Andrea Bernstein

Andrea Bernstein appears in the following:

MTA CEO: Expect Fare Price Hike

Friday, March 20, 2009

MTA CEO Lee Sander has confirmed that the MTA could approve a $2.5 subway fare next week. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has more.

REPORTER: With little movement in Albany on the Ravitch plan, Sander said an MTA committee will vote Monday, to be followed by the full ...

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Paterson to Announce More Stimulus Projects

Friday, March 20, 2009

The man Governor Paterson has put in charge of spending federal stimulus money says he has $4 billion to spend on transportation and infrastructure. But Tim Gilchrist has almost $100 billion in requests from local elected officials.

GILCHRIST: The governor's office has received requests for 5,800 ...

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Transportation officials cause confusion at White House recovery plan conference

Thursday, March 12, 2009

WNYC
The president stopped by a meeting of 49 state representatives gathered to discuss ARRA, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (aka "the stimulus bill") and got a big rou...
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The first stimulus numbers are in...

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

PRI
WNYC
Go ahead take a peek... your inner wonk is dying to. So far, up to now, it's been all PR, pretty much — how much money will be allocated by the stimulus bill, how many jobs will be...
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"Please Pick Up Kids -- Gov With Prostitute"

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

New Governor Eliot Spitzer announces his resignation as his wife Silda Wall Spitzer stands by his side.

New Governor Eliot Spitzer announces his resignation as his wife Silda Wall Spitzer stands by his side.

It was a warm day, I remember, and I'd just come back from grabbing a falafel outside. It was a week after the Texas and Ohio primaries, PA wasn't until late April, and I was luxuriating in what was looking like my first slow month in half a year. Ha! A few moments after getting back from lunch a message landed in my inbox with the subject line 'spitzer.'

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Mayor Says He Was "Screaming" Over Stimulus Allocation

Friday, March 06, 2009

Mayor Bloomberg's staff has been all over the state in the last two days, slapping them upside the head for "shorting" the city Medicaid stimulus money to the tune of $200 million -- or $600 million -- depending on how severe unemployment gets in the city. (The state says its ...

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Stimulus Spat

Thursday, March 05, 2009

The Paterson administration announced the release yesterday of 2.7 billion dollars in Medicaid funding, but Mayor Bloomberg isn't happy with how the stimulus aid is being handled by Albany. WNYC reporter Andrea Bernstein updates the dispute.

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Senate holding hearings on stimulus transparency

Thursday, March 05, 2009

PRI
WNYC
The Senate is getting ready to grill the Office of Management and Budget on transparency and accountability... OMB Deputy Director Robert L. Nabors is on the hot seat this morning ...
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City State Brawl Over Medicaid Stimulus

Thursday, March 05, 2009

The distribution of Medicaid economic stimulus money in New York has spawned a full-on city-state brawl. It was started by Mayor Bloomberg, whose office issued a statement late last night accusing Governor Paterson of shortchanging the city. Congressman Anthony Weiner piled on today. His office ...

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Show Me the Money! Bloomberg Aides Upset with Governor

Thursday, March 05, 2009

In one of his sharpest breaks with Governor, Mayor Bloomberg is accusing David Paterson of shorting the city of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funding from the federal stimulus package. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has more.

REPORTER: With some fanfare yesterday afternoon, the Governor trumpeted ...

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Tracking every dollar (redux)

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

PRI
WNYC
You can find every dollar on recovery.gov, right? Not exactly. But you can find your state's recovery Web site. The reporting on the recovery act funds begins today, with agencies ...
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Transparency, the Latest

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Craig Jennings, the federal fiscal policy director at OMB Watch, still has concerns about the level of transparency in the stimulus bill. Tracking on Recovery.gov will be 'pretty useful,' he says -- 'but not ideal.' For example the level of disclosure only requires contract summaries down to the subcontractor level. Say New York gets federal money (making New York the contractor) for a bridge. The contractor building the bridge -- e.g. ABCXYZ Construction -- is the sub, and the contract summary stops there. If ABCXYZ hires Concrete Boots to provide the asphalt, we won't necessarily know. Moreover, if the state gives money to the city, the city is technically the sub, and that contract trail ends.

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Upstate, Not NYC, Getting First Stimulus Funds

Monday, February 23, 2009

Seven upstate counties will be the first to get federal transportation stimulus dollars. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has more. REPORTER: New York will spend the first $41 million of federal money on bridge and road repairs in Steuben, Onondaga, Oneida, Herkimer, and Albany counties. The projects ...

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Common Cause Wants Transparency -- State Sez "Maybe"

Friday, February 20, 2009

A coalition of New York groups, spearheaded by Common Cause/New York, is seeking to have Governor Paterson agree to a high level of disclosure standards (something New York state government historically hasn't championed) for economic stimulus money (in line with President Obama's promise that "every dollar" will be ...

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Transparency? Notsofast...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

'Transparency' is the buzzword of the day, but looks like, in conference, stimulus package negotiators removed some provisions that would make stimulus $$ easier to track. To wit, an OMBWatch report says, language requiring that each contract or grant be posted on the internet fell out of the ...

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Thompson Gives Us the Numbers

Thursday, February 19, 2009

license purse

Okay, so, in case you were up all night wondering about Comptroller William Thompson's subway bail-out proposal (introduced in November, re-iterated in Senate hearings yesterday) here's how it breaks down, according to spokeswoman Laura Rivera. Under the proposal, motorists who pay an average of $40 now for vehicle registration would pay an average $400 increase for their biannual fee. People who own large, heavy vehicles could pay even more than that. In general, policy wonks approve of disincentives for behavior that might be seen as anti-social (in this case owning large, heavy cars and light trucks that heavily contribute to global warming.) Suburbanites own 3.5 million cars, New York City residents 1.8. million, so that's 5.3 million cars times $200 annually, or $1.06 billion.

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Thompson -- Against 'em, and Against 'em

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

It's the season of high-dudgeon, and both Democrats vying for a mayoral seat are falling all over themselves to express outrage. For Congressman Anthony Weiner, this morning it was over Dubai's denial of a visa to an Israeli tennis-player (since revoked, Weiner says, because of his intervention.)

For Comptroller William ...

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How Federal Package Could 'Stimulate' New York

Friday, February 13, 2009

Mayor Bloomberg says the latest deal on the federal stimulus package will pump some $21 billion into the city, helping to close much of a $4 billion budget gap.

BLOOMBERG: Our Medicaid bill for the city is about $5 Billion a year and I think we'll ...

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In The Running

Thursday, February 12, 2009

WNYC's Bob Hennelly reports on some breaking news regarding Mayor Bloomberg's re-election bid, while Andrea Bernstein updates the latest in Paterson cabinet appointments and other state budget woes.

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Who loves high-speed rail? The $8-billion question

Thursday, February 12, 2009

PRI
WNYC
When we went to bed last night, people who track transit spending were in agreement there would be $1 to $2 billion allocated for high-speed rail in the economic stimulus bill — and a...
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