State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (photo: @bradhoylman)

For decades, Big Tobacco companies like R.J. Reynolds have insidiously pushed menthol cigarettes onto our most vulnerable communities, perhaps most infamously withBlack Americans. Menthol cigarettes are mint-flavored and highly addictive because they soothe the throat and mask the

Gov. Hochul talks housing (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

Governor Kathy Hochul is attempting a major course correction in New York’s approach to housing creation in this year’s state budget and the stakes couldn’t be higher. For the governor, weakened after a tighter-than-expected election that won her a first full-term, it could be a major legacy-making achievement even if its effects aren’t felt immediately. And for New Yorkers, it could be the first meaningful step towards truly easing the state’s acute housing shortage and reducing the atmospheric cost of housing in the

New Yorkers getting help (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayor's Office)

I was a teenager in the 1980s when I learned firsthand what it meant to face eviction and landlord harassment. Three different landlords, but they all used the same playbook: they failed to provide adequate heat, thinking they could take advantage of my family’s difficult economic situation. Allowing dangerous living conditions is a form of eviction in which landlords don’t even need to sue their tenants in court. Instead, they push tenants out with threats to their health and safety. Each year, countless

Senator Liz Krueger (photo: NY Senate)

Lawmakers in Albany are in the midst of crafting a new budget, with negotiations now stretching beyond the April 1 start of the new fiscal year. Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and the two houses of the State Legislature, both with Democratic supermajorities, are likely to pass a budget “extender” so the state can pay its bills, especially payroll, as they continue negotiations this week.

State Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat who leads the Senate’s finance committee, has been at the center of the budget process, co-chairing weeks of legislative hearings on

Mayor Adams & Governor Hochul (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

With a new state budget entering final negotiations, Mayor Eric Adams traveled to the state capital this week to pitch Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature on his administration’s fiscal and policy priorities. Funding for migrant asylum-seekers and the MTA as well as other fiscal matters remain at the top of his list as the mayor has otherwise presented a limited policy agenda in Albany amid attempts to recalibrate his relationship with legislative leaders.

Last year, Adams’ intergovernmental and Albany

The Governor, Mayor, ABNY leaders, Richard Buery & Dan Doctoroff (photo: Governor's Office)

As final negotiations over the state budget take place in Albany, a panel of experts convened by Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams are urging the State Legislature to support a series of proposals to tackle the state’s immense need for new housing. 

In June 2022, the governor and mayor assembled the 'New' New York panel of more than 50 experts and leaders across labor, business, academic, nonprofit, and philanthropic circles to advise them on the future of the city and state. The panel was

Inside the State Legislature (photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

Despite funding in the executive and legislative budget proposals, lawmakers have not ruled out shelving the state's fledgling public campaign finance system for the upcoming election cycle.

Rumors that lawmakers were considering delaying the new small-dollar matching program as part of budget negotiations have been swirling since such talks were...

NYS Housing Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

March 29, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas on Governor Hochul's 'New York Housing Compact'

New York State Housing Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas joined the show to discuss Governor Kathy Hochul's New York Housing Compact proposal, negotiations with the Legislature, meetings around the state to discuss the plan, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can

Seeking health care (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Over the past three years, New York has been the epicenter of a global pandemic, seen the outbreak of mpox, a reemergence of polio, and recently experienced spikes in flu, COVID, and RSV. Currently, an unprecedented number of asylum-seekers are looking to New York City and its safety-net health-care providers for care.

Come April 1, the state will face another potential crisis, as 7 million New Yorkers will have to undergo a difficult and error-prone process

Gov. Hochul addresses the Legislature (photo: office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

The Democratic supermajorities in the State Senate and Assembly recently laid their cards on the table with the passage of their chambers' one-house budget resolutions.

The resolutions serve as opening counter-offers to Governor Kathy Hochul's $227 billion executive budget and sweeping policy agenda, marking battle lines and raising the stakes on a number of key issues. They followed weeks of legislative hearings on the governor's

 Economic development with a focus on MWBEs (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

As Governor Hochul and lawmakers in Albany work toward a new state budget, meaningful conversations are occurring on a wide range of critical issues from housing to workforce development to sustainability to health care and more. New York has long been at the forefront of advancing consequential progressive policies in these and other areas. But given the current political dynamic and the historic diversity of our state government, we have a tremendous opportunity to leverage this

Gov. Hochul visits a hospital (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

Hospital administrators and state regulators say a severe workforce shortage has stymied efforts to restore a majority of the 1,050 inpatient psychiatric beds removed across the state during the height of the pandemic in 2020.

Three years later, over 600 beds remain offline, according to the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH), despite a $55 million infusion in last year's state budget and another $9 million to support the staffing pipeline.

The beds have become a focal point for Governor Kathy Hochul

State Senator Liz Krueger, center-right, with other state leaders (photo: NYS Senate)

March 20, 2023 - Max Politics Podcast: Senator Liz Krueger on State Budget Negotiations

State Senator Liz Krueger, chair of the Senate finance committee, joined the show to discuss state budget negotiations with under two weeks before the April 1 deadline for a new spending plan.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the

Treatment could be available for more defendants (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

State legislation to expand alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illness is gaining momentum in Albany amid debates over how criminal justice, public safety, and mental health care policy interact.

The Treatment Not Jails Act would require judicial diversion courts in every county of the state and expand the list of special circumstances that qualify a defendant to have their case heard outside a conventional

PSC CUNY contract rally (photo: @psccunygc)

City University of New York faculty, staff, and students marched outside CUNY Central headquarters in East Midtown early Monday morning, in a nearly 500 person-strong rally organized by the Professional Staff Congress – the union representing over 30,000 CUNY employees. The rally was scheduled for the eve of the expiration of PSC’s labor contract with CUNY, and union members are gearing up to negotiate an extensive list of demands for their first contract since before the covid pandemic.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and PSC President James Davis

Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have a strong working relationship, one that they have repeatedly emphasized at joint announcements, news conferences, and speeches. It’s in clear contrast to their predecessors, who spent years squabbling over many issues, both parochial and consequential to New Yorkers. But with the recent release of the governor’s budget plan, the two first-term Democrats find themselves at odds over various cuts, cost shifts, and unfunded mandates for New York City that the mayor is none too

Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

As Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, both first-term Democrats, double down this year on their focus on public safety and crime in New York, both have emphasized the need to give prosecutors and defense attorneys more resources to do their jobs. Both leaders have said the funding is necessary to abide by recent state criminal justice reforms and reduce court backlogs. But, while prosecutors across the state may soon be bolstered with more funding, public defenders say they aren’t aren’t receiving commensurate financial

Mayor Adams and top aides in Albany (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Mayor Eric Adams trekked to the State Capitol in Albany on Wednesday, testifying before the State Legislature on Governor Kathy Hochul’s $227 billionexecutive budget proposal for the state’s 2024 fiscal year, which starts April 1, and outlining some of his administration’s state-level priorities.

Projects underway (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

After voters overwhelmingly approved it last fall, state officials expect to issue the first bonds under the $4.2 billion Environmental Bond Act in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins April 1. It will take years to spend the entire sum, aimed at addressing some of the state's most dire climate and environmental needs.

The bond act authorizes the state to raise its general obligation debt to support public works in four broad categories: climate change mitigation, flood risk reduction, water quality improvement, and land

Governor Hochul presents her budget (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)

Governor Kathy Hochul has included $39.5 million for New York's Public Campaign Finance Board (PCFB), a fraction of the funding the new agency requested to launch a long-anticipated public matching fund program for state campaigns.

Candidates for statewide and state legislative office now have the opportunity to receive a public match on small-dollar donations, a program meant to reduce the influence of big money donors in elections. On Wednesday, the

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

Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday released a $227 billion Executive Budget, her proposal for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins April 1, including major initiatives on mental health, affordable housing, public safety, and investments in “the New York Dream” to support seniors, young adults, parents, veterans, entrepreneurs, and others.

“It's a thoughtful plan that furthers our progressive values and our priorities as New Yorkers, but also ensures fiscal responsibility,” said Hochul, a Democrat who just

Gov. Hochul delivers her 2023 State of the State (photo: Don Pollard/Governor's Office)

In her State of the State speech last week, Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, outlined her agenda for the year ahead, pledging continued action on public safety, an ambitious housing plan, major investments in climate action, mental health care, child care, and more. But even as she outlined many planks in her policy agenda, further outlined in a 275-page booklet, there were several areas where she only provided a vague notion of something

Governor Hochul gives her first State of the State (photo: Darren McGee/Governor's Office)

A year ago, after Governor Hochul had made her first State of the State address, I wrote a column,For State’s Future, The Governor Must Say No, urging her to reject well-intentioned but unwise proposals by legislators and activists. Reading it again now, after Hochul’s

Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani at Wednesday's press conference (photo: Kara McCurdy)

December 15, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani on How to 'Fix the MTA' & More

Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a Queens Democrat, joined the show to discuss his new plan to 'Fix the MTA,' upcoming state budget negotiations, the 2022 election results, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the

Hospital staff (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York State has made little progress bringing 1,000 shuttered psychiatric beds back into service after they were closed during the covid pandemic, raising questions about a signature element of the mental health and public safety agendas of Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams.

In the April budget, Hochul and the Legislature allocated $27.5 million in state funding, matched by federal dollars, to restore the roughly 1,050 psychiatric beds shifted at the height of the pandemic when hospitals scrambled to make room for the