Then-Gov. Cuomo holds a health care meeting (photo: Philip Kamrass/Governor's Office)

New York State overpaid more than $194 million in Medicaid payments during the pandemic after state officials failed to move eligible recipients to a cheaper funding plan, according to the Office of State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

An audit of Medicaid payments from March 2021 to March 2022 found the state Department of Health continued to pay higher premiums to care management organizations even after receiving federal authorization to move some Medicaid recipients to a different plan at a fraction of

Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders, 2013 (photo: Governor's Office)

Democrats in New York are stinging from a rough 2022 election showing in which they lost several congressional seats to Republicans, potentially costing the party control of the U.S. House of Representatives. As they assign blame, many have pointed to a tumultuous redistricting precipitated by a broken state process, state legislative leaders who overreached in trying to draw overly partisan lines, a Court of Appeals that ruled in favor of Republicans, and former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose

Democrats rallying (photo: @PatRyanUC)

UPDATE: On election night, results showed the Working Families Party achieve enough votes on its ballot line for Kathy Hochul to retain its political party status and ballot line in upcoming elections. In response to the New York gubernatorial election results, Director of the New York Working Families Party Sochie Nnaemeka released the following celebratory statement:

“The Working Families Party is proud to have secured more than enough votes to maintain our ballot line and continue fighting for working New Yorkers. Our grassroots volunteers mobilized voters from

In the State Legislature (photo: NYS Senate Media Services)

Governor Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders did not intend to hand map-drawing power to the courts when, in 2012, they hashed out a state constitutional amendment that recast the decennial redistricting process. Nor did they envision, after months of contentious public debate and closed-door negotiations, that the first pass at the new system would result in a hastily-organized, bifurcated election season with two major primaries taking place separately in a single summer.

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The Capitol in Albany (photo: Darren McGee/Governor's Office)

New York’s newest state government ethics commission, set to replace the infamously dysfunctional Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), will soon take its first steps when its members are approved by a committee of law school deans. That could take place beginning as soon as this month.

Nine out of 11 nominees to the new Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (CELG) have been formally named by New York's statewide elected officials and legislative

Gov. Hochul discussing COVID-19 (photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

The state is soliciting bids for outside consultants to conduct a long-awaited review of New York's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.

The governor is seeking a consulting firm that was not involved in the state's response to do a comprehensive assessment of the steps New York took to curtail the virus and develop an action plan to correct response systems for future emergencies. The announcement came two weeks after ...

Gov. Kathy Hochul (photo: Don Pollard/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

Governor Kathy Hochul emerged victorious in the Democratic primary Tuesday, handily defeating her challengers, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. The race was called by the Associated Press shortly after polls closed at 9 p.m. as Hochul's wide margin quickly emerged.

New York’s first female governor, Hochul ascended to the position from Lieutenant Governor upon then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s August 2021 resignation and she is attempting to win her first term as the

Governor Cuomo sworn in for a third term (photo: office of Andrew Cuomo)

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in the early 19th century that "intrigue and corruption are a natural vice of elected governments; but when the head of state can be reelected these vices spread beyond bounds and compromise the very existence of the country.”

Governor Kathy Hochul apparently agrees. In her January State of the State message, delivered five months after Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned under threat of impeachment and she assumed office, she

Gov. Hochul speaks at an "abortion justice" event (photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

A draft majority opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court, which was leaked and reported on by Politico on Monday, would strike down the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that granted a federal constitutional right to an abortion. Though the opinion — on Dobbs v. Jackson

Then-Gov. Cuomo & then-Lt. Gov. Hochul (photo: Darren McGee/Governor's Office)

An internal review of New York State's response to the COVID-19 pandemic is quietly "underway," a spokesperson for Governor Kathy Hochul has confirmed, though what stage it is in remains unclear.

The governor's office has been tight-lipped about its scope and timeline but acknowledged that a review is being discussed, at least among top administration officials, in response to Gotham Gazette inquiries. Those questions followed Gotham Gazette reporting last month on the possibility of an investigatory

Gov. Cuomo holding a covid briefing (photo: Governor's Office)

In 2018, a sight-seeing helicopter crashed into the East River near Manhattan's Upper East Side, killing five passengers. A year later it happened again on the roof of a skyscraper in midtown. The pilot died. After the second crash, Senator Chuck Schumer called for the FAA to require helicopters be equipped with "black boxes," like airplanes, so officials could examine what goes on in the cockpit before a wreck and avoid future tragedies.

Two years after the first recorded COVID-19 deaths in New York, facing the threat of a new strain

Gov. Hochul talks economic development (photo: Darren McGee/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

In their separate one-house budget resolutions passed this week both houses of the State Legislature included a "database of deals," a public register of state business subsidies that would shed light on billions of dollars in government incentives to corporations.

The legislation, which has been around for years but not passed, would require the state to publish a searchable database of state subsidies for economic development projects that would document the corporate recipient, the state benefits received,

The New York State Senate (photo: NY Senate Media Services)

For years the Democratic majority of the New York State Assembly advanced bills its members knew the Republican-controlled State Senate wouldn't pass. Still other legislation, especially related to government ethics, transparency, and elections, stewed on the backburner with neither majority moving it forward. Those were the days of two-party rule in Albany, of a group of breakaway Democrats who buoyed Republicans, and a governor happy to straddle the middle.

Since

Assemblymember Cruz, middle, with Governor Hochul (photo: @CatalinaCruzNY)

“My neighbors speak more than 150 languages. We have folks from all over the world who call this beautiful community their home. They are small business owners, they are first responders, they are frontline workers, we also have Elmhurst hospital. It’s just a beautiful, beautiful community that I am extremely proud to represent,” said Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, a Democrat who represents the 39th Assembly district, made up of Corona, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights in Queens.

Appearing on a...

Then-Gov. Cuomo signs legislation (photo: Darren McGee/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

In the aftermath of the highest number of overdose deaths recorded in New York State in a single year, advocates and substance use treatment providers are calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to sign what they call a crucial piece of legislation to reverse the trend. Without the new governor’s signature, they say, the state’s recently-established two-tiered substance use treatment system, with greater barriers to access for lower-income New Yorkers, will continue and

Gov. Hochul (photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

Governor Kathy Hochul on Friday marked her first month in office, during which she has responded to several ongoing and new crises, barnstormed the state in public appearances, and sought to begin restoring confidence in state government after nearly three full terms of her disgraced predecessor’s leadership.

Hochul, a Democrat from Buffalo, continues to carve out the rot of Andrew Cuomo’s administration and build out the top echelons of her executive office as she works to put more

Then-Gov. Cuomo with current Gov. Hochul (photo: Governor's Office)

With the abrupt end of the ten-year reign of Governor Andrew Cuomo, reformers inside and outside of state government are looking for change. Unspooling their wishlist has been a kind of inaugural red carpet for Governor Kathy Hochul, who took office last month after Cuomo resigned amid a flurry of scandal -- almost all connected, in some way, to government ethics, transparency, and the erosion of checks and balances.

Hochul immediately pledged to take steps to undo Cuomo's

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (photo: NY Senate Media Services)

Amid major upheaval in state government and ongoing pandemic-era crises in New York, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins is embracing a sense of stability and an opportunity for more collaboration among political leaders.

During a recent appearance on the Max Politics podcast from Gotham Gazette, Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat

State Senator Alessandra Biaggi (center) (Photo: NY Senate)

Looking over the scandal-pocked landscape of Albany in the wake of former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, lawmakers in the State Senate set their sights this week on the dysfunctional Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the state’s ethics watchdog often criticized for its apparent lack of independence and bite.

At a Senate ethics committee hearing Wednesday, senators on both sides of the aisle tore into JCOPE’s executive director, Judge Sanford Berland, over the rules and practices

Senator Michael Gianaris (photo: NYS Senate)

Last week, with New York’s executive branch embroiled in scandal and former Governor Andrew Cuomo set to resign, State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris appeared on Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics Podcast to reflect on Cuomo’s reign and resignation, the political dynamics of Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul taking over as the state’s first woman governor, and policy

Governor Kathy Hochul (Mike Groll/Governor's office)

Newly sworn-in Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday she would take proactive measures to fight the spread of the Covid delta variant, quickly distribute federal relief funds and immediately strengthen state ethics and sexual harassment regulations as she seeks to change the culture in Albany that she inherited from disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Hochul, a Democrat, was sworn in earlier in the day, becoming the 57th governor of New York State and making history as the first woman to hold the

Governor Andrew Cuomo (Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's office)

Governor Andrew Cuomo struck a defiant tone Monday in his farewell address as he sought to defend his record in office and paint the attorney general’s sexual harassment investigation that prompted his resignation as “unfair” and “unjust.”

Cuomo is officially stepping down at 11:59 p.m., two weeks after announcing that he would resign following an independent investigation which found he had sexually harassed or groped 11 women, nine of whom are current and former state employees. His

Incoming Governor Kathy Hochul (photo: governor's office)

Kathy Hochul will become New York’s 57th governor on Tuesday, and the first woman ever to hold the position, as disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation goes into effect and he hands over the reins of state government. Hochul, who has been Cuomo’s lieutenant governor since 2015, will take over the complicated machinery and immense power of state government. She will face no shortage of challenges as she assumes authority over an executive chamber mired in scandal and a state

Soon-to-be-Governor Kathy Hochul (photo: governor's office)

Kathy Hochul, the Democratic Lieutenant Governor about to become New York's 57th Governor and first woman to hold the position, has been stepping further into her own after the resignation announcement by Governor Andrew Cuomo. As Hochul becomes Governor on Tuesday, August 24, 2021, she will define herself anew as the most powerful state government leader, free of the trappings of the Lieutenant Governor position, largely seen as a key functionary for the Governor and his or her

Senator Michael Gianaris (photo: NYS Senate Media Services)

August 20, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: Senator Michael Gianaris on Post-Cuomo New York Politics

State Senator Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat and deputy leader of the State Senate, joined the show to discuss Governor Andrew Cuomo's downfall and reign, what's next in New York state politics, legislative priorities and dynamics, his own political future, and much more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know