City & Region

Mayor Walsh is proposing $1.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to invest in parks facilities, police body-worn camera updates and digital infrastructure. Walsh’s latest pandemic relief proposals, the sixth round since funding became available this summer, will

The City of Rochester is seeking volunteers to fill open seats on the Nuisance Advisory Board (NAB), which helps support residential and commercial vitality in city neighborhoods. The nine-member board meets monthly to review alleged violations of the law and

By Stan Veuger and Kyle Pomerleau Over at The Hill, our domestic policy studies colleague Howard Husock recently argued that repealing the $10,000 cap on the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) would reduce charitable giving. His claim, as

BY BRENT ORRELL In the context of today’s post-pandemic labor shortage and jobs reshuffling, our economy needs all hands on deck. At the end of August, the number of job openings was 10.4 million. Even if we were able to match all currently unemployed

By James Pethokoukis and Arthur Turrell Fusion energy has been the promise of physicists for decades, but is it finally arriving? As we face a warming climate and increasing energy needs, fusion power may hold the potential to deliver an

By Kyle Pomerleau The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently published its monthly budget review for September, now estimating a spike in federal tax receipts for the 2021 fiscal year. According to CBO, individual income tax receipts will climb by $443 billion (27.5

By Jim Harper Last week, the Digital Dollar Project (DDP) highlighted the challenges involved in producing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that will preserve important values such as privacy. Every CBDC effort we have found gives privacy protection short shrift even

Betty Jean Grant — the widely respected civic leader and former County Legislator whom many refer to as the ‘shadow chairperson’ of the Erie County Democratic Party — is calling Mayor Byron Brown‘s latest attack against Democratic nominee India Walton

According to former City Housing Commissioner Joe Mascia, the embattled Mayor Byron Brown — who lost his own party’s nomination to Democrat India Walton earlier this year — has been “secretly endorsed” by the Erie County Republican Party. Mascia has

Governor Kathy Hochul wants New York City to more aggressively reclaim its waterfront for public park space — and she thinks that the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn is precisely the place to start. Hochul wants to demolish more than

While it’s not a pressing issue to her personally, sources say that incoming Governor Kathy Hochul is open to state legislation that would make Staten Island a stand-alone municipality.  That would allow the citizens of Staten Island to elect a

Incoming Governor Kathy Hochul plans to invest heavily in the Metropolitan Transit Authority, including billions to modernize aging track and signal systems, to purchase new trains, to construct new subway and elevated rail lines, and to rebuild the system’s busiest

By Mark Jamison The White House has announced what it calls a historic bipartisan infrastructure deal that would cost about $1.2 trillion. About 27 percent of the money goes to what is generally thought of as infrastructure: roads, bridges, railroads, the electric grid,

By Jim Harper “CONGRESS IS SO BROKEN,” shouted Caitlin Long, founder and CEO at the Avanti Financial Group. Having spent two decades on Wall Street in stints at Solomon Brothers, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley, she now inhabits the world of cryptocurrency. She

In recognition of the importance of government transparency, the Empire Center has been selected as a finalist for the 2021 Bob Williams Award for Most Influential Research for its role in exposing the coverup of thousands of COVID-related deaths among New York’s

Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Jeremy Zellner is said to have shifted his focus beyond local races — just weeks after his endorsed candidates for Erie County Sheriff and Mayor of Buffalo were both soundly rejected at the primary ballot

Superintendent Kriner Cash may use the surplus $75 million in state education funding this year to expand Erie Community College’s downtown campus — which would enhance the Buffalo Public School system’s ability to “seamlessly collaborate” with the college on regional

Today, Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn voiced his concerns about proposed criminal justice reform legislation that would drastically change parole requirements and allow eligible incarcerated individuals to be released early from prisons in New York State. District Attorney