The state’s retirement funds have several billions of dollars invested in coal, oil, and gas companies.
Senate
Posted inNews & Opinion
Assembly member Peter Lawrence will not run for re-election
Assembly member Peter Lawrence becomes the latest in a string of Republican state legislators to announce he will not run for re-election this year.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Lej backs law tied to dissolving LDC’s
County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo says that she expects to refinance the debts and contracts of three county-linked local development corporations and then dissolve the quasi-governmental organizations by the end of the year. Those plans depend on whether the state Assembly and Senate pass legislation allowing the county to borrow money to buy out those contracts […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
GOP passes foolish bill to kill carbon-reduction plan
The House of Representatives has passed a pair of resolutions meant to scuttle an Obama administration carbon emissions reduction plan, and intended to undermine international climate treaty negotiations under way in Paris. The Republican members of the Rochester and Finger Lakes region House delegation should be ashamed of their votes. (The roll for the first […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Brownfields program nears expiration
The state’s brownfield tax credit program will expire at the end of the year unless lawmakers can agree to a fix. And if the recent past serves as any indication, that agreement may be hard to come by. Under the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, developers can receive tax credits for cleaning up and reusing contaminated […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Trafficking legislation signals new approach to Women’s Equality Agenda
For the past two years, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 10-point Women’s Equality Agenda has existed in a sort of suspended animation. Senate Republicans would only pass nine of the 10 points, since the last one would have put the abortion rights guaranteed in Roe v. Wade into state law. And Assembly Democrats insisted on passing all […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
AG wants to ban the beads
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is once again pushing for legislation that would ban the use of tiny plastic particles in cosmetics, facial scrubs, and other personal care items. Schneiderman announced this morning that he’s resubmitted the Microbead-Free Waters Act to state Assembly and Senate leadership. He first proposed legislation last year, and the Assembly passed […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
[UPDATED] Keystone XL bill fails in Senate
UPDATED November 19 — The bill that would have approved the Keystone XL pipeline, S2280, didn’t reach the 60-vote threshold it needed to pass. The bill failed with 59 yes votes and 41 no votes. Original post: The US Senate is about to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that climate change activists have […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Cuomo talks Moreland Commission on Charlie Rose
Governor Andrew Cuomo disbanded his much ballyhooed Moreland Commission because the State Legislature passed an ethics reform package. At least that’s what he told Charlie Rose during an interview last night. Cuomo said he’d told legislators that if they didn’t pass ethics legislation that he wanted, he’d form the commission to examine public corruption in […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
POLITICS: Meet your pols
Monroe County has a vibrant political scene, but it also has a pronounced party divide. Democrats control the governments in the city and a couple of inner-ring suburbs, while Republicans hold the power in most of the towns. County-wide, there’s a sometimes fragile balance of power, which often makes the community a frequent battleground in […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Gillibrand pushes for brownfields bill
For more than 25 years, the Cunningham Carriage Factory building at 33 Litchfield Street in the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood sat vacant. That changed when DePaul, a nonprofit housing and social services organization, bought the property and began developing it into housing. Now, construction crews are stripping the sturdy brick building down to its bones. From […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
GOP legislator backs fracking moratorium
A Republican legislator in Monroe County has concerns about the state’s review of high-volume hydraulic fracturing. Joe Carbone, who represents part of Irondequoit, has submitted a memorializing referral — essentially an official letter of support for state or federal legislation — supporting two state fracking moratorium bills, A5424A and S4236A. The matching bills would prohibit […]
