Today, the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee hold a joint hearing on the Governor's budget for fiscal year 2015. There have been hearings since the end of January on various topics such as education, environmental issues, and economic development. Today is the day for local government officials to get involved. New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio took almost 2 and a half hours this morning with his concerns on the state budget. A large portion of this was dedicated to affordable housing. The hearing is being streamed online here

Former Speaker Sheldon Silver has entered a plea of not guilty after being formally indicted earlier this week of corruption charges. Silver is accused of hiding 3.8 million dollars of outside income that were "referral fees" that came due to his position of speaker. This event has really raised concern over ethics in the New York State Legislature as a new Siena University poll now shows that 92% ( 3.7% of error) of those surveyed see the problem of corruption as a serious problem in state government.