Two years ago, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School made headlines with a report thoroughly documenting the "dysfunction" of New York's state Legislature. While the Brennan Center is decidedly left-of-center on many public policy issues, its dissection of Albany's legislative process reached conclusions that cut across ideological and partisan lines. Read More
Crucial details of New York's $113 billion state budget are negotiated in secret and shrouded in darkness. But this year's gubernatorial campaign is providing real hope for change in Albany. Both major-party candidates, Republican John Faso and Democrat Eliot Spitzer, appear committed to boosting the fiscal transparency and accountability of state government. Read More
Running for a fourth term in 1994, Gov. Mario Cuomo sat on a mid-year budget report that would have called attention to a growing hole in the state budget. It was only after losing the election that Cuomo released the report -- and George Pataki discovered he was inheriting a budget gap of at least $4 billion. Read More
By winning nearly 70 percent of the vote in yesterday's election, Eliot Spitzer set a new record for a New York gubernatorial candidate. Read More
Next year's New York State budget process won't simply be a test of Eliot Spitzer's ability to add and subtract. Above all, it will be a test of the new governor's political will and leadership skills. Read More
Yesterday's state Court of Appeals ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) case is a victory for judicial restraint and common sense. Needless to say, it's also a huge break for Eliot Spitzer: Now he won't have to take office as governor under the shadow of a financially backbreaking judicial mandate. Read More
By the time they lost the House and Senate last month, it had been years since congressional Republicans collectively exhibited the kind of energy, discipline and commitment to principle that produced their most enduring achievement - the welfare-reform law of 1996. Read More
When George Pataki took office as governor in January 1995, New York state was only feebly recovering from its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Pataki wanted to jump-start the economy with lower taxes — but he also had inherited a $5 billion state budget shortfall from Mario Cuomo. Read More