UTDD

That’s my Girl!

November 5, 2013 Data

Halloween postscript. On her own initiative, granddaughter, age 9, surveyed her Halloween loot. Then she categorized it by size and counted the pieces (total 63). I’m so proud.

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Nursing Home Problems Visualized Nationally

October 18, 2013 Dashboard

John Kelly of USA Today and Emily Le Coz of the Jackson (Miss) Clarion-Ledger on USA Today have done an exemplary job of using the latest in data visualization technology to display and enable interactive exploration of nursing home problems. Take a look here! Note the interactivity. Be sure to look at each of the […]

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Opening New York’s Budget

January 24, 2013 Budget

We recently congratulated Governor Cuomo for his promoting data transparency in his State of the State message. Little did we know how quickly his administration was moving to actually take concrete steps to make it so. Yesterday’s Budget showed us not only that his commitment was serious, but that the staff of the State Division […]

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Making the Public’s Data Public – Cuomo Edition

January 9, 2013 Data

Well, this seems an especially appropriate topic with which to kick off our 2013 posts. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2013 State-of-the-State address’s includes an entire section on using technology to promote “transparency.” Among other things, the Governor has now committed to providing online copies of the State budget in “machine-readable” form. That means you […]

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NY Counties Sharing Sales Tax Revenue With Cities & Towns

December 3, 2012 Cities

There’s a little Albany debate going on on Twitter right now about which counties share more of their sales tax revenue with local cities, towns and villages. It’s part of the lead in to what’s likely to be a contentious meeting of the Albany County Legislature. Simultaneously, a couple members of the City of Albany’s […]

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Keeping Watch for Local Government Fiscal Stress

December 2, 2012 Accounting

New York’s Comptroller, Tom DiNapoli has issued a draft proposal for identifying local governments at risk of fiscal stress. An earlier report touches on local fiscal distress. And here, former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky discusses the earlier Comptroller’s report. It’s a good idea, and given the local governments that have already gotten themselves in trouble the […]

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Friday Afternoon Rant Supplement

November 30, 2012 CAFR

At the risk of prolonging the agony – for myself and readers of my most recent Friday afternoon rant, here are a couple of extras to further the point that counties charging cities, towns and villages, for Community College tuition is a political dodge, but likely one that will lead to even higher taxes. The […]

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More on Political Moneyball

October 27, 2012 Data

John Cassidy of the New Yorker has a nice explanation of Nate Silver‘s statistical approach to forecasting elections and a balanced view of how much weight to give it. He contrasts that approach with that of David Brooks, New York Times columnist, who describes himself as a pollaholic, but who’s ultimately a skeptic. So here […]

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A “Moneyball” Moment in the Presidential Campaign

October 23, 2012 Analysis

With two weeks to go before the election, James Fallows notes the increasing difference between the perspective of the “old pros” who believe that Romney has the momentum that will lead him to defeat Obama and the poll and economics-driven number crunchers like Nate Silver whose current numbers suggest that Obama has the advantage. Fallows […]

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