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New York State

Who Knows Who Runs New York?

Thanks for a great 2023. To show our gratitude, we’re giving you a test.

New York Focus   ·   December 22, 2023
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, seated, holds a document that has been edited to read "New York Focus Quiz!" in front of a background covered in question marks.
How would Kathy do? | Photo: Mike Groll / Office of Governor Kathy Hochul | Illustration: Maia Hibbett
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We cover consequential state agencies you’d never heard of before us.

We expose what happens to state money — and where the biggest tax breaks go.

We show how all this power affects millions of New Yorkers, from the most impervious to the most vulnerable.

Now we want to see if you’ve been listening to what we’ve been trying to tell you: Who runs New York?

How’d you do?

Voracious New York Focus readers will have encountered these facts before — though some of them might have been tough to remember. If you need a refresher, come back to our site throughout the coming week. We’ll be featuring our favorite stories from 2023. Answers to quiz questions lie within!

At New York Focus, our central mission is to help readers better understand how New York really works. If you think this article succeeded, please consider supporting our mission and making more stories like this one possible.

New York is an incongruous state. We’re home to fabulous wealth — if the state were a country, it would have the tenth largest economy in the world — but also the highest rate of wealth inequality. We’re among the most diverse – but also the most segregated. We passed the nation’s most ambitious climate law — but haven’t been meeting its deadlines and continue to subsidize industries hastening the climate crisis.

As New York’s only statewide nonprofit news publication, our journalism exists to help you make sense of these contradictions. Our work scrutinizes how power works in the state, unpacks who’s really calling the shots, and reveals how obscure decisions shape ordinary New Yorkers’ lives.

In the last two decades, the number of local news outlets in New York have been nearly slashed in half, allowing elected officials and powerful individuals to increasingly operate in the dark — with the average New Yorker none the wiser.

We’re on a mission to change that. Our work has already shown what can happen when those with power know that someone is watching, with stories that have prompted policy changes and spurred legislation. We have ambitious plans for the rest of the year and beyond, including tackling new beats and more hard-hitting stories — but we need your help to make them a reality.

If you’re able, please consider supporting our journalism with a one-time gift or a monthly gift. We can't do this work without you.

Thank you,

Akash Mehta
Editor-in-Chief
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