Blog

Over at the New York Times's message board, many commenters have reacted to Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to lay off teachers with some version of: "why not just tax the rich more?" Read More

This blog focuses on New York. But the new managers of the Xanadu-cum- "American-Dream@Meadowlands" mall project over in Jersey noted helpfully yesterday that "Manhattan can see us." Read More

Amid speculation that passage of a property tax cap covering most of New York State will hinge on the fate of New York City's rent regulations, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has shot down a proposal to cap taxes on some city apartment buildings. Read More

Public-sector labor leaders generally respond to any proposed reform of their collective bargaining privileges with angry cries of "Union buster!" and "Wisconsin!" But what will the unions say after such reforms are adopted in ... Massachusetts? Read More

Proposed school tax levies in New York for 2011-12 would rise by an average of 2.9 percent**, well above Gov. Cuomo's proposed 2 percent tax levy cap, according to the Property Tax Report Card released this morning by the state Education Department. Read More

A Wisconsin school official who backed Gov. Scott Walker's collective bargaining reforms in that state has been named superintendent of schools in Westchester County's Katonah Lewisboro School District, despite mass protests organized by local teachers' unions. Read More

Based on per-capita federal data, USA Today reports that "New Yorkers get more government aid per person from social programs than residents of any other state." The Empire State's Medicaid spending per-person alone is more than double the average, but we're also high in other categories of social assistance. Read More

The use of the term "stakeholder" to describe representatives of labor unions, businesses and advocacy groups with an obvious vested interest in the outcome state policy deliberations seems to have soared under Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has appointed... Read More

Some of the residents of New York's more than one million rent-stabilized apartments pay less than the legally allowed rent. How many? Nobody knows. The Rent Guidelines Board's most recent "income and expense study" found a gap of about 15 percent... Read More

You'll have to wait 'till tomorrow for today's promised data -- since today's New York Times has provided fodder for a diversion. The Times reports that the 2,820 households at the Penn South co-op building are doing some "soul-searching." Read More

Yesterday, The Torch looked at what your rent pays for. Today: How long do New York renters keep their apartments? Read More

New York's infrastructure is shot, and money is short. Nonetheless, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) is pursuing a contracting strategy that tends to increase highway and bridge construction costs, by linking bid awards to project-labor... Read More