Senate Coalition Disintegrates As the legislative session came to a close last week, comprehensive campaign finance reform remained stalled. Opposition to reform was led by Republicans in the state Senate. This week, the breakaway Democrats who had formed a coalition with Republicans to control the Senate announced plans to abandon the arrangement. The leader of […]
The Daily Gazette: New York’s 2014 Legislative Session a Failure The New York State legislative session is ending this week without major progress on big-ticket issues such as campaign finance reform, minimum wage, and the women’s equality agenda. The Daily Gazette called the session a “big flop.” The upstate newspaper said that the failure to […]
This is the third in a series of posts describing the transparency, accountability, and financial benefits of an Open FOIL system for New York City. Our full report is titled Beyond Magic Markers, and is available here. We estimate that, at minimum, New York City government spends $20 million annually processing FOIL requests; this is […]
This is the second in a series of posts describing the transparency, accountability, and financial benefits of an Open FOIL system for New York City. Our full report is titled Beyond Magic Markers, and is available here. Based on the detailed cost tracking done by the U.S. and U.K. governments, as well as a handful […]
Read the Complete PDF
Maya Wiley, Counsel to the Mayor Before the Governmental Operations and Technology Committees New York City Council June 9, 2014 Good afternoon. My name is Maya Wiley, and I am Counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio. Thank you Chairs Kallos and Vacca and members of the Committees on Governmental Operations and Technology for the opportunity […]
This is the first in a series of posts describing the transparency, accountability, and financial benefits of an Open FOIL system for New York City. Our full report is titled Beyond Magic Markers, and is available here. Responding to FOIL Requests Costs New York City At Least $20 Million per Year An Online “Open FOIL” […]
Public Financing Trial Could Show Power of Small Donors In a guest column for the Post-Standard, David Rubin, a former dean at Syracuse University, wrote that the trial public financing program for the state comptroller race presents an opportunity to demonstrate the power of small donors. Although current New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has […]
Testimony of John Kaehny Executive Director, Reinvent Albany Co-Chair, NYC Transparency Working Group New York City Council Technology and Government Operations Committee Hearing on Intro 328-2014 (Open FOIL), Intro 149 and Intro 363 June 9, 2014 Good afternoon, I am John Kaehny, Executive Director of Reinvent Albany and Co-Chair of the NYC Transparency Working Group. […]
Working Families Party Nominates Cuomo for Governor At the Working Families Party’s convention this weekend, the progressive third party nominated Governor Andrew Cuomo, giving him its ballot line in the upcoming gubernatorial election. Cuomo captured 58 percent of the state committee’s weighted vote, while Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout—who has challenged Cuomo for his failure […]
