Colby Hamilton

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office today reported the state's general pension fund ended its fiscal year with a 14.5 percent return--nearly double the fund's 7.5 percent assumed rate of return. The fund was estimated to be worth $146.5 billion, hitting its highest point since the economic downturn of 2008.

"We've come a long way back. The strong returns should reassure our beneficiaries and New York taxpayers that the Fund is strong and sustainable," DiNapoli said in a press release. "There still are reasons to be cautious about the ongoing recovery, but the results are a good sign that the Fund has weathered the worst of the downturn."

UPDATE: Capital Confidential is reporting that the pension returns aren't the only good news at the state level. State revenues are also reportedly on the rebound. From the article:

"One of the more telling charts was #11 which shows that in New York, major taxes in the Fiscal Year to Date are up 11.6 percent."

Check out the full story here.

Half of all New Yorkers believe the 2011 state legislative session put New York on the right track according to the latest Siena Research Institute poll released this morning.

Governor Andrew Cuomo's approval ratings squeaked up even higher to 71 percent after what many have hailed as a highly successful first session, while the oft-maligned state legislature managed to improve in the eyes of a sizable number of New Yorkers.The state senate's favorable rating improved by 11 points, from 30 percent to 41, while the assembly shot up by 12 points, from a 26 percent favorable rating to 38. Of course, both houses are still unfavorable rating by a plurality of New Yorkers according to poll results.

“For years, the word most often heard to describe state government generally and the Legislature specifically has been ‘dysfunctional.’ In voters’ minds, the Governor and  Legislature took a step forward this year to change that,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said in a press release. “Nearly half--including at least 45 percent of Democrats, Republicans and voters from every region--said this year’s session shows that state government has become less dysfunctional, while only 18 percent said it has become more dysfunctional and 28 percent said the level of dysfunction remains unchanged.”

Both ethics reform and tax cap legislation scored big points for putting the state on the right track according to the poll. A plurality of voters--46 percent--said the same for same-sex legislation, while 23 percent--the most for any of the pieces of legislation in the poll--thought it made no difference at all.

While Cuomo remains very popular, New Yorkers said the governor should give potential presidential ambitions a break. “Presidential speculation is nothing new for New York governors, however, voters think it is way too early to start printing Cuomo 2016 bumper stickers,” Greenberg said in the release.  “At least 80 percent of voters from every party and region say that the speculation is premature and he should focus on his responsibilities as governor."

Overall, 48 percent of New Yorkers say we're headed on the right track--the best numbers since February 2007 according to the press release. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percent.

PDF of the poll results below.

SNY0711 Crosstabs

From the Campaign Finance Board's twitter feed:

Anthony D. Weiner (Mayor) reports $0 in contributions, $14,050 in contribution refunds for 6 month period ending 7/11/11. #FilingDay

Nadler supports Weprin on Israel. (Courtesy Congressman Nadler's office.)

Assemblyman David Weprin is getting push-back support on the issue of Israel in his congressional race. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, whose 8th district also has a large orthodox Jewish population, today came out in support of Weprin, and dismissed the idea of making the race a referendum on President Obama's support of Israel, as suggested by former mayor Ed Koch and Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

Ed Koch earlier this week indicated he would not be supporting Weprin in the race as a way of sending a message to President Obama on Israel. “If Jewish New Yorkers and others who support Israel were to turn away from the Democratic Party in the congressional election...it might very well cause President Obama to change his hostile position on the state of Israel,” Koch was reported as saying by the New York Post.

"[V]oters in New York's 9th Congressional District should judge the candidates on their merits and not based on the positions of others. David Weprin has always been an unyielding, stalwart friend of Israel, and it is completely nonsensical to oppose a vigorous supporter of Israel in an attempt to show support for Israel," Nadler said in a statement. The congressman's office said he has endorsed Weprin in the race.

According to The New York Observer, Assemblyman Hikind considered running for the seat "as a Republican...had planned to make the race in the heavily-Jewish district a referendum on Obama’s Israel policy."

Weprin will also be able to count on the support of New York's senior United States senator, Charles Schumer. While he has not officially endorsed Weprin's campaign, Senator Schumer's office said the senator supports Weprin's campaign and will make his endorsement official soon.

Hi. I’m Colby Hamilton and I’m the brand-spanking-new blogger at the Empire. I thought I should introduce myself, since I hope to be writing for you for some time (and I think it’s important to know who that person on the other side of the internet is).

OK, let’s get to it. Who am I? You can certainly Google me to find out some basics: I’m a reporter who has written for City Hall / The Capitol News, CapitalNewYork.com, AdWeek.com, and City Limits to name a few. In December I graduated from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. While in school I interned for Salon.com in their New York City office and (very briefly) for the New York Daily News.

I’d like to believe it was my destiny to be a political reporter. My 18-year-old self, though, was a lot more interested in music and poetry (yup, poetry). I have a BFA from Emerson College in Boston in creative writing. While reporting didn’t come until later, the politics side certainly did. In my early 20s I was involved in a lot of activism, mostly against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This was when my questions about politics and government, and who was in control and how their decisions affected people, started popping up.

I believe in the role and responsibility of the public in our democracy. This informed a lot of my early political work. The first presidential election I was old enough to vote in was in 2000, and I got myself involved in Ralph Nader’s campaign. I was bitten by the political bug, going on to local and national electoral campaigns in Massachusetts and, eventually, New York with the Green Party.

Political work exposed me to the insider’s game of elections—I now officially speak election boardese. Working on local, statewide and national efforts, I came in contact with people whose views differed wildly than my own. I realized my interest was less about a party or candidate, and more about how politics affects people.

This same foundation I want to bring to the Empire blog: a ground-up approach to politics, reverse engineered to make the effect just as important as the players and the game they play. In this way we’ll be a bit different than a lot of political blogs. We'll also be different in what we're not. We're not going to be driven by the press release schedule of politicians. We won't micro focus on today's breaking news to the detriment of covering how yesterday's breaking news is still affecting people. Empire is part of WNYC; the "public" part of "public radio" will remain at the core of this site's DNA.

Let the blogging begin.

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