Kill Urstadt!" was the rallying cry of New York City tenant activists and their political allies favoring more stringent rent control. The slogan referred to chapter 372 of the Laws of 1971, better known as the Urstadt Law, through which Albany barred the city from adopting rent limitations that are “more stringent or restrictive than those presently in effect.” Urstadt, who died this week at 92, was proud of the rent deregulation policies that made his surname an epithet in some quarters— and bemused to have been targeted for decades by calls for his (figurative) demise. Read More
A splinter group of Rochester teachers is threatening to stage a wildcat strike tomorrow, and the response from the school district, the teachers' union and state public-sector labor regulators could decide whether other New York districts face similar threats. Read More
#NYCoronavirus: "Hope for the best and prepare for the worst" is a favorite saying of Governor Cuomo, who has rolled it out again to describe how the state will deal with the coronavirus. But when it comes to the next state budget, Cuomo is hoping for better and preparing for more of the same. Read More
#NYCoronavirus: Amid growing fears that a coronavirus pandemic will severely disrupt the global economy, and with the stock market heading for its biggest weekly losses since the 2008 financial crisis, Governor Cuomo has been oddly quiet about the obvious budget implications. Read More
New enrollment numbers from the state-run health insurance exchange confirm a trend relevant to budget talks in Albany: The role of local governments in signing people up for Medicaid is smaller than ever. Read More
Albany police are among the latest group of workers benefiting from the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME decision. Read More
You’ve got to hand it to New York State United Teachers: the union maintains a remarkably straight face while arguing that the nation’s highest-spending schools and best-paid teachers are starved for funding. Read More
Data released at the first meeting of the governor's Medicaid Redesign Team on Tuesday provided an updated picture of the program's long-term care costs, and the results were eye-opening. Read More
In the face of New York's rapidly rising Medicaid spending, both the Cuomo administration and some of its critics have pointed to demographics as a driving factor. The state's population is aging, they have said, so long-term care costs should be expected to increase. There are two main reasons to doubt this narrative. Read More
Amid Albany’s Medicaid over-spending crisis, the state Health Department is reconfiguring a little-known portion of the deficit-ridden program in what looks like a scheme to squeeze union dues from roughly 110,000 Medicaid-subsidized in-home caregivers. Read More
A fact-check of the op-ed by state Budget Director Robert Mujica, defending the governor's Medicaid proposals, shows it to include exaggerated and misleading arguments. Read More