Reports and Fact Sheets

Reinvent Albany regularly writes and publishes on issues and legislation relevant to our core mission. Below is a complete list of our reports, policy briefs, and memos.

March 2022 Opening New York 2022: Rating 70 State Agency Transparency Plans What NYS agencies told the Governor they are doing to improve FOIL, Open Data, Open Meetings, and other basic transparency measures January 2021 Legislative FOIL: A Tale of Two Houses Covers legislative FOIL and the two houses' respective approaches, including recommendations on options for reform. June 2020 Investing in the MTA is Investing in America Analysis of MTA payments outside NYS shows it spent $8B across the country, in 47 of the 50 states from 2011-2018. This in turns created as many as 100,000 jobs. Congress must now step up to fund $3.9B in emergency aid for the MTA. September 2019 Analysis Shows Huge Challenge for MTA to Spend $55B 2020-24 Capital Plan Analysis shows the biggest constraint is the MTA’s ability to spend, not find capital funding. Recommends honest and detailed implementation plan, as well as detailed, itemized lists of projects and changes to prior plans. April 2019 Steps Forward for MTA FOIL and Open Data 18 specific actions the MTA can take to improve transparency now. (2019) October 2017 NYS Lobbying Transparency Undermined by Antiquated Technology & Irregular Reporting Lobbying transparency in NYS could be improved by modernizing JCOPE's database March 2017 Listening to FOIL 2: NYC DOITT FOIL Requests 2015 An examination of the FOIL logs of one New York City agency (DoITT) tells us what data sets are high-value and should be open data (2015) March 2017 Open New York “Tools” Recommendations for specific tools that enable state agencies to quickly create web-based information resources to be included in OpenNY.gov (2011) July 2014 Listening to FOIL An examination of the FOIL logs of one state agency tells us what data sets are high-value and should be open data. April 2014 Opening New York State Open Data Legislation needs to be developed collaboratively between the governor and the legislature. February 2014 NYS Open Data Roundtable A collection of open data resources, including the NYS Executive Order, the Open Data Handbook, etc (2014) September 2012 A New Transparency Using the Explosion in Information Technology to open New York State Government to the public (2012)