The number of New York residents with incomes above $1 million hit a new high in the Wall Street boom year of 2021—but the state's share of all U.S. income millionaires dropped lower, according to new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data released to Read More
New York State's budget-making process sometimes works like a closed loop, as interest groups on the receiving end of state spending reinvest a portion of their proceeds to lobby Albany for still more money. Read More
New York in 2022 imposed the largest unfunded mandate on schools in a generation, requiring them to replace their buses with electric models. New price data indicate the cost is still rising. Read More
Weeks after state university officials warned about looming deficits, state legislators and construction unions are pushing to make SUNY’s financial picture worse. Read More
A change in Medicaid reimbursement currently being pushed by New York's hospital industry appears likely to benefit high-end hospitals proportionally more than safety-net institutions, a review of hospitals' financial Read More
New York’s “cap and invest” program (NYCI), a central part of the state’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, appears designed to hold back much of the program’s sticker-shock until January 2027—after the 2026 election. Read More
The decline in union membership observed nationally appears to be occurring in New York as well. Read More
Arguably the biggest Medicaid news in Governor Hochul's budget presentation was about the current fiscal year, not the next one: The state-run health plan is running substantially over budget. Read More
New York's post-pandemic employment recovery stalled in the final quarter of 2023, with the state ending the year still 76,400 private jobs below its February 2020 level. Read More
New York’s constitutional framers explicitly rejected the governor making an in-person address to the Legislature—a custom akin to the speech from the throne of the monarchy. Read More
Upstate electricity customers today got what seemed like good news when Equinor pulled the plug on its Empire Wind 2 (EW2) offshore wind project, one of several being funded by New York customers as far away as Buffalo and Plattsburgh. The announcement however is mainly theater, because Equinor looks poised to squeeze even more money from ratepayers—in a manner that should have state lawmakers deeply concerned about how little control they’ve retained over state renewable energy spending. Read More
New York's population decreased by 101,984 residents—the largest loss of any state—during the 12-month period that ended last July 1, according to The Empire State's population as of mid-2023 was pegged at 19,571,216, a cumulative decline of 631 Read More