This is the month when New Yorkers are due to finally receive an official report on the state's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the deadliest disasters in state history. Read More
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Join us for our latest ThinkNY webinar, where we’ll delve into Proposition 1, a proposed amendment to the equal protection clause of the state Constitution. Cam Macdonald will discuss its disputed status on the ballot and how it got here. We’l Read More
Governor Hochul is taking heat after postponing the state’s years-old plan to charge drivers to enter lower Manhattan. As critics slam her for lacking “political courage,” it’s an appropriate time to examine some of the underlying issues that congestion pricing was meant to indirectly mitigate—because many if not most advocates were afraid to touch those issues themselves. And if congestion pricing proponents are to be taken at their word about their concern for MTA finances, or traffic, or air quality, they must show some of the same courage they’ve accused the governor of lacking. Read More
Three in five New Yorkers (60 percent) say the state is on the wrong track, up from 55 percent earlier this year, according to the latest Empire Index poll of registered voters by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
New York state lawmakers in recent years have surrendered some of their policymaking and taxing powers to the executive branch. With the 2024 legislative session coming to close, they’re poised to go even further and turn those powers over to an organization outside of government entirely. Read More
A plan to require a $10.18 "dispensing fee" for filling drug prescriptions is back on the table in Albany – this time in the form of legislation rather than regulation. The Read More
Bills designed to block any change to retiree health coverage for state and local public employees have been introduced repeatedly by legislators in both parties over the past 30 years. But the latest statewide “anti-diminution” measure, inspired by an ongoing controversy in New York City, would be the broadest and most costly yet—and more than two-thirds of state lawmakers are supporting it. Read More
In this episode of Messages of Necessity, Cam Macdonald, Adjunct Fellow at the Empire Center, and Ken Girardin, Research Director at the Empire Center, discuss the recent school budget votes and the electrification of school buses across New York Sta Read More