Setting the Agenda

As Miguel de Cervantes once said, “To be prepared is half the victory.”

For many organizations, advocates and interest groups, by the time the focus shifts to the next year’s legislative agenda in Albany, the top players have already set the priorities and the battle lines have been drawn.

So it is with Cervantes’ maxim in mind that City & State presents its annual Setting the Agenda special section, an in-depth analysis of the most pressing issues that will be debated in Albany during the 2015 legislative session.

Now that the dust has settled from the 2014 elections and the balance of power in the Capitol is becoming clearer, we launch this substantive conversation with legislators well before the policy debates are overshadowed by political posturing and spin, the rush to pass a state budget and a flurry of last-minute deal-making.

We have also reviewed the notable achievements and failures of the past session, and invited leading advocates to stake out their ground for next year’s legislative showdowns.

In this issue and the next, we profile a number of the top policy areas that state lawmakers and the Cuomo administration will be grappling with in 2015. This first installment covers education, healthcare, energy and the environment. We delve into timely questions—from the future of hydrofracking to how to rein in healthcare costs to tweaking teacher evaluations and the state’s Common Core education standards.

The 2015 session will be here before you know it. Get ready.