On Tuesday, March 11, the Hugh L. Carey Center for Government Reform hosted a lecture by E.J. McMahon, “A See-through Budget for the Empire State: Promoting Responsibility Through Transparency.”
Edmund J. McMahon is the Manhattan Institute's senior fellow for tax and budgetary studies.
Since joining the Manhattan Institute in 2000, McMahon has studied the tax and spending policies of New York city and state, and he has issued recommendations on how these policies can be reformed to increase economic growth. His recent work has included studies focused on public pension reform, competitive contracting of public services, and the fiscal record of the previous administration in Albany. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, the Public Interest, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, Newsday and the New York Sun, among other publications.
McMahon's professional background includes more than 25 years as a senior policy maker and analyst of New York government. He has served as Deputy Commissioner for Tax Policy Analysis and Counselor to the Commissioner in the state Department of Taxation and Finance; Director of Minority Staff for the state Assembly Ways and Means Committee; vice chancellor for external relations at the State University of New York; and Director of Research for the Business Council's research arm, the Public Policy Institute. Earlier in his career, McMahon was a reporter and columnist for the Albany Times Union, the Knickerbocker News and the White Plains Reporter Dispatch. A New York native, Mr. McMahon is a graduate of Villanova University.
Click here to see a streaming version of the talk, or on the download link below if you wish to save a copy to your computer.
Panel Discussion on Media Coverage
On Thursday, Sept. 18 at 5 p.m., Wagner College’s Hugh L. Carey Center for Government Reform hosted a panel discussion on “How the News Media Covers (or Doesn’t Cover) New York State Government.”
Gene I. Maeroff, senior fellow at the Hechinger Institute at Columbia University’s Teachers College and former national education correspondent for the New York Times, moderated the discussion. The panel included:
- Bill Hammond, editorial page writer and state government columnist for the New York Daily News;
- Mark Hanley, editorial page editor for the Staten Island Advance, and
- Wayne Barrett, a senior news editor who oversees political coverage for the Village Voice.
Advertising revenue is down. Newspapers are closing bureaus and laying off reporters. Ratings races push network and cable TV news programs to chase drama and sound bites. New York City is the hub of our nation’s communications industries, but New York’s state capital in Albany is far away — and the state’s decisions are made behind closed doors.
The legislative process is not, in itself, particularly dramatic — yet millions of New Yorkers face dramatic changes in their lives as their lawmakers struggle to reduce a record budget gap and drastically cut essential services. How did this happen? You might be hard-pressed to know from what you’ve read, seen or heard through downstate New York’s news outlets.
On Thursday, Sept. 18, the Hugh L. Carey Center for Government Reform will host a panel of three prominent New York City media figures to explore the ins and outs of how New York State government is covered — or isn’t covered — and what it means for getting Albany back on track so that New Yorkers have an open, responsive and affordable government.
View this panel discussion.
