New York Politics: A Tale of Two States

368 Pages·2023·2.271 MB·English

by  Edward V. Schneier, Antoinette Pole, Anthony Maniscalco

NEW YORK POLITICS

NEW YORK POLITICS
A TALE OF TWO STATES
Third Edition
Edward V. Schneier,
Antoinette Pole, and
Anthony Maniscalco
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2023 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review,
this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any
form without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information, address Cornell University Press,
Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
Visit our website at cornellpress . cornell . edu.
First edition published 2000. Second edition published 2010.
Third edition published 2023 by Cornell University Press
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Schneier, Edward V., author. | Pole, Antoinette,
author. | Maniscalco, Anthony, 1966– author.
Title: New York politics : a tale of two states / Edward V.
Schneier, Antoinette Pole, and Anthony Maniscalco.
Description: Third edition. | Ithaca [New York] : Cornell
University Press, 2023. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022023036 (print) | LCCN 2022023037
(ebook) | ISBN 9781501767265 (hardcover) | ISBN
9781501767272 (paperback) | ISBN 9781501767296
(pdf) | ISBN 9781501767289 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: New York (State)—Politics and
government.
Classification: LCC JK3416 .S25 2023 (print) | LCC JK3416
(ebook) | DDC 320.9747—dc23/eng/ 20220815
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022023036
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022023037
Contents
List of Tables, Figure, and Boxes vii
Preface to the Third Edition ix
1. The States of New York 1
2. New York in the Federal System 31
3. Parties, Po liti cal Changes, and
Elections 62
4. Power, Pluralism, Public Opinion,
and the Permanent Government 98
5. New York’s Living Constitution, and
Beyond 131
6. Strug gles for Power, Position, and
Access 169
7. Making Public Policy 212
8. Taxing, Spending, and Public Policy
Priorities 254
9. New Directions for New York 300
Notes 323
Index 349

Tables, Figure,
and Boxes
Tables
1.1 Democ ratic percentage of the major-p arty gubernatorial vote 9
1.2 New York by the numbers 16
2.1 New York State’s court system 51
3.1 Seats and votes in the New York State legislature 82
3.2 Divided government in New York 86
5.1 Local governments in New York 158
8.1 How New York State income taxes are calculated 276
8.2 Changing sources of New York City revenue 294
Figure
2.1 Federal grants to the states, 1960–2020 38
Boxes
1.1 The Purchase of Manhattan Island 3
1.2 Ah, Wilderness! 15
1.3 The Federalist Papers 18
2.1 New York’s Justice Courts 53
2.2 Interstate Compacts and State Law 57
2.3 The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 59
3.1 The Mischief of Fusion 65
3.2 The Rise and Fall of the IDC 85
3.3 Giving Away Your Vote 89
3.4 Toward a One- Party State? 96
4.1 The Job of the Lobbyist 108
4.2 Group Representation in Albany 112
vii
viii TaBles, Figure, and Boxes
4.3 Protesters as Po liti cal Players 117
5.1 New York’s Landed Aristocracy 134
5.2 The Powers of the Governor 140
6.1 Party Discipline 174
6.2 The Tools of Leadership 195
7.1 The Agony of Judicial Choice 239
7.2 Bail Reform 246
8.1 Reading a Bud get 268
9.1 Controlling Corruption 305
9.2 Diversity in New York State Government 320
Preface to the
Third Edition
The famous opening lines of Charles Dickens’s
Tale of Two Cities describe the p eople of France as living on the eve of revolu-
tion: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Much the same could
be said about the p eople of New York in the years following the pandemic of
2020–2022. While COVID-19 affected every one, its disproportionate impact on
sen iors, the poor, and members of minority groups was symbolic of the deep
divisions that continue to make the story of New York a tale of two states. In
New York, the stock market soared, corporations recorded reco rd profits, and
hundreds of thousands of city dwellers found or retreated to second homes.
Yet residents in crowded homes and neighborhoods—o ften conditions coincid-
ing with poverty—w ere disproportionately affected by both the disease and its
economic impact. T hese dichotomies served to underscore and exaggerate the
socioeconomic and pol itic al divisions that have long characterized the state.
New York is the third-r ichest state in the United States and among the top
twenty in its percentage of people below the federal poverty line. The state
ranks fifth in the percentage of its residents who have advanced college de-
grees but also ranks f ourteenth in the number of high school dropouts. Half
of New York’s population lives in the nation’s most densely populated urban
area, but the state also ranks twenty-fi fth in agriculture and has the largest wil-
derness area east of the Mississippi River. In the 2020 elections, the Demo-
cratic candidate for president (Biden) won New York County (Manhattan) with
87  percent of the vote; the Republican (Trump) won 72  percent in rural Wyo-
ming County (Warsaw, New York). The state is number one in health funding
per family but ranks seventh in the percentage of its population described as
“medically underser viced.” While New York is often described as a state low
on family values, it has the second- lowest divorce rate of the fifty states.
“New York is not Ameri ca,” the novelist Sinclair Lewis once said, to which
the residents of many other states would add a fervent “amen.” For more
than half a century, more Americans have been moving out of New York
than moving to it. Yet there is a simultaneous sense in which the Empire State
is seen as the quintessence of the United States—n ot so much as it is as what
ix