All Over Albany

State budget process inches ahead, larger budget surplus for Troy, Sheehan touts record ahead of formal announcement that's she's running again

State budget past deadline
The march toward a state budget continues a step or two at a time, though maybe not always forward...
+ The state Senate has gone home for the moment, but the state Assembly will be in session Friday "a long day" to take up more budget bills. [Politico NY]
+ Are leaders closer to a deal on the issues that are holding up the overall process? Maybe, who knows. [State of Politics]
+ One of the things still not nailed down is state aid for school districts, and the uncertainty is causing problems as local officials try to get district budgets set. [TU]

Troy budget
The projected general fund surplus for the city of Troy is $2.6 million, according to a report from the Madden admin, "derived from one-time unanticipated revenues, aggressive approach to revenue collection, non-recurring budgetary savings in expenditures, and tight spending controls." That's more than double the 2015 surplus. Patrick Madden: "I anticipate that there are going to be those who say, 'Well, great news, but why did you need a tax increase for 2017?' and there are going to be others who say, 'Excellent news. Now, we can fix the pools,' but I want to be careful. The factors that led to a surplus in 2016 are unique to 2016." [Madden admin] [TU] [Troy Record]

Flooding
The rain this week had prompted concerns about flooding, but the NWS Albany office says it looks like lighter-than-expected rain will keep the flooding at "pretty minor" impacts. [Daily Gazette] [TU]

Schenectady shooting
Schenectady police say a man was shot near Van Vranken Ave late Thursday afternoon (map). [Daily Gazette]

Preet Bharara
Preet Bharara says he's still not sure why he was let go as US Attorney after Donald Trump had initially asked him to stay on. [NYT]

Medicaid
The New York State Republican delegation in the House of Representative is continuing to push for a federal law that prevent New York State from having counties pick up some $2 billion in Medicaid costs. (You might remember this was a big subplot between Andrew Cuomo and John Faso during the larger drama over the American Health Care Act. ) [Daily Gazette]

Albany mayoral race
Ahead of her formal announcement Saturday that she's running for re-election, Kathy Sheehan touted the $12.5 million in state aid and projects such as Rezone Albany and Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion. [TU]

Troy City Hall search
A committee formed by the Troy City Council as identified a group of buildings that could potentially serve as a permanent city hall. [TU]

Green Island tax cap override
Green Island village officials say, because of the way the tax cap formula works, they have to override the tax cap so they can have a zero percent increase in taxes. [Troy Record]

Troy apartment conversion
Developers are now eyeing the the Marshall Ray building on River Street in Troy, recently slated for conversion to low-income assisted living units, for market-rate apartments. [Biz Review]

Schenectady apartment turnaround
Residents of subsidized-housing high rise in Hamilton Hill say new owners and a range of new security features -- including a license plate scanner -- have made the building feel much better. [TU]

Clifton Park ShopRite
Even with the Shen land sale voted down, ShopRite says it's still interested in building a store in Clifton Park. [TU+]

New RPI hockey coach
RPI formally introduced its new hockey coach, Dave Smith, who had been the head coach at Canisius. [Troy Record]