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Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not putting money for 2 percent raises for New York City teachers in his proposed budget. Despite that, some teachers will automatically get annual raises as high as 11.6 percent. Read More

Many if not most New York City teachers will continue receiving automatic longevity pay increases despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement today that he will "eliminate raises" for them in the next budget. In fact, as illustrated... Read More

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli yesterday issued a happy talk news release touting the state retirement system's 26 percent return on investments in fiscal 2009-10, which ended March 31. “The Fund remains one of the strongest in the U.S.,” DiNapoli said. Read More

The Paterson administration, which leaves office December 31, is preparing a plan to lay off thousands of state workers on January 1. Is this real or a merely a threat to force recalcitrant unions to make concessions to achieve the $250 million in workforce... Read More

Visions of sugar plums dance in the heads of older state workers--amid Albany's $9 billion budget gap. They dream of fatter pensions should Senate approve Governor Paterson's early retirement bill as the Assembly did this week. Although a bonanza for... Read More

The Greek debt crisis has inspired economist Michael Boskin to lay out some fundamental lessons that are equally applicable to our own federal and state governments. Quoting directly from this article by Boskin, the lessons are: elected officials systematically... Read More

Governor Paterson would need the support of the Legislature to freeze wages of state workers. The next governor could partially freeze salaries by letting union contracts expire next year. One would-be governor, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, has proposed freezing... Read More

"The New NY Agenda" is the title of a policy booklet issued yesterday by Andrew Cuomo, the soon-to-be nominated Democratic gubernatorial candidate. If that title sounds familiar, it's because "New, New York" (including that all-important comma after the first "New")... Read More

The broad outlines of Andrew Cuomo's gubernatorial campaign platform are beginning to dribble out as the formal announcement of the attorney general's candidacy approaches. By the time the state Democratic Party Convention opens next Tuesday... Read More

The Senate passed financial industry "reform" yesterday. But one important amendment failed earlier this week: New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg's proposal to prohibit federal bailouts of state and local governments. The Judd amendment... Read More

Voters in New York's suburban, rural and smaller city school districts approved 92 percent of proposed school budgets yesterday, according to the New York State School Boards Association. This is above the historical average approval rate of 83 percent... Read More

Layoffs of up to 10,000 state employees are "on the radar screen," according to the New York Post. Citing an unnamed Paterson administration official, the Post reports Governor Paterson has been told the "no layoffs" memorandum signed... Read More