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When New York's current state budget was enacted, Governor Andrew Cuomo hailed it as "the broadest  and most sweeping" of his tenure, adding that "for the ninth straight year it was both timely and fiscally responsible." "Timely," yes: budget bills were passed by the Legislature just in time for the April 1 dawn of a new fiscal year. As for "fiscally responsible"—well, that's more a matter of opinion. Read More

With the clock ticking toward the April 1 start of the next state fiscal year, Assembly Democrats just laid out their budget preferences—and, as usual, they add up to a massive tax-and-spend fantasy. Read More

As the budget process moves into higher gear, Governor Cuomo's "serious as a heart attack" revenue shortfall has turned into something more like angina—but financial risks are mounting along with projected future budget gaps. Read More

Some of the heated attacks on Governor Cuomo's Medicaid cuts, including a claim that tens of thousands of jobs would be lost, should be taken with a grain of salt. Read More

Governor Cuomo has announced he's flying to Washington on Tuesday to meet with President Trump to discuss the impact on New York of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap in the new federal tax law. Spoiler Alert: even assuming Trump is uncharacteristically thick-skinned in the face of Cuomo's harsh unrelenting political attacks, the SALT cap isn't going anywhere.  Read More

Disentangled from the politically turbocharged, high-volume rhetoric of his State of the State message, the first Executive Budget of Governor Andrew Cuomo's third term is largely a stay-the-course affair—for better and worse. Read More

The prospect of a 70 percent top federal income tax rate, as floated by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a TV interview, seems to have struck a nerve across the political spectrum. But whether she realizes it or not, her home state of New York would have a lot to lose from a return to nearly confiscatory federal tax rates on high earners. Read More

New York State's budget outlook for fiscal 2020 is improving, according to the Mid-Year Financial Plan update issued today by Governor Cuomo's Division of the Budget (DOB) The Mid-Year Update—released 10 days past the Oct. 30 deadline, keeping alive the Governor's perfect record of annual tardiness—pegs the budget gap at $3.070 billion for the fiscal year that starts next April 1.  That's down from $4.027 billion as of the end of the first fiscal quarter. Read More

Governor Cuomo has launched yet another broadside at the Trump administration over implementation of the new federal tax law. Read More

Congressional Republicans today unveiled a summary of their plans for permanently extending last year's federal income tax cuts—presumably (but not explicitly) subsidized by a permanent $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions. Read More

The New York-led multi-state lawsuit challenging the new federal tax law is not as weak as you might have heard. If anything, it's even worse—a 141-page mashup of half-baked numbers, dubious factual assertions and (largely well-founded) political arguments masquerading as constitutional jurisprudence. Read More

The newly enacted federal income law provision limiting state and local tax (SALT) deductions "is likely to substantially decrease home values" in New York, Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey. That's a key claim of the lawsuit filed by the four states against the Trump administration today with the goal of having the $10,000 SALT deduction cap declared unconstitutional. Read More