Hundreds of correction officers traveled to the Capitol today to urge lawmakers to reject a plan by Gov. David Paterson to cut about 2,000 of their jobs.

Instead, officials of their union said, the department should cut administrators to save money.

“It is extremely disturbing to NYSCOPBA that those charged with developing plans to instittue saving measures [...]

The Assembly this evening approved a bill to make it easier to consolidate local governments. The vote was 118-26. It now goes to the Senate, where action is expected later this week.

The adoption is a big win for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who proposed the plan. It’s considered a major plank in the platform of [...]

Democrats in both the Senate and Assembly appear likely to split over a measure to require farmers to pay their workers overtime.

The Senate Labor Committee is expected to approve the measure this morning.  Then later Senate Ag Committee Chairman Darrel Aubertine, D-Watertown, is slated to be part of a press conference attacking the move, along [...]

The anticipated increase in taxpayer subsidies to the state pension system will mean an average property-tax increase of 10 percent or more by 2011 in most cities, the head of the state Conference of Mayor said today.

“The bigger the city, the more public-safety expenses, the higher those percentages will be,’’ said conference executive director Peter [...]

The value of assets held by the state pension fund plunged 26 percent last year, to $109.9 billion, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said today.

The drop will mean higher contributions from taxpayers will be needed in 2011 to keep paying pension benefits to retirees of state and local governments, he said.

He attributed the drop to the international [...]

How dysfunctional and combative is the Senate?

“You couldn’t get two-thirds of them to agree on what was even if there was only one clock in the room,’’ E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center, a conservative think tank, opined today on Talk-1300 radio in Albany this morning.

Republicans and Democrats have been remarkably consistent in voting along [...]

June is normally the time when thoughts of many people turn to proms, the end of school, summer vacations, pennant races and barbeques. But this year, New Yorkers may have to focus on their wallets a little more than usual. A host of new taxes passed as part of the state budget and then, [...]

Andrew Cuomo’s bill on government consolidation hit a snag today when three senators refused to back it in a committee meeting.

Cuomo’s proposal, likely to be voted on by both houses of the Legislature next week, would make it easier for local governments and citizens to merge and abolish towns, villages, special districts and other government [...]

Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders agreed today to temporarily extend a key energy-subsidy program for businesses, but couldn’t come up with a consensus on how to permanently reform it.
The leaders all pledged to work to renew the Power for Jobs program that sends low-cost hydropower to businesses that pledge to maintain or expand jobs.
The [...]

Gov. Paterson and minority lawmakers today reveled in President Obama’s  nomination  of Bronx native Sonia Sotomayor to be a Supreme Court justice. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Latina and only the third woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.  Sotomayor, 54, whose parents moved to New York City from [...]