Writings

Commentary #31

Commentary #30

Oral health is a core component of overall health, with population-level gains driven largely by preventive public health interventions. As this is the Step Two Policy Project’s first publication focused exclusively on oral health, this Issue Brief begins with an overview of dental care delivery in Part I, then turns to the challenges facing individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in Part II.

Commentary #29

Commentary #28

Commentary #27

This Issue Brief provides background information on maternity services in rural areas of New York and examines rural-tailored strategies, including care delivery and payment models that have evolved in the state. This paper also examines a new delivery model set to be piloted in California that may serve as a roadmap for preserving maternity services and improving access to perinatal care in rural New York.

This commentary on New York City’s budget deficit introduces an article published in Vital City on February 3, 2026, under the title "Evaluating Mamdani's Diagnosis of New York City's Budget Deficit." The article/commentary points out that, notwithstanding Mayor Mamdani’s expressed surprise that the City was facing a large budget deficit going into Fiscal Year 2027, numerous budget observers in 2025 had identified this looming deficit.

Even a relatively noncontroversial State Executive Budget, which the FY 27 Executive Budget surely is, includes a wealth of important issues to be addressed in the areas of focus of the Step Two Policy Project. Rather than trying to comprehensively review all of these issues, I want to comment today on three such issues in the FY 27 Executive Budget, all of which we have written about in the past.