December 10, 2019: Managing the State’s Authorities
Jeffrey Pearlman, Director of the New York State Authorities Budget Office, broke down how the state’s authorities run and how they impact resources you use like the Thruway.
View ArticleDecember 10, 2019: Revenue sources for NYS
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has signaled his support for raising revenue over cutting spending on services to deal with the state’s budget gap. Ron Deutsch, Executive Director of the Fiscal Policy...
View ArticleDecember 11, 2019: Senate Minority Leader John Flanagan
Since January, eight members of the Senate Republican Caucus have decided to resign, seek a higher position, or choose to not run for reelection. Senate Minority Leader John Flanagan (R-East Northport)...
View ArticleDecember 11, 2019: Asm. Donna Lupardo on NY’s Hemp Industry
The Governor has signed legislation which will have major impacts on the state’s burgeoning hemp industry. We heard from the Assembly sponsor of the legislation, Asm. Donna Lupardo (D-Binghamton),...
View ArticleDecember 11, 2019: Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has signaled his support to raise the state’s revenues rather than cut spending on services. We discussed the state’s looming budget deficit with the Chair of the Senate...
View ArticleDecember 11, 2019: Religious Discrimination lawsuit
The office of State Attorney General Letitia James is intervening in a religious discrimination case between the Hasidic Judaism community and the Orange County Town of Chester. Chris McKenna, politics...
View ArticleDecember 12, 2019: Education funding
With a new legislative session on the horizon, the Board of Regents has come forward with their budget proposal which includes a 2.1-billion-dollar increase. John Yagelski, chair of the New York State...
View ArticleDecember 12, 2019: Amazon coming to NYC
Amazon is coming to New York City. Albeit in Manhattan and with fewer proposed jobs than the HQ2 plan. Nate Jensen, Professor of Government at the University of Texas-Austin and co-author of the book,...
View ArticleDecember 12, 2019: Opioid crisis in New York
Has the state’s opioid tax brought in the crucial funds needed to address the crisis? John Coppola, Executive Director of the New York Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers, discussed...
View ArticleDecember 12, 2019: Upstate public transportation
We talked about the needs of Upstate public transportation with Bill Carpenter, President of the New York Public Transit Association and serves as the CEO of the Rochester-Genesee Regional...
View ArticleDecember 13, 2019: Reporters
We took a look back at the news of the week that was with Spectrum reporters Nick Reisman and Ryan Whalen.
View ArticleDecember 13, 2019: Health budget
Eric Linzer, President and CEO of the Health Plan Association, shared some of the plans he hopes the state will take when addressing the budget gap this year.
View ArticleDecember 13, 2019: Biggest Stories of 2019: Vaping
Vaping related illnesses were one of the biggest stories of 2019. We discussed the state of vaping in New York and the latest updates with David Robinson, Healthcare reporter for the USA Today Network...
View ArticleDecember 13, 2019: Asm. Robert Carroll on public financing
Asm. Robert Carroll (D-Brooklyn) discussed the recommendations for public campaign financing in New York and what changes he’d like to see.
View ArticleDecember 26, 2019: Top 2019 Stories: Medicaid shortfall
We took a look at how the state managed its Medicaid spending. The 2020 budget battle will be defined by how the state responds to a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall which was caused in part by...
View ArticleDecember 26, 2019: Top Stories 2019: Religious Exemptions on Vaccines
2019 brought us the largest measles outbreak in New York in three decades. The outbreak led to a push on the state level to end the religious exemption on vaccines. The ensuing legislative and legal...
View ArticleDecember 26, 2019: Top Stories 2019: Adult use marijuana legalization
One of the bigger legislative issues that remained on the table was the legalization of adult-use recreational marijuana. Melissa Moore, Deputy New York State Director of the Drug Policy Alliance,...
View ArticleDecember 26, 2019: Top Stories 2019: Voting reforms
Voting reforms were one of the first pieces of major legislation that the Democratic majorities in both legislative houses acted on. Jarret Berg, Co-Founder of VoteEarlyNY, explained how the voting...
View ArticleDecember 27, 2019: Rebuilding the GOP w/Yasmine Syed
The New York Republican Party has been winless in statewide elections since 2002 when George Pataki was reelected to a third term as Governor. To compete on the statewide level, the GOP will need to...
View ArticleDecember 27, 2019: Top Stories 2019: Rent reforms
We’re continuing through our list of the biggest news stories of 2019. First up, we talked with Laura Felts, Executive Director of United Tenants of Albany, on the rent reforms passed by the...
View Article