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Opinion

Repeated Corruption Prompts Meaningful Pension-Forfeiture Reform

During the last week of session, the New York State Legislature passed a resolution to amend the state constitution to permit the forfeiture of state pensions for those public officials convicted of a felony (bribery, for example) related to their public duties. This is a commonsense measure that should have passed last year. Unlike most other […]

‘Move Over Law’ Expanded to Include Volunteer Responders

New York State’s “Move Over Law” has recently expanded to better protect volunteer emergency responders attending to distressed or disabled vehicles along roads and highways. I was pleased to vote in support of the expansion which was signed into law last month and will become effective in 2017. The expanded law requires drivers to exercise

Thoughts on debates, the media, and the economy

By now, millions are lusting for the debates. My guess is that the first one will break records for viewership. Another guess is that Hillary Clinton is already practicing how to handle insults. She probably has aides flinging every insult they can think of at her. She is rehearsing her replies. Given Donald Trump’s history,

Evaluating New York State’s economic-development programs

Questions have been raised about the effectiveness and cost of several of New York’s recently adopted economic-development programs, including Start-Up New York and the Excelsior Jobs program. [The Business Council] believes that economic-development incentives are a useful tool, when well-designed and thoughtfully applied. We would like to share several comments and recommendations on these programs.

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Paying to Play in Politics

Among the thousands of emails recently divulged by “villainous” WikiLeaks, a few were especially disturbing but received little attention from the media. The emails were between the top finance guy of the Democrat Party and a big personnel official at the White House. The party guy sent a list of big donors for the White

We are a Nation of Different Laws for Different People

Random thoughts on the Hillary Clinton email scandal, which recently ended with her not being indicted. Imagine if you could suck all the political gas from this. You would be left with a pure impartial situation. Suppose you then asked: Did this senior government executive break a bunch of laws? Of course, she did. Should

What They’re Fighting Over

The race for the presidency is set. So this seems a good time to step back and consider just what it is that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are fighting about. I don’t mean where they stand on the issues, or whose vision is more compelling. I mean the office itself. The modern presidency is

Who are Politicians Really Serving? Hint: It’s Not Us

What happened? Did earthquakes churn Europe into rubble? Did the Plague descend upon Britain? Did skyscrapers topple? Did the Queen scamper naked around Piccadilly Circus? Europeans are screaming at the Brits. Calling them everything but Nazis. Half the British are screaming at the other half. In fact, calling them Nazis. What cataclysmic event has brought

Time to reevaluate the START-UP NY program and its future

The START-UP NY report badly missed its deadline and the program is completely missing its goals. Taxpayers have invested millions of dollars to promote a job-creation initiative that has turned out to be long on promises but woefully short on actual jobs. With only 332 jobs created in 2015, it is time to reevaluate the

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