Jim Heaney

Jim Heaney is editor and executive director of Investigative Post. He was an investigative reporter with The Buffalo News from 1986 to 2011 and a reporter and editor with The Orlando Sentinel from 1980-86. His coverage over the years has focused on economic development, local and state government, politics, education, housing and transportation, and he was an early practitioner of computer-assisted reporting. Heaney has won more than 20 journalism awards and was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

Apr 18

2022

Q&A: Critiquing the state budget

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

Apr 17

2022

Monday Morning Read

Below is an updated version of the “What I’m Reading” section of the WeeklyPost newsletter that is emailed to subscribers each Sunday morning. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here. There’s a lot for Kathy Hochul to fix as governor, including corruption and a lack of transparency in state government. (I think she’s off to a lousy start on both fronts.) But there’s also the issue of toxic masculinity in Albany, a topic The New York Times explored in a story Sunday. An interesting read. Two Buffalo News stories caught my eye last week: The Western New York economy is not recovering from[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 11

2022

Hochul playing footsies with donors

There’s yet another troubling story about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s ethical conduct. The Albany Times Union reported Sunday about Hochul donors pushing legislation to benefit their businesses gaining access to the governor’s senior staff. The story also provides examples of Hochul subsequently using her power as governor to support the business interests of those donors. This arrangement isn’t necessarily illegal, or even unusual in today’s money-soaked political environment. But it stands in stark contrast with the governor’s stated desire to improve the ethics of state government, which some watchdogs consider a cesspool. Hochul continues to draw criticism on another ethical front:[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 10

2022

Monday Morning Read

Below is the latest “What I’m Reading” portion of our email newsletter that publishes every Sunday. You can subscribe for free here. Let’s discuss “opportunity costs” for a few minutes. An opportunity cost is when you spend money on something at the expense of spending it on something else. An example: You’ve got $100 to spend. You put it towards a nice dinner rather than, say, buying a new winter jacket. That said, the decision by state — and soon, county officials — to spend $1.13 billion to build and maintain a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills involves a huge opportunity[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Apr 3

2022

Monday Morning Read

This week’s reposting of the “What I’m Reading” section of my weekly newsletter is topped by a couple of fresh items that published in newspapers Sunday. You can subscribe to DailyPost here. It’s free and arrives via email at 6 a.m. every Sunday. I devoted the entire newsletter this week to coverage of the Bills stadium deal, which has generated a lot of attention – and press – across the state and beyond. For perspective, consider this story from USA Today. The Tennessee Titans are planning a new stadium and the speaker of the state House of Representatives told a[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Mar 28

2022

Monday Morning Read

Below is an excerpt from yesterday’s WeeklyPost, which is sent via email every Sunday morning. You can subscribe, for free, here. Ken Kruly has a terrific analysis on New York’s gambling addiction. That is, state’s government’s gambling addiction. It’s a very smart read. Personally, I think the whole gambling thing is getting a bit much. All the ads on my Twitter feed are enough to turn me off. But now we’ve got a pro athlete, no less than hockey superstar Connor McDavid, signing an endorsement deal with an online betting site. And, of course, there’s the continued practice of The Buffalo News[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Mar 21

2022

Smart reads on the Bills stadium

I’ve got three items related to the Bills stadium situation that I want to share. The Citizens Budget Commission came out Monday in favor of an idea that’s bound to go nowhere because it makes too much sense: base the state’s investment in a new Bills stadium on the actual benefits it would produce for taxpayers. Said the commission: All economic development spending, whether direct, through tax incentives, or through reduced utility or other costs, should be justified by a rigorous analysis that shows that the public benefits that would accrue will exceed the public’s costs. New York does not[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Mar 20

2022

Monday Morning Read

Editor’s note: This post is pulled from WeeklyPost, an email newsletter written by Jim Heaney and published Sunday mornings. It recaps our coverage of the previous week and highlights other local, state and national stories that Heaney finds of interest, along with a bit of commentary. If you don’t already subscribe — for free — you can do so at this link. Below is the portion of yesterday’s WeeklyPost entitled “What I’m Reading.” Buffalo Business First had an interesting story last week on eight behind-the-scenes advisers the Buffalo Bills have recruited to help them in their push for a new stadium. One name jumped[...]

Posted 3 years ago