Tagged: budget 2012

Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy has been beating a path back and forth across upstate New York, as he campaigns for Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget initiatives.

Duffy made his second stop in Syracuse this week on Thursday, this time to drum up support for changes to pensions and Medicaid funding.

But this time he brought some friends.

Duffy led a hearing of the 11-member Mandate Relief Council [PDF], made up of members of Cuomo’s administration and elected lawmakers. The group heard testimony from central New York government and business leaders at Le Moyne College.

Under a reform proposal from Governor Andrew Cuomo, employees hired by New York State in the future would receive pensions that are much smaller than those brought home by current state retirees.

The idea's been endorsed by pro-business groups, but labor leaders are decrying it.

To recap: The row is over the retirement benefits of people who haven't been hired yet - and it's shaping up to be quite a fight.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called SUNY "the great equalizer for the middle class."

But now he's looking for the university system to do more than just lift up individual students: he wants SUNY to serve as a catalyst for economic growth in the communities that its schools serve.

Cuomo kicked off the process last year with promises of $35 million apiece for the state's four major research universities in Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany and Stony Brook. 

Now he's proposing another round of so-called SUNY 2020 cash, for the state's remaining 60 schools to compete for.

Beyond the words of Governor’s Andrew Cuomo’s blustering budget speech is the fine print of the actual spending proposal.

Hospital and research hub Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is set to receive $100 million in 2012 if Cuomo’s budget is enacted as is. But this year, the funds come with a catch.

According to Cuomo’s budget, RPCI should “expand its collaboration in the Buffalo region … to allow for a transition from state support” by the end of March 2014.  

In other words, RPCI will have to wean itself off state funding in just a few years.

As Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled his 2012 budget proposal in Albany, he talked a lot about what he calls "entrepreneurial government" - a model in which the state sets the stage for private investment.

The question now is whether that private money will materialize: