Today in your Trail Mix:
Prognostications on the passage of the state budget.
Fighting fracking with $100,000 in prize money.
IDA reform in western New York.
Politics and government
Legislative leaders say they expect New York's budget to be passed "on time and in daylight" - sometime later this week (Karen DeWitt, New York State Public Radio).
Cultural organizations in Erie County say government funding is coming with fewer strings attached under a new county administration (Mike Desmond, WBFO).
Governor Cuomo's top down approach to governing has some agency heads feeling like he doesn't trust them (Jeremy Smerd, Crains).
Governor Cuomo announced over the weekend that a Bronx assemblyman will be the new commissioner of the Labor Department (Nick Reisman, State of Politics).
Central New York's regional council is reconvening after its big win in last year's economic development competition (Ryan Delaney, WRVO/Innovation Trail).
Broome County's public employee pension commitment of $39.4 million this year works out to about $196 for every person in the county (Ed Christine, Press & Sun-Bulletin). In Monroe County, it's $232 (JosephSpector, Gannett).
Energy
An Ithaca academic says she's using a $100,000 Heinz Foundation prize as "seed money" to fight fracking with a new coalition (Brian Nearing, Times Union).
Albany-area fuel cell firm Plug Power is planning a $13 million stock offering (Eric Anderson, The Buzz).
New York's natural gas pipelines are better regulated than most (Matt Richmond, WSKG/Innovation Trail).
IDAs
A western New York legislator is trying to stop Erie County's suburban IDAs from cutting deals that strip school districts and towns of revenue (David Robinson, Buffalo News).
A member of Syracuse's IDA board has resigned over back-due property taxes (Ryan Delaney, WRVO/Innovation Trail).
Communication
The governor has dropped a provision from his budget that would have given cable companies a pass on regulation for their voice over IP phone service (Larry Rulison, Times Union).
Broadband Internet is elusive for many Southern Tier residents - and federal maps that show them covered when they're not make solving the problem tough (Matt Richmond, WSKG/Innovation Trail).
Tech
The implantable cardioverter defibrillator - a device implanted in former Vice President Dick Cheney - has its roots in Rochester (Sean Lahman, Democrat and Chronicle).
A struggling Buffalo bakery is going gluten-free to save its business (Emma Sapong, Buffalo News).
Rochester's startup ideas struggle to get attention from venture capitalists with eyes on Silicon Valley and Boston (Tom Tobin, Democrat and Chronicle).
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