In December 2024, the New York state prison system made national news when guards were caught on video beating an incarcerated man to death. Soon after the footage’s release, Governor Kathy Hochul publicly sprang into action, visiting the facility where 43-year-old Robert Brooks was killed and announcing a suite of initiatives aimed at boosting prison oversight and accountability.

“The system failed Mr. Brooks, and I will not be satisfied until there has been significant culture change,” Hochul said at the time.

The governor’s measures included $2 million for the Correctional Association of New York, or CANY, a 182-year-old nonprofit organization tasked by state law with overseeing prison conditions.

Now, the governor is pulling the plug: Her budget proposal for next fiscal year includes no state money for CANY.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “Tin Cup Day” in Albany was dominated by talk of two big-ticket policy proposals: making buses fare-free and raising taxes on millionaires and corporations. But New York City’s mayor has made a multitude of other promises that also hinge on state approval, which now appear to be on the back burner.

Mamdani’s campaign platform included more than a dozen distinct policies that require signoff from Albany, many of which have gotten relatively little attention. Mamdani said he wanted to nearly double the city’s debt limit in order to borrow another $70 billion to build housing; vowed to champion state bills banning non-disclosure agreements and junk fees; and promised to push for more state funding for the city’s beleaguered public housing system.

None of those figured into his four-hour hearing on Wednesday. And the mayor seemed to acknowledge that he is putting those lower-profile asks on hold for now, as he pushes lawmakers and Governor Kathy Hochul for permission to raise taxes to help close the city’s budget gap for the coming year.

The next US Census likely won’t be good for New York. Because of nationwide population trends, the state is projected to lose two congressional seats, and with them, two electoral votes for president, according to recent findings from Carnegie Mellon University.

The other states that are projected to lose multiple congressional seats and electoral votes are California and Illinois, according to the research. All three states consistently support Democrats at the statewide level and in presidential elections.

On the other hand, two states are projected to gain multiple seats and electoral votes: Florida, and Texas. Both are set to add four seats, and both consistently support Republicans at the statewide level and for president.

A program making it easier to hire government workers has helped fill more than 50,000 jobs across New York state. But Mayor Eric Adams’s administration quietly abandoned a brief attempt to join the program in the face of union opposition — leaving a raft of vacancies in New York City government that now threatens to hobble the agenda of Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

In 2023, reeling from an exodus of public sector workers, Governor Kathy Hochul took a radical step: allowing state agencies to hire many employees without undergoing the many-months-long civil service exam process. The following year, her administration allowed local governments to opt into the emergency effort, called NY HELPS, and the vast majority of counties took her up on it.

New York City tried to opt in, too. It was a prime candidate: Vacancies in the city’s 300,000-person government have hovered around 4.5 percent since 2024 — more than double the pre-pandemic level. Agencies have reported that a lack of staff has prevented them from inspecting housing and restaurants, administering public benefits, upholding environmental standards, and more.

In September 2024, under then-Mayor Eric Adams, the city proposed a list of 51 different job titles it wanted to exempt from exam rules under NY HELPS, corresponding to hundreds of government jobs. The list was diverse, including everything from electricians and X-ray technicians to building inspectors and school-lunch supervisors.