While Heastie privately pledged to avoid meetings with relevant interests, lobbyist Rebecca Lamorte has sought to keep representing them before the Assembly, according to her employer’s attorney.
As the relationship was coming to light, Heastie returned $5,000 in campaign cash to a labor group from which he’d recused himself.
Rebecca Lamorte was let go by her employer in June, prompting the Assembly Speaker to place an upset call to her boss.
Guidelines limiting gifts of taxpayer resources have “no teeth whatsoever,” according to good government watchdog.
Environmentalists increasingly blame Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie — who’s firing back.
A stock transfer tax could bring in billions in new revenue. Wall Street threatens to pick up and leave—but tax experts say it’s probably bluffing.
Behind the scenes, Cuomo is pushing amendments to unanimously passed legislation that would allow the executive branch to lift the ban.
Sources both inside and outside the legislature say Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is pushing back against the Senate Democrats’ proposal for a blanket moratorium.
The Senate has proposed raising $4 billion in revenue before the end of the year, but the Assembly is unwilling go much higher than $2 billion, sources say.
Amid dramatic spikes in drug overdoses and HIV cases, legislators and public health professionals push for New York to decriminalize sterile syringes.
With the state ethics commission widely seen as controlled by the governor, legislators are looking for other ways to investigate the allegations.
“People in prison deserve healthcare, and this is healthcare.” Legislators push to offer treatment for drug addiction in jails and prisons
Tax-the-rich advocates critiqued the figure as too low, and also said the Assembly is significantly behind the Senate on key progressive spending priorities.
In 2019, Broome County promised an addiction treatment program in its jail. Two years later, the program is a “farce,” one advocate said.
The legislature is pushing for a statewide rental assistance program that advocates say would be one the largest efforts to combat homelessness in recent memory.
Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing to impose stringent requirements, according to lawmakers and tenant advocates, that could delay and decrease aid.
“A year from now, this money will still be in the hands of Governor Cuomo, unused - and that’s exactly what he wants.”
Unemployed New Yorkers are receiving surprise tax bills. Republican legislators joined with progressive Democrats to move to waive taxes on benefits, following the lead of most other states and the federal government.
As legislators consider reforms to New York’s parole system, former prison officials and incarcerated people describe the barriers to parole release.
Child care used to be Hochul’s marquee issue. Now, she’s proposing a modest expansion—but only if Congress doesn’t act.