Robert B. Ward is the deputy director of the Rockefeller Institute and heads the Institute's State and Local Government Finance research. He has studied and written about New York State government for more than 20 years as a newspaper reporter and editor, as assistant to the chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, and as director of research for The Public Policy Institute of New York State, the research affiliate of The Business Council of New York State. He is author of New York State Government, published by the Institute in 2002 and revised in 2006. His work on state finances includes leading the Institute’s recent research into gambling revenues for states, and a study of long-term changes in the property tax in New York State. He is a graduate of Syracuse University.