Introduction

One hundred years ago, New York already was well established as the most populous and economically vibrant state in the nation. Yet even in the booming 1920s, state leaders weren’t resting on their laurels. Looking towards the future, Governor Alfred E. Smith spent much of that decade successfully campaigning for constitutional reforms to make state government more efficient and effective.

In the decades that followed, under Smith’s successors in both parties, the Empire State overcame the challenges of the Great Depression and World War II to scale new heights of prosperity and broad opportunity, accommodating a burgeoning postwar population and the new enterprises and industries that would employ them.

As time wore on, however, the state lost its way.  High-minded ambition gave way to undisciplined excess.

The Rockefeller era began in the late 1950s with grand visions of a big government-driven future. By the early 1970s, the Empire State was struggling with bloated budgets, high taxes, declining services, growing welfare dependency, rising urban crime rates, and crumbling infrastructure. Millions of people and countless businesses left the state, the decennial census of New York’s population declined for the first time ever, and its largest city sank into virtual bankruptcy and rampant disorder.

To their credit, in the 1980s and 1990s, New York politicians in both parties grasped the sobering lessons of the Seventies. The era of recovery and renewal wasn’t always steady; sometimes, every forward step seemed to be followed by another in the opposite direction.  But little by little, New York regained its edge.

In public finance, taxes were reformed and reduced; debt was curbed; spending was controlled.

In education, there was a new emphasis on quality, measuring pupil performance, and expanding choice through charter schools.

In healthcare, the state took steps to deregulate its hospital system and control Medicaid costs.

“Luxury decontrol” was introduced to New York City’s market-distorting rent regulations.

And the over-arching achievement, previously thought impossible: a decades-long crime wave was broken. City streets became safe again.

As the 21st century approached, the once-failing Empire State could fairly be described as a comeback story.

More recently, though, we’ve experienced yet another turn towards stagnation and decline—which the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated. Seemingly unaware of the lessons taught by New York’s not-so-distant past, a rising generation of activists and advocates seem intent on repeating old mistakes in new forms.

The time is overdue to embrace new approaches—and to dust off some proven approaches that can work again. It’s time to shape the Next New York.

In the Next New York, we need a fresh commitment to unleashing the genius and energies of the private sector.

In the Next New York, the focus must return to results-oriented programs, to spending better rather than simply spending more.

This volume features the insights of 11 policy experts who have spent years deeply engaged in the study and analysis of the major issues facing our state today: budget and tax policy, criminal justice, education, health, energy, transportation, housing, public employment, government accountability and—capping it off—the laws by which we choose the elected officials to make decisions in these areas.

Our chapter headings are by no means meant to suggest an all-inclusive list of needed reforms.  For example, an entire additional volume might be devoted to the burdens state regulation has placed on business. This book focuses on a set of priorities that would begin to set the right course, and that should be added to.

The Next New York is in part a briefing book on key aspects of the public policy status quo. But as its title suggests, each of the 11 chapters of The Next New York ultimately focuses on the future—on what needs to be done, and what needs to change, to allow the Empire State to move forward again.

We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.