March 28, 2012
Start Today: The budget, lobbyists and prisons.

Dear hearts, we had a rough start.

  • We got ourselves a budget, folks. The $132.5 billion budget marks two straight years of on-time budgets — a rarity in Albany — and the first time in decades that spending will decrease for two straight years.
  • The lobbying industry is-a-boomin’. And the number one spender is a group that supports the governor’s agenda, according to the Times Union and the Times.
  • The governor’s “close to home” initiative is about to start taking effect, gradually migrating downstate about 400 city youth serving sentences upstate.
  • City Limits magazine (donate!) reports that solitary confinement is on the rise at Rikers Island.
  • The MTA will pay $599 million and receive 300 new cars.

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Filed under: Albany Budget Lobbyists Andrew Cuomo prisons mta 
March 20, 2012
Ezra Klein: 'Should the poor pay for deficit reduction?'

Ezra Klein has an excellent initial analysis of Paul Ryan’s new budget proposal. Klein says Ryan’s budget would take in $2 trillion less in revenue than Obama’s budget, and would pay for that by cutting out health and welfare programs mostly aimed at the poor. Go check it out.

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Filed under: paul ryan ezra klein budget 
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