Government of New York - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

As in all 50 states, the head of the executive branch of the government of New York is a Governor

Governor of New York

The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...

. The legislative branch is called the Legislature

New York Legislature

The New York State Legislature is the term often used to refer to the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York. The New York Constitution does not designate an official term for the two houses together...

and consists of a Senate

New York State Senate

The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...

and an Assembly

New York State Assembly

The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...

. Unlike most states, New York electoral law permits electoral fusion

Electoral fusion

Electoral fusion is an arrangement where two or more political parties on a ballot list the same candidate, pooling the votes for that candidate...

; thus New York ballots tend to show a larger number of parties

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

. Some are permanent minor parties that seek to influence the major parties while others are ephemeral parties formed to give major-party candidates an additional line on the ballot.

Functionality

New York's legislative process is notoriously cumbersome and problematic. The Assembly has long been controlled by the Democrats, the Senate by the Republicans, and there was little change in membership in elections until those of 2008

2009 New York State Senate leadership crisis

The 2009 New York State Senate leadership crisis was a political dispute in New York that began on June 8, 2009. The State Senate was controlled by Democrats with a 32-30 majority, when a bipartisan coalition of all 30 Republicans and two Democrats, Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr., voted to...

. As a result, decisions are taken when "three men in a room" - the Senate Majority Leader, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Governor - agree. From 1984 through 2004, no budget was passed on time, and for many years the legislature was unable to pass legislation for which there was supposed to be a consensus, such as reforming the so-called Rockefeller drug laws

Rockefeller drug laws

The Rockefeller Drug Laws is the term used to denote the statutes dealing with the sale and possession of "narcotic" drugs in the New York State Penal Law. The laws are named after Nelson Rockefeller, who was the state's governor at the time the laws were adopted...

.

The state has a strong imbalance of payments with the federal government. New York State receives 82 cents in services for every $1 it sends to Washington in taxes. The state ranks near the bottom, in 42nd place, in federal spending per tax dollar.

In 2002, 16,892 bills were introduced in the New York legislature, more than twice as many as in the Illinois General Assembly, whose members are the second most prolific. Of those bills, only 4% (693) actually became law, the lowest passing percentage in the country. In 2004, over 17,000 bills were introduced.

New York's legislature also has more paid staff (3,428) than any other legislature in the nation. Pennsylvania, whose staff is the second largest, only has 2,947, and California only 2,359. New York's legislature also has more committees than any other legislature in the nation.

New York's subordinate political units are its 62 counties, most of which are subdivided into towns. Incorporated municipal governmental units are cities and villages.

Many of New York's public services are carried out by public benefit corporations, frequently known as authorities or development corporations. The most famous examples are probably the Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S...

, which oversees New York City's subway and suburban commuter transportation, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state port district, established in 1921 through an interstate compact, that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure, including the bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the Port of New York and New Jersey...

(actually a bi-state agency). Some of New York's public benefit corporations have come under fire in recent years. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, for instance, has come to see many of them as obsolete and wasteful, even going so far as to refer to them as a shadow government. Far from unique to New York State, and actually fairly common in English-speaking countries, public benefit corporations give the state the opportunity to carry out economic goals and infrastructure maintenance while making risky investments that don't put the state's credit on the line.

For decades, it has been the established practice for the state to pass legislation for some meritorious project, but then mandate

Unfunded mandate

In United States law and politics, unfunded mandates are regulations or conditions for receiving grants that impose costs on state or local governments or private entities for which they are not reimbursed by the federal government....

county and municipal government to actually pay for it. New York State has its counties pay a higher percentage of welfare costs than any other state, and New York State is the only state which requires counties to pay a portion of Medicaid

Medicaid

Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...

Court system

The court system in New York tends to produce mild confusion for outsiders. As in Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

and the District of Columbia, the highest court is called "Court of Appeals"

New York Court of Appeals

The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the U.S. state of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor to 14-year terms...

instead of "Supreme Court." Instead of the trial court being called "Superior Court," the New York court system labels the trial court "Supreme Court." In fact, "superior" and "supreme" are variations on the same theme. In the original Latin, "supreme" (supremo/-a) means "uppermost" or "highest," while "superior" can mean either "upper"/"higher" or "uppermost" / "highest" (hence, "Lake Superior," so named by the French because it is the uppermost or highest of the Great Lakes not because it is the largest lake, although that is the case).

In naming its trial courts, New York simply chose "supreme" instead of "superior." (Some states, such as Michigan and Hawaii, use the term "circuit court" instead of "superior".) The consternation this causes for non-New Yorkers arises from the fact that most superior courts are no longer truly "superior," as much as it does from most states reserving "supreme" for their highest appellate court. That is, historically, county superior courts - like New York's county supreme courts - were the highest level of trial court, overseeing a network of inferior trial courts (e.g., municipal courts, recorder's courts, courts of referees and commissioners, etc.,), the decisions of which could be appealed within the trial court system to the superior court. Most states have long-since consolidated their inferior trial courts, however, so that they now have just the one trial court - the superior, circuit or supreme court.

New York's intermediate appellate court, between the New York State Supreme Courts (county by county) and the New York Court of Appeals, is the New York State Supreme Court - Appellate Division. Local courts in towns and villages are called Justice Courts. These courts are the starting point for all criminal cases outside cities, and handle a variety of other matters including small claims, traffic ticket

Traffic ticket

A traffic ticket is a notice issued by a law enforcement official to a motorist or other road user, accusing violation of traffic laws. Traffic tickets generally come in two forms, citing a moving violation, such as exceeding the speed limit, or a non-moving violation, such as a parking violation,...

cases and local zoning

Zoning

Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...

matters. Along with the unusual names for the courts, judges in Supreme Court and the Justice Courts are called Justices, while on the Court of Appeals (and in other courts such as Family Court, County Court, and Surrogates Court), they are called Judges.

Political divisions

Those living outside of cities and Indian reservation

Indian reservation

An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

s in New York State automatically live inside towns. (called "township

Township

The word township is used to refer to different kinds of settlements in different countries. Township is generally associated with an urban area. However there are many exceptions to this rule. In Australia, the United States, and Canada, they may be settlements too small to be considered urban...

s" in many other states

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

). Towns, which are county divisions in New York State with governments of their own, can also contain villages, which are roughly comparable to what is thought of as a town in most of the United States; that is, villages are small incorporated

Municipal corporation

A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...

municipalities with limited taxation powers. Towns in New York State, on the other hand, are organizationally more like New England town

New England town

The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...

ships. In 1898, when New York City was consolidated into its present form, all previous town and county governments within it were abolished in favor of the present five boroughs and unified, centralized city government.

Politics

New York State has consistently supported Democratic candidates in federal elections. Presidential candidate John Kerry

John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

won New York State by 18 percentage points in 2004, while Al Gore won by an even bigger margin in New York State in 2000. Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

twice scored his third best performance in New York. In 2000, the state gave Al Gore

Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

his second highest total. Many of the state's other urban areas, including Albany

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

, Ithaca

Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

, Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, Rochester

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

, and Syracuse

Syracuse, New York

Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...

are also Democratic. However, upstate New York, especially in rural areas, is generally more conservative

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

than the cities and tends to vote Republican. Heavily populated suburban areas such as Westchester County and Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

have swung between the major parties over the past 25 years, and often have local races that are tightly contested.

New York State has consistently voted Democratic in national elections. However, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

has been the most important source of political fund-raising in the United States for both major parties. Four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top zip code, 10021 on the Upper East Side

Upper East Side

The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...

, generated the most money for the 2000 presidential campaigns of both George Bush and Al Gore. Republican Presidential candidates have often skipped campaigning in the state, taking it as a loss and focusing on vital swing states.

Functionality

Court system

Political divisions

Politics

See also