Tag: State Government

Sep 8

2024

The continuing assault on the public’s right to know

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On paper, New York State’s Freedom of Information Law is OK. Not great, but OK.  In practice, however, state and local government officials often flout its requirements, using them not to produce records, but delay their release.  The response of the state Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul hasn’t been to toughen the law to penalize bad faith conduct, but to add a requirement that public employees be notified when their disciplinary records are requested under FOI. Good government groups vigorously opposed the change, saying it places further burdens on a system already functioning poorly and could discourage members of the[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Aug 5

2024

DOT plays gotcha on the Scajaquada Expressway

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The Scajaquada Expressway isn’t a toll road. Not technically.  But the state Department of Transportation has turned it into a moneymaker by surreptitiously installing speed detection cameras under the guise that a stretch of the roadway is a construction zone. As a result, DOT has been issuing a lot of speeding tickets – in the thousands, by the department’s own admission – to motorists. WKBW first reported on the situation, here and here, followed by The Buffalo News.  As The News reported: Patrick Freeman, a retired police officer who spent 30 years on SUNY Buffalo State University’s force, has filed[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Jan 12

2024

What’s included, and missing, in Hochul agenda

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This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here. IT WAS THE FIRST in a series of big days in Albany. At 1 pm Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul gave her 2024 State of the State address, outlining the past year’s achievements and the coming year’s priorities. The speech kicked off what’s sure to be a tense legislative session, as November’s elections loom and the governor and legislature work through their frosty relationship. We looked out for the year’s big political fights. New York Focus had five[...]

Posted 10 months ago

Jan 5

2023

Putting legislative pay raises in perspective

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Updated: 11:18 a.m. State legislators were generous with themselves beyond the $32,000 a year raise they approved last month. The legislation also included loopholes that good government groups are characterizing as weak on ethics and conflicts of interest. What’s more, the raises, justified by supporters as compensation for inflation, far exceed increases in the cost of living. Reinvent Albany compared the provisions of the legislation with recommendations made in 2018 by a state compensation commission that considered pay raises for legislators, among other state elected officials. “The bottom line is that the law giving the Legislature a huge pay raise[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jun 15

2022

Hochul’s lack of due diligence on expressway

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Gov. Kathy Hochul has committed $1 billion to cover a portion of the Kensington Expressway without benefit of any studies to assess the project’s updated cost or impact on the environment and health of East Side residents. Meanwhile, the state governor’s office and Department of Transportation are slow-walking Freedom of Information requests from Investigative Post seeking documents related to the project.  The state FOI law generally requires agencies to provide records within 20 business days of receiving a request. Twenty-six business days have passed since Investigative Post filed its requests. The DOT has said it intends to take up to[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jun 12

2022

Monday Morning Read

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Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter, an excerpt from which you’ll find below. Reinvent Albany has a good rundown of the good and bad of the session’s final flurry.  Among the bad: a $10 billion allocation, negotiated in the dark, to provide huge subsidies to the semiconductor industry. There’s good analysis here and here. New York Focus has more, on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s slush funds and lack of transparency. The state Legislature passed a two-year moratorium on cryptomining. Will Hochul sign or veto the measure? The industry has given big to her campaign and that of her running mate. So,[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Jun 9

2022

OTB reform bills stall in state Legislature

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After state auditors criticized the handling of public funds and resources at Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., a pair of Democratic state lawmakers sponsored legislation in hopes of changing the way the public benefit corporation operates.  The reform measures — sponsored by state Assemblywoman Monica Wallace, D-Lancaster, and state Sen. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo — were not approved by the state Legislature before the end of this year’s session that concluded Saturday. Kennedy’s bills passed the Senate, but not the Assembly. Wallace’s bill never got out of committee in the Assembly. Wallace said she plans to submit a revised version of[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Apr 18

2022

Q&A: Critiquing the state budget

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John Kaehny is executive director of the good-government group Reinvent Albany and a leading experts on state government. He and his team have been poring over the state budget, which as adopted April 6.  He offered this take in an interview last week with Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney. Heaney: Before we get into dollars and cents, let’s talk about the process the governor and state Legislature used to determine how to spend $220 billion this coming year. Is it anyway to run a railroad? Kaehny: New York needs a better name than “budget process.” The governor and legislature have[...]

Posted 3 years ago
Investigative Post