Susan Arbetter
City & State
Albany, NY, United States
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Past articles by Susan:
Could New York go carbon free by 2050?
Two nights before Thanksgiving, over 100 Tompkins County residents, some toting frozen turkeys they’d just purchased for the holiday, packed a hearing room in downtown Ithaca.A resolution was on the county legislature’s agenda that opposed repowering a coal-burning power plant.The Eisenhower-era Cayuga Power Plant in Lansing, one of the last coal-burning plants in the state, → Read More
How the school aid formula became unrecognizable
Months before Cynthia Nixon, the actor and education activist, announced her candidacy for governor on Twitter, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was passionately making a case for educational equity. “We must address education funding inequities and dedicate more of our state school aid to poorer districts,” he demanded during his State of the State address to the applause of lawmakers. → Read More
A Culture of Fear
Mr. R says his developmentally disabled child was abused multiple times at several state-run facilities. While the first incident of abuse took place 16 years ago, Mr. R didn’t want to provide his real name, the name of his son or the facility where he lives because of what he describes as a persistent culture of fear at state facilities. “The first incident we were aware of, (my son) was… → Read More
Evaluating the Evaluations
Who likes the current teacher evaluation system in New York? Not the governor, who called it “baloney” in his State of the State speech. Not Tim Kremer of the New York State School Boards Association, who called it “overly complex, bureaucratic and too easily manipulated.” Not Derrell Bradford of the pro-charter group NYCAN, who wrote, “The current framework is being deliberately broken at the… → Read More
Time, Money are Running out for Toxic Sites
through long-term bonding, Cuomo proposed a single year bonding of $90 million dollars. At the time, Haight, who was formerly with NYPIRG, testified at a legislative budget hearing that the reduced funding (down 25 percent from previous authorizations of $120 million a year) was too little. Additionally, she said, providing only a single year of funding was “a radical shift from how Superfund… → Read More
The Cost of Justice
Indigent defense advocates are using recent calls to reform the justice system to push for funding for a statewide public defense system. In October the state settled the long-running Hurrell-Harring lawsuit, which was filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The class action settlement addressed deficiencies in the public defense systems of five counties: Ontario, Onondaga, Schuyler,… → Read More
Policy & Personality in NY-24
Republican challenger John Katko cut a distinguished figure as he strode confidently into WCNY’s Green Room, hand extended to introduce himself to the debate moderators. Handshakes, eye contact. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” Katko said, smiling. It was about five minutes before we took our places in the studio for the only live television debate of the campaign for New York’s 24th Congressional… → Read More
For Upstate Latinos, All Politics Is Local For Now
The story comes out with a chuckle. “I remember when a Latino elected official from upstate was offered help from a powerful downstate Latino politician,” says Michael Fondacaro. “The response was, ‘Yeah, I appreciate it, but no thanks. Wouldn’t do me any good to stand next to a New York City Democrat.’ ” Fondacaro is editor of Noticias y Notas, a weekly newsletter for the Spanish- and… → Read More