All Over Albany

Questioning the billions spent on upstate economic development, final stretch for state budget, point of contention for ride sharing, Union hockey crashes out of NCAA tournament

Jobs, jobs, jobs?
Job growth upstate has lagged the national average during Andrew Cuomo's administration. And a review by by a coalition of investigative reporting orgs of the billions spent by the state on economic development iniatitives concludes "the state's substantial investment in the upstate economy has not generated many jobs." [Investigative Post/TU x2]

American Health Care Act
Local Congressional rep reaction to the Republican health care bill crashing:
+ Democrat Paul Tonko, who had opposed the plan: "It's about life and death choices. Rather than victory laps here, we need to acknowledge that voices, email, social media across span of weeks is what saved health care for 24 million Americans." [TU]
+ Republican John Faso, who had supported the plan and been a backer of New York-only provision to shift Medicaid costs from counties to the state (the subject of much criticism from Andrew Cuomo), called for the two major parties to work together on health care "in an incremental way where we can find bipartisan consensus because it's clear we can't rely just on Republican votes to pass these reforms." [WNYT]
+ Republican Elise Stefanik, who didn't publicly state how she would vote on the plan, in a released statement: "I am committed to achieving a 21st century healthcare system and will continue to work to replace Obamacare with reforms that lower costs, increase access and improve quality for hard working North Country families." [Stefanik office]

State budget
The deadline for the state budget is this Friday. Jimmy Vielkind on seven key issues during the final stretch, including taxes, school aid, raising the age of criminal responsibility, and ride sharing. [Politico NY]

Ride sharing
A major point of contention as the state legislator moves toward opening the way for companies such as Uber and Lyft to operate across the state: How much control local governments should have in regulating the services -- who's involved in writing those regulations. [TU]

School aid
+ How Jim Tedisco got praised one week for his support of increased state aid for school districts -- and then crticized the next. [Daily Gazette]
+ Schenectady school district superintendent on the achievement gap for many students in the district: "I would love to be able to say we've got the answer and resources to address that and make it all better ... In order to address this volume of struggle, we need more resources to able to get at it substantively." [Daily Gazette]
+ A look at the case before the state's highest court that could signficantly affect the state funding for school districts. [TU+]

Land banks
The state Attorney General's office announced almost $21 million in additional funding for land banks around the state, including $3.4 million for land banks in the Capital Region. [NYS OAG] [TU]

Troy swimming pools
The latest push to open Troy's swimming pools this summer includes calls for the city to re-allocate federal grant money or use reserve funds -- a move the Madden admin says would strip funding from other projects. [TU] [News10]

Mixed-use development next to Quackenbush Square
A review of the planned remediation project of the soil at the site of the planned mixed-use project next to Quackenbush Square in Albany. [TU]

Schenectady multi-use path
There's a proposal to building a multi-use path connecting downtown Schenectady with Central Park and Vale Park. [Daily Gazette]

Pedestrian hit in Albany
Albany police say a pedestrian was hit while crossing New Scotland Ave at Buckingham Drive Saturday afternoon, but was not seriously injured. (That intersection has been an ongoing safety concern during neighborhood association meetings.) [TU]

To the rescue
An Averill Park woman is being credited with saving a truck driver who apparently passed out while choking and then crashed his truck -- she saw it happen from the salon where she works and ran to the scene to help. [News10]

"I'm going to be in that race."
Remembering Ellen Picotte, one of five women to run the Freihofer's race every year since it began in 1979. [TU+]

Union hockey
The Union men's hockey team lost to Penn State 10-3 in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. [News10]

Stuff going on today

Some Kind of Joy: The Inside Story of Grimshaw in Twelve Buildings
Monday: EMPAC is screening of Some Kind of Joy: The Inside Story of Grimshaw in Twelve Buildings, a documentary about the Grimshaw architectural practice -- the same group that designed EMPAC. The lead project architect for EMPAC will be there for a post-screening Q&A. Monday 6 pm -- free

Running with pride
Monday: Albany Law is hosting a discussion about running for elected office and identifying at LGBTQ. The panelists for the discussion include state Assembly member Daniel O'Donnell. Monday 6 pm