New York State (NYS) has experienced a succession of crises over the past half century—so much so that one might reasonably suggest that crisis governance has become a “normal” feature of our contemporary state and local politics. This website is devoted to exploring New York State politics and governance through the lens of crisis as an umbrella term for the range of challenges that the state has faced, with an emphasis on the economic, political, and leadership challenges of governing in the Empire State since the 1970s. In doing so, we seek to contribute to the deeper understanding of New York’s unique history and politics in a way that we believe will be of interest to all state and local politics scholars. Crisis governance studies have proliferated, but there are few treatments focusing on state and substate crisis management generally or outside of the context of natural disaster or emergency disaster response. By applying a crisis lens to the study of NYS, we demonstrate the challenges and pitfalls of the ubiquitous language and framing of crises and the ongoing academic debate over what constitutes a crisis.
This website is a companion resource to Governing New York State Through Crises, edited by Laurie Buonanno, Lisa Parshall, Fred Floss, and Byron Brown (June 2026, SUNY Press).
The Academic Team
This website is curated by college professors who teach New York State government, politics, and budgeting.
Byron W. Brown is Professor of Practice in Public Administration at SUNY Buffalo State University and President and CEO of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation. He was a member of the Buffalo Common Council and a New York State Senator prior to serving as a five-term mayor of the City of Buffalo (2006-2024).
Laurie A. Buonanno is Professor of Public Administration at SUNY Buffalo State University and a European Commission Jean Monnet Chair (2025-2028).
Lisa K. Parshall is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Daemen University, Amherst, New York and a policy fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. She is the author of In Local Hands: Village Government Incorporation and Dissolution in New York State, also published by SUNY Press.
Frederick G. Floss is Professor of Economics at SUNY Buffalo State University. He is Secretary of the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority and was executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute.
Governing New York State Through Crises 