Blair Horner

If media reports are to be believed, Governor Hochul and the state’s legislative leaders are inching toward a budget deal this week. The big issues – housing, K-12 education funding, Medicaid – have been getting all of the airtime, but there are many other important policies that are in play.

As they enter a second week of late budget negotiations, Governor Hochul and the state’s legislative leaders reportedly are focusing on their top budget priorities: funding for K-12 education, Medicaid, and housing. An important looming issue that has drawn little media attention is the effort to put the largest fossil fuel companies on the financial hook for New York’s burgeoning climate damage costs.

Whoever established the date for the beginning of New York State’s fiscal year must have had an ironic sense of humor. April 1st is the first day of New York State’s fiscal year, meaning that it should be the day that a new budget is supposed to be in place. The April Fool’s joke is that in modern times it almost never is.

New York’s legislative leaders and the governor are busy in a frantic effort to get the final state budget finished on time, due this weekend. The state Constitution establishes that the new fiscal year begins on April 1st. Despite that requirement, it is often late – last year’s was approved at the end of April.

Last week was the annual recognition of the need for government openness. First celebrated nationally in 2005, “Sunshine Week” was launched as a collaboration of national news organizations to promote transparency in government. The idea is that governments are more effective when they allow public oversight and access to documents and proceedings as well as openness helps curb waste and increases government efficiency and effectiveness.

This week Albany heads into a new phase in the development of the state budget as both houses of the New York State Legislature unveil their budget priorities.

When New Yorkers think of pressing environmental issues, many think of the worsening climate crisis. And with good reason: Last year was the hottest in recorded human history and it is deteriorating rapidly.

Control of the next Congress may turn on what happens in Albany this week. Lawmakers will be considering – for the second time – the political boundaries of the state’s delegation to the House of Representatives. How those lines are drawn may well shape the future of the Republic and its role in the world.

Cuomo's tactic is innovative – destroying the legal authority of the ethics agency that is looking into whether the former governor had received the book deal money illegally.

The world focused its attention on cancer last week. World Cancer Day was a way to educate the public about the threats posed by cancer and create pressure on policymakers to adopt science-based approaches to reducing the incidence of the diseases and to cut deaths from cancer.