Monthly Archives: June 2017

June 26, 2017. FPI's Executive Director, Ron Deutsch joins Barbara Bartoletti, Legislative Director for the League of Women Voters of New York State and Blair Horner, Executive Director of NYPIRG on WCNY News to discuss the failure of lawmakers to pass contract procurement and ethic reforms and voting laws. "It's been a sad day in Albany. It's a bad day at the end of the legislative session when nothing gets done on contract reform, on economic development reform and we are looking at a major [...]

June 26, 2017. This article discusses the failure of lawmakers to implement ethical reforms that would prevent bid-rigging scandals in economic development contracts. The article discusses how Governor Cuomo is against the contract procurement bill and is proposing to hire a new inspector general who will work under him. Many are not happy with this decision and do not agree with the Governor's proposal, including FPI's Executive Director, Ron Deutsch. Ron Deutsch, with the union backed think tank Fiscal Policy Institute, says it’s a missed [...]

June 26, 2017. An article featured in the Times Union discusses the proposal of Governor Cuomo's "Faso-Collins Federal Tax," which is a $2.3 billion tax added on to local property taxes in New York State in order to offset the costs of Medicaid. The article notes that some do not support this proposal and criticize the governor for not cutting his own budget and deem is as a scheme and suggest that another source of revenue is needed. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday warned of [...]

June 24, 2017. An article in the Saratogian, that quotes FPI's executive director Ron Deutsch, discussed the failure of the Senate and Assembly to pass a routine school governance extender and reforms to prevent future bid-rigging scandals. They may convene again in the summer to make a decision on education and extending local sales tax. The Senate and Assembly adjourned for the summer Wednesday without acting on ethics reform, despite a 2016 legislative session that saw former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos get five years [...]

June 22, 2017. An article, featured in Lohud ,discussed Governor Cuomo's decision not to enact reforms for better transparency when allocating money for economic development programs. Groups called for changes such as a "Database of Deals" and the restoration of power to the state comptroller to review state contracts. The reforms were requested in response bid-rigging scandals. Legislative leaders and Cuomo failed to find a compromise on how to better review state contracts and job-creation programs amid the arrests last fall of Cuomo's former top [...]

June 14, 2017. Ron Deutsch, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, joined Alex Camarda, Senior Policy Consultant at Reinvent Albany, and Jennifer Wilson from the League of Women Voters, on Capital Tonight to discuss the "clean contracting" bill, which would require transparency of economic development projects. Ron argues that now is a good opportunity for the legislature to earn the community's trust and address the issue before the trial for the bid-rigging scandal as the legislative session ends. Here is the link to the [...]

June 14, 2017. FPI and other organizations gathered in the Capitol to ask lawmakers to pass reforms that would expand New York State's contracting guidelines in order to oversee economic development projects and to prevent other bribery and bid-rigging scandals. Reforms that these organizations are pushing for include a "database of deals", which track public money given to private corporations. Government-reform organizations including Reinvent Albany, the New York Public Interest Research Group and the League of Women Voters gathered in the state Capitol on Wednesday to beg [...]

June 9, 2017. In this op-ed Jennifer Hirsch argues that issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants can help with economic development and provide additional revenue to help with economic struggles, such as flooding and urban blight. Hirsch goes on to argue how immigrants are not able to contribute to the local economy if they do not have transportation to local shops. You might not think of access to driver’s licenses for our state’s estimated 775,000 undocumented immigrants as economic development. But an analysis by New [...]

June 5, 2017. FPI, along with other organizations, are urging the New York legislature to make changes that will counteract some of the harm from Trump's policies. These include expansion of the Millionaires' Tax, the right to clean water and air, expansion of voting rights and help for the homeless, as well as protection for immigrants and prevention of bid-rigging and bribery. Ron Deutsch, who is with the union-backed think tank Fiscal Policy Institute, said Cuomo and lawmakers should act to address an economic development [...]