Ever since New York passed its landmark climate law in 2019, a question has dogged its implementation: Who should pay the $15 billion annual cost of slashing emissions?

Two years ago, Governor Kathy Hochul offered an answer: corporate polluters. She outlined an economy-wide system, called “cap and invest,” that would put a price on pollution and drive the steep emissions cuts mandated by law.

The program might finally see the light of day in 2025

Regulators are fine-tuning the rules that will structure it; the state’s initial projections show it could generate $3 billion or more a year for the state to invest in green energy and other climate initiatives. Hochul and the legislature will likely negotiate further elements of the policy in the coming year’s budget, setting up what could be New York’s biggest climate fight since 2019.

This was a fun year. I got ejected from a Governor Kathy Hochul event, used the Freedom of Information Law to learn what hackers stole from the state government, and found that the view of the Hudson along the Penn Station to Albany Amtrak line still hasn’t gotten old.

I covered topics ranging from how the state is failing to address its housing crisis to accounting trickery that could net the state government $4 billion from Washington DC.

Thinking over my favorite reporting from this year, three themes emerged that seem key to understanding New York in 2024.

--New York Focus reporter Sam Mellins reflects on what he learned this year, and teases what lies ahead for 2025.

Advocates and researchers blame the initial popularization of the excited delirium diagnosis on a corporate-backed campaign to absolve cops of responsibility for deaths in their custody. In Rochester, the training document, created in 2016 and last edited in late 2020, lifts directly from materials disseminated by an organization linked to Taser, producer of the eponymous stun gun. The document warns officers that the syndrome’s sufferers experience a “diminished sense of pain” that could render police batons ineffective. And it claims that “saying ‘I can’t breathe’” is a sign of excited delirium.

The council voted Wednesday to endorse a $9 billion package of proposals that it estimates would provide financial support to more than 1.5 million families. The most impactful proposal, to expand and increase the state child tax credit, would alone reduce child poverty by 23 percent, they said.

The state fines insurers for breaking the 18-day timeline — but it’s effectively a slap on the wrist. It costs carriers $50 for each 10-day period that a transaction or requested filing is late.