May
01

Spitzer jabs Cuomo on economic development

Former governor takes the current one to task for patronage hiring at Empire State Development Corp., and a taxpayer funded advertising campaign. A report from Politicker.

Apr
19

Cuomo a sore loser

Jeremy Zellner, chairman of the Erie County Democratic Party, tells Jim Heaney of Investigative Post that Gov. Andrew Cuomo still isn’t talking to party HQ after failing to elect his preferred candidate to lead local Democrats. More of the interview will air Saturday about 6:40 a.m. on WGRZ Daybreak.

Apr
04

Peace Bridge road project not a done deal

Governor Andrew Cuomo a month ago announced a project to reconfigure traffic routes leading to and from the Peace Bridge as all but a done deal. Not so fast. The $22 million project faces a review that officials want to expedite to finish in a year. Part of the process involves something that project planners [...]

Apr
02

The problem with Albany governing in the dark

As if we needed more evidence that New York’s “Three Men in a Room” way of governing doesn’t work, there is this year’s legislative session. First there was the wham-bam bill to toughen gun control laws. Among other things, it limited magazines to no more than seven rounds of ammunition. Turns out that few such [...]

Feb
22

Beyond controlling

A state employee praises Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is threatened with termination, resigns, and gets raked over the coals anyway. His sin: talking to a reporter without permission. The New York Times details the lengths to which Cuomo and Co. micromanage the release of information.

Feb
17

Q&A: Nanotech guru Alain Kaloyeros

Alain Kaloyeros works in Albany but is emerging as a key player in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s effort to revitalize the Western New York economy.  Kaloyeros is the senior vice president and CEO of the College of Nanoscience and Engineering at the University of Albany. Since 1988 he has lead the effort to develop a nanotechnology [...]

Feb
15

Details on Cuomo’s first Billion To Buffalo investment

I’ve been reporting on economic development in this town for more than a decade and the way Andrew Cuomo and Co. plan on spending the first installment of the $1 billion they’ve pledged to revitalize the Buffalo area economy is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I mean this in a good way. Gov. Cuomo in [...]

Feb
04

High taxes land one-third of local governments on fiscally distressed list

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to cap binding arbitration rulings involving public employee union contracts working for local governments deemed in “fiscal distress”. Localities would earn this dubious distinction if their reserves represent less than 5 percent of their operating budgets if their tax rates rank among the state’s top quartile. The Albany Times Union has a [...]