cuomo_250x-150x150-9690239Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill that marks the most substantial improvement to the Freedom of Information Law in years, limiting the amount of time that public entities can stall a FOIL request after a judge has ordered the release of public records.

Government agencies now have nine months to appeal a judge’s order—meaning they can wait for the equivalent of a full human gestation period, and then either seek to overturn the order in a higher court or release the records anyway.

Under the new law sponsored by Senator Michael Ranzenhofer and Assemblyman David Buchwald, that time period will now be limited to sixty days.

The ability to get this data in a timely manner can have serious consequences for people and businesses battling government agencies, such as Empire Wine, an Albany-area liquor store that used FOIL to show the State Liquor Authority was encouraging other states’ regulators to harass the company.

As Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center, explained in this space last year, the Center’s ongoing litigation to allow taxpayers to examine public pension records has been continually delayed, in part due to the long timeline allowed under FOIL.

The governor had previously vetoed the measure, saying he wanted to see substantive reform of FOIL that would make the state Legislature subject to it. That’s a good goal, as taxpayers should be allowed to better scrutinize the more than $200 million spent annually by the two houses, but it wasn’t enough reason to block more modest reforms in the short-term.

Cuomo also acted in taxpayer interests in vetoing several potentially costly bills, including pension sweeteners for uniformed state court officers and local police.

And the governor vetoed $50 million in refundable tax credits for music producers and videogame developers. Built on the same faulty logic behind the state’s $420 million subsidy for film and television producers, the subsidy would have used taxpayer funds to reimburse developers and producers for a percentage of their operating costs on projects completed in New York.

The veto message reiterated the governor’s “support [for] the music and digital gaming industries” but faulted the bill because it was approved  “without any accompanying funding.”  This leaves the door open for the same bill to emerge from next year’s budget negotiations.

You may also like

Sponsors of a $10 Fee for Prescriptions Narrow Their Proposal

Legislation that would mandate a $10 "dispensing fee" for filling prescriptions has been amended to exclude self-insured employers and union-negotiated benefits – mostly limiting its impact to smaller employers and indivi Read More

Even With Federal Cuts, New York’s Health Funding Would Remain High

New York's health-care industry stands to lose billions of dollars in federal funding under the major budget bill being debated in Washington – a rare and jarring turn of events for a sector accustomed to steadily increas Read More

As Albany’s Session Ends, Watch for Rising Health Costs

Every session of the state Legislature brings a fresh crop of proposals that would drive up health-care costs, and 2025 is no exception. Here is a sampling of pending bills that, if Read More

Empire Center Launches K-12 SOS on Education Achievement and Spending in New York

In 2022-23 New York used to spend more than any other state or country – $30,000 per student. Next school year the spending might increase to $35,000 per student. Even at $30,000 New York spends twice as much as the US average, and about a third more Read More

House Budget Would Burst New York’s Essential Plan Bubble

The extraordinary cash bonanza associated with New York's Essential Plan – which has generated billions more than state officials were able to spend – would come to a crashing end under the budget bill advancing in Cong Read More

The House GOP’s Shrinking Budget Plan Could Still Cost New York Billions

The likely impact of federal health-care cutbacks has diminished in recent days as House Republican leaders backed away from some of their bigger-ticket proposals, reducing the estimated savings to $625 billion from previous figures of $715 billion and $8 Read More

Feds Move To Close Medicaid’s ‘MCO Tax’ Loophole, Spelling Trouble for New York

New York's budget has sprung its first major leak just five days after being finalized by Governor Hochul and the Legislature. On Tuesday, federal officials announced a that would Read More

Highlights of Albany’s Bloated and Belated Budget

The state Legislature approved the last of nine budget bills Thursday evening, 38 days after the start of the fiscal year. Here are some highlights of the fiscal impact of final spending plan: Top lines Read More