County clerks who protested the state’s plans to issue new license plates and charge drivers $25 each to get them said tonight they are not happy that the state is moving forward with production of the new plates.

   Faced with pressure from county clerks and residents, Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders agreed over [...]

   Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, said the Asssembly, Senate and Gov. David Paterson have reached an agreement to pass legislation that will reform the state’s public-authority system. Brodsky said that bill, plus one passed earlier this year that the governor has said he will sign, will change the culture of what has been called New York’s [...]

   The Senate just passed legislation that would strengthen drunken-driving laws in New York by making it a felony for someone to be driving while impaired and have a child passenger. The vote was 58-0.

   Another provision of the bill would require anyone convicted of drunken driving to install an ignition-interlock system on their car, which [...]

   Nearly 70 percent of registered voters in New York fear the state will run out of money in December, according to a Marist Poll released this afternoon. Twenty-one percent of voters said they are not very worried about that and 10 percent are not worried at all, the poll found.

   When asked if New York’s $3.2 [...]

   The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February provided $106 billion in aid to states, about 25 percent of the $437 billion total state and local budget shortfalls, a report from the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute says.

   Since state and local governments cannot run a deficit, as the federal government can, they [...]

   Ethical misconduct increasingly is the reason state lawmakers leave office, Citizens Union said in a report released today. Fourteen legislators have left office in the past 10 years because of ethical misconduct, criminal charges or similar issues. Five of them left in the 2007-08 session.

   “We are facing not only a fiscal crisis here [...]

   County clerks delivered four boxes of petitions opposing the state’s requirement that all drivers get new license plates starting next spring and pay $25 for them. They had collected signatures from more than 100,000 New Yorkers who want the state to quash the requirement, which would raise $130 million for the state.

   The signature [...]

   Gov. David Paterson made the rounds of some radio shows today to give an update on where negotiations stand on closing the state’s $3.2 billion budget deficit. Lawmakers were in town for a special session Tuesday, but they left without reaching an agreement. The governor is calling them back Monday and Tuesday.

   As the governor [...]

The H1N1 flu vaccine is becoming more widely available across the state, Gov. David Paterson announced today. County health departments are planning clinics that had been put off because the national supply has been lower than anticipated. “Due to delays in manufacturing the H1N1 vaccine, our statewide vaccination campaign has [...]

Two New York employees who were allegedly selling and using drugs, watching television and sleeping in a concealed ”man cave” on state property instead of working pleaded guilty today to defrauding the government, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced.

Gary A. Pivoda, 48, of Glennon Road in Latham, an Albany suburb, and Louis Marciano, 50, of Willow Street in Rensselaer used a [...]