By chance, I happened to notice that on Nov. 9, The Huffington Post reported that a potential Republican challenger to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a 2014 gubernatorial race, was defeated in his reelection bid for Erie County executive. more

On Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law requiring that people with autism spectrum disorders receive insurance coverage for screening, diagnosis and treatment, announced New York State Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., who sponsored the measurement in the Senate. more

It wasn’t that long ago when then Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking about the war in Iraq, repeated that old expression, “If you break it, you own it.” As Gov. Andrew Cuomo enters his second year in office, he will have to deal with the responsibility of owning a large number of state issues. more

My last two columns, “As promised: keeping tabs” (June 30 – July 6) and “Is the bloom off the rose?” (July 21-27) provided information to evaluate the session-ending accomplishments of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Two fundamental questions were raised. Has there been a real transformation in addressing the way the “people’s business” is being managed in Albany? Do our political leaders really understand that the state of New York is still headed down a path of fiscal instability and requires levels of real reform hardly evident to date? more

Gov. Andrew Cuomo came to the home of a Lynbrook family to sign New York’s first property tax cap on June 30 — six days after the State Senate approved the legislation that proponents say will usher in a new era of fiscal responsibility. Cuomo was joined by local officials, including Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Republican from Rockville Centre, Assemblyman Brian Curran and Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano. more

This one was never in doubt. Legislation that will put a cap on property tax levies passed by a 57-to-5 margin in the State Senate before it made it through the Assembly and was signed into law by … more

No one is sure precisely what the 2 percent tax-levy cap passed by the state last week will mean for Bellmore-Merrick’s four elementary districts and one high school district, but it could force the districts to cut student programming and lay off teachers in order to stay under the legal limit. more

State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos says he is optimistic that despite the difficult choices they face, this is the year when Albany lawmakers will finally make the structural changes to the state budget needed to rein in spending. more

I have to admit, I’m having a problem understanding how, in just 33 working days, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team was able to recommend 79 cost cutting measures to save $2.3 billion in the upcoming budget. I’ll address this concern from three viewpoints. 
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My last column, “Stop playing games with the budget deficit” (Feb. 3) was written one week before New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli issued his analysis of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget draft. The irrationality I outlined fell short of anticipating the following mea-culpa expressed in the comptroller’s analysis. “The SFY 2010-2011 enacted budget relied on $16.7 billion in non-recurring or temporary budget resources; and overly optimistic tax revenue projections, causing a dramatically worsened state structural deficit.” How dramatic? These tenuous entries constituted 30 percent of all the monies in the state’s operating fund. more