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New York--despite facing a $55 billion liability--is one of 20 states that has set aside absolutely nothing to pay for the growing cost of health insurance for retired public employees, according to a national report. The  by the Pew Center on t Read More

New York state employees, unlike those in the private sector, have been largely untouched by the recession. State workers elsewhere have faced layoffs, benefit cuts and unpaid furloughs to help close massive budget gaps, as I point out in an op-ed Read More

Don't expect the president of the Albany Police Officers Union to win any community relations awards, especially from the city's beleaguered taxpayers. During an interview with WRGB-TV, Chris Mesley made no effort to sugarcoat demands for police p Read More

Encima Global president -- and economist -- David Malpass has some incisive up on the firm's website that relate well to municipal finance and "too big to fail." Slide #16 shows the growth in state and local government spending as a percentage o Read More

E.J. and I have a in today's Post on the MTA's quickly deteriorating finances. Especially disturbing is the MTA's recent reliance on short-term borrowing to cover its operating costs (in other words, paying millions to Wall Street banks in financin Read More

Australia's Macquarie, responsible for some of the biggest road-infrastructure "private-public partnerships" of the early and mid-2000s, may pull the plug on its stake in one ambitious investment, the South Bay Expressway in San Diego. TOLLROADSne Read More

Westchester County employees have no reason to complain about the high cost of their health insurance--$7,992 for individuals and approximately $22,000 for families, because they pay nothing for it--unless they are property taxpayers. County Execu Read More

A Democratic state lawmaker from Buffalo is urging U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer to oppose President Obama's proposed tax on financial institutions. Assemblyman Sam Hoyt says he believes the tax, which Obama calls a "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fe Read More

With the City of White Plains facing a potential 23.5 percent tax hike, you might expect bold action to curb health care costs. Instead city politicians took a timid approach likely to produce small savings this year. Currently, city employees con Read More

The MTA's Jay Walder deserves great credit for standing firm against the transit "advocates" and elected officials who would like him to devote up to $160 million in capital-investment funds for short-term operating expenses, including rising union-l Read More

Moody's has on $12.2 billion worth of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s debt, in part because money from the new $1.5 billion downstate payroll tax continues to fall far short of what the state expected. That tax gap was $200 millio Read More