Opinion

For victims of heinous crimes whose perpetrators are behind bars, parole hearings can be traumatic. The state can do more to protect victims and families of victims from undue suffering by passing Ramona’s Law. The bill extends the maximum time that certain violent felons are reconsidered for parole by the state parole board from two […]

It was less than 30 years ago when the Americans with Disabilities Act passed Congress and was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. The law prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else. Since that time, many changes have been instituted and gradually, access and technology

There are many reasons why Congress finds itself hamstrung in Washington, D.C. and discounted by the people it serves at home. These include long-term trends over which it has little control — the political polarization of the country; the oceans of money that get dumped into the political process; and, the push by successive presidents

The Trump economy continued to roar ahead with 263,000 jobs created in April 2019 — 236,000 of those jobs in the private sector. The unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percent to an almost shocking 50-year low at 3.6 percent.  When coupled with the just-announced first-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimate of 3.2 percent inflation-adjusted, annualized growth, the

[Recently], I was speaking to a group of students and decided to start with a point-blank question: Is Congress doing a good job? About 100 people were in the room, and not a single one raised his or her hand. So, I asked the question a different way: Is Congress nearly or completely dysfunctional? Most

As I shared with the nearly 1,200 attendees at CenterState CEO’s annual meeting on April 24, there is something exciting happening in this community, a rare and remarkable momentum and convergence of economic opportunities. It is coupled with a tangible shift in attitudes, a renewed commitment to collaboration, and perhaps more importantly, a sense of

In 1994, the state began the Linked Deposit Program (LDP) to assist and encourage firms, manufacturers, and small businesses to make investments. This program offers reduced-rate financing to makes it less expensive to borrow money.  Under this program, qualifying businesses can obtain loans through commercial banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, farm credit institutions

After years of debate and discussion about proposed changes to I-81, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) announced its support [on April 22] for the community grid option. While we still await a final environmental-impact statement and another round of public hearings, the future of Syracuse is bright. I came out in support of the

While not directly related to New York State (NYS) fiscal issues, some of the biggest policies included in this year’s state budget were changes to our state’s criminal-justice system. The largest of those changes was the elimination of cash bail for most crimes other than certain qualifying offenses. The elimination of cash bail has been

New York’s property taxes are the highest in the nation. Tragically, this year’s state budget, instead of trying to provide some tax relief to our already overburdened property owners, makes ill-conceived changes to the one state program that is actually designed to provide property tax relief. That is the STAR (School Tax Relief) Program. The