PUBLISHED 8:27 PM ET Apr. 30, 2021 PUBLISHED 8:27 PM EDT Apr. 30, 2021
SHARE
New York was just 89 residents away from keeping all 27 of its congressional seats. So what went wrong?
Well, that depends on who you ask.
Neil Hyland was a census worker last year and says he ran into numerous people who told him they didn’t trust the government with their information.
“Every day or so, I would come across someone who just didn t trust me, or didn’t want to answer,” Hyland explained. “I only got aggression from someone once who yelled, Get away from here.’ But I definitely believe that there are at least 89 people who just didn t complete it because they didn’t want to.”
PUBLISHED 8:23 PM ET Apr. 05, 2021 PUBLISHED 8:23 PM EDT Apr. 05, 2021
SHARE
The end is in sight.
The New York state budget is now five days late, but lawmakers and the governor say they are “close” to finalizing a budget deal.
“We have a conceptual agreement on all issues, I think it s fair to say, the Senate, the Assembly, and myself,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said during a press conference on Monday. “They are working it through with their conferences. We’re dotting some i’s, we re crossing some t s. But that s where we are.”
In the meantime, lawmakers did introduce three more budget bills over the weekend.
Excluded Workers Fund Contains Echoes of Prior Debates PUBLISHED 5:28 AM ET Apr. 05, 2021 PUBLISHED 5:28 AM EDT Apr. 05, 2021
SHARE
An early test for the new Democratic majority in the state Senate in 2019 was a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for and receive driver s licenses. Long a third rail in New York politics, the measure squeaked through the chamber, but with Democrats from key swing districts voting against it.
Rather than punishing the party in power, voters handed Democrats a supermajority two years later.
But now a new test of the big tent is facing lawmakers in Albany: The proposed creation of a fund to aid workers who did not receive the strengthened pandemic unemployment benefits in the last year.