Robert Ward author of the authoritative text book on New York State government, has written a revised and updated edition that has been published by the Rockefeller Institute Press.
The book, New York State Government, has become the leading text on New York’s expansive and complicated government since it was first published in 2002
A powerful state commission recommended that New York State close nine hospitals, eliminate some 7,200 hospital and nursing-home beds, and develop new home- and community-based services that would better meet future needs for health care.
The Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century also recommended that state leaders consider broader changes including comprehensive restructuring of health-care financing, expanded health-insurance coverage, and privatization of three State University teaching hospitals
The state's highest court has drastically lowered the threshold
for resolving the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit on financing
New York City schools -- ruling that it would be "reasonable"
to provide no more than $1.93 billion, in 2004 dollars. Lower court
rulings had pushed a price tag of between $4
Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer has selected Business Council president and CEO Kenneth Adams to serve as a co-chair on one of several policy transition committees.
“The policy advisory committees are composed of a diverse group of leading experts and thought leaders from throughout the state,” a release from the Governor-elects transition office said
Government workers' pay and benefits are far better than their
private-sector counterparts, according to David Denholm, president
of the Public Service Research Foundation.
“The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2005
median weekly earnings for full-time government workers averaged
$758, compared to $625 for those in the private sector,” Denholm
wrote in in an essay for Budget & Tax News published
online by the Heartland Institute
New York State faces looming budget gaps in the billions of dollars, but holding annual spending increases to the rate of inflation would "pretty much solve the problem," the state's budget director said.
Normal spending growth for Medicaid, education and other programs is projected to drive up Albany's General Fund spending by 6 percent annually over the next four years, Budget Director John Cape said in November 1 remarks at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany
New York’s local government finances continue to suffer under
the strain of population loss and property tax pressures, according
to a new report by Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
“The tenuous financial condition of some local governments
(particularly Upstate) persists despite several positive developments
in the past year,” the report said
The Business Council’s new president and CEO, Kenneth Adams,
started his first day by telling the Council’s 60-member staff
that he would work with them to reinvigorate the organization.
“This is a new beginning for all of us,” Adams told
staff gathered at the Council’s Albany headquarters to greet
him during a full staff meeting
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) has proposed a new
federal program to recruit and retain top math and science teachers
through improved training and increased pay.
The program would complement a similar initiative proposed last
year by The Business Council
ALBANY—New York State legislators generally scored lower on The
Business Council's annual legislative report card than they did last year.
On the report card, the "Vote for Jobs Index," six legislators
received a grade of A (down from 19 last year), 24 received a grade of
B (compared to 130 last year), 108 earned a grade of C (compared to 56
last year), and 67 who received a grade of D (compared to three last year)