After a total of 1,089 state employees received authorization by mid-November to retire with a $20,000 severance payment, Gov. David Paterson’s Division of the Budget is extending the program until Jan. 20 to see if the state can get more participation.

   Paterson ordered a total of $500 million in mid-year budget cuts at state [...]

    Attorney General Andrew Cuomo would get the support of 72 percent of registered voters in the state in a primary against Gov. David Paterson, according to a Marist College poll released today. Twenty-one percent of voters would select Paterson, who plans to run for election next year.

   “Right now, Andrew Cuomo has a clear path [...]

   A new Marist College poll that coincides with news today that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has decided not to run for governor found that he would easily win over Democratic Gov. David Paterson but would have his work cut out for him if Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ran instead of Paterson. 

   Among registered voters, Giuliani would [...]

   As negotiations to close a $3.2 billion state budget shortfall continue, the Senate and Assembly have left town until Monday. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, has scheduled session Monday afternoon, although members are on alert that they could be called back earlier with 12 hours notice.

   Senate Majority Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, set the next [...]

   County clerks who protested the state’s plans to issue new license plates and charge drivers $25 each to get them said tonight they are not happy that the state is moving forward with production of the new plates.

   Faced with pressure from county clerks and residents, Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders agreed over [...]

   Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, said the Asssembly, Senate and Gov. David Paterson have reached an agreement to pass legislation that will reform the state’s public-authority system. Brodsky said that bill, plus one passed earlier this year that the governor has said he will sign, will change the culture of what has been called New York’s [...]

   The Senate just passed legislation that would strengthen drunken-driving laws in New York by making it a felony for someone to be driving while impaired and have a child passenger. The vote was 58-0.

   Another provision of the bill would require anyone convicted of drunken driving to install an ignition-interlock system on their car, which [...]

   Nearly 70 percent of registered voters in New York fear the state will run out of money in December, according to a Marist Poll released this afternoon. Twenty-one percent of voters said they are not very worried about that and 10 percent are not worried at all, the poll found.

   When asked if New York’s $3.2 [...]

   The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February provided $106 billion in aid to states, about 25 percent of the $437 billion total state and local budget shortfalls, a report from the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute says.

   Since state and local governments cannot run a deficit, as the federal government can, they [...]

   Ethical misconduct increasingly is the reason state lawmakers leave office, Citizens Union said in a report released today. Fourteen legislators have left office in the past 10 years because of ethical misconduct, criminal charges or similar issues. Five of them left in the 2007-08 session.

   “We are facing not only a fiscal crisis here [...]