Research

#NYCoronavirus: The coronavirus pandemic has been an acid test for government, revealing bureaucratic incompetencies, unnecessary regulations—and, in Albany, an agency that has failed to perform one of its central functions. Read More

#NYCoronavirus: The state Health Department released additional coronavirus data that gives a clearer picture of which counties and age groups have been hardest hit by the pandemic so far. Read More

The new state budget finally takes credible steps to address the Medicaid crisis of recent history. What's missing is a clear plan for weathering the far larger crisis of the present and future. Read More

New York has just enacted a pandemic-crisis budget that might as well have been written in disappearing ink—shakily “balanced” on hopes of a huge federal bailout and ultimately backstopped by the potential for unprecedented deficit borrowing. Read More

#NYCoronavirus: The Legislature isn't just delegating emergency spending control powers to Governor Cuomo as part of the new state budget.  It's also handing him a deficit-financing credit card with an $11 billion limit. Read More

#NYCoronavirus: As New York State lawmakers debate the Medicaid budget during a public health crisis, here are seven things they should keep in mind. Read More

#NYCoronavirus: The coronavirus pandemic has just claimed its first big institutional victim: the New York State Legislature, which handed Governor Cuomo broad and unprecedented leeway to "adjust or reduce" state spending in the fiscal year that began today. Read More

The coronavirus pandemic has just claimed its first big institutional victim: the New York state Legislature, which handed Gov. Andrew Cuomo broad and unprecedented leeway to cut state spending in the fiscal year that began Wednesday. Read More

The world has changed since Governor Cuomo tasked his Medicaid Redesign Team with finding $2.5 billion in savings to help balance the state budget. Yet even in light of the coronavirus pandemic, many of the panel's recommendations still make sense – and are arguably more necessary than ever. Read More

In the predictably messy $2 trillion coronavirus response bill approved by Congress on Friday, one provision stands out as a particular travesty: the nonsensical way it distributes public health funding to the states. Read More

When it comes to responding to the coronavirus, New York is likely to struggle with a pre-existing condition: the Taylor Law. Governor Andrew Cuomo has authority to suspend portions of the Taylor Law—and to preserve vital public services, he should. Read More

#NYCoronavirus: What he had stumbled onto was one of Albany’s dirtiest little secrets — an addiction to taxing health care, which has gotten steadily worse over the past quarter-century. And now there’s a danger that the coronavirus crisis will become an excuse for state lawmakers to hike the taxes and hit consumers even harder. Read More