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Gov. Cuomo's proposed 2 percent property tax cap could only be overridden by a super-majority of more than 60 percent of school district voters. Would this pose an insurmountable obstacle to supporters of higher taxes, starving schools of desperately needed funding? Cap opponents such as New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) imply as much, asserting in recent Senate testimony that the 60 percent override threshold... Read More

In today's Times, Mayor Bloomberg says that state governments don't need to curtail bargaining rights for public workers' unions. Instead, states just need to bargain better -- and give localities the authority to bargain better, too -- to protect the... Read More

A $100 million expansion of the the state's Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) surcharge is among the latest additions to a list of (so far) several hundred "redesign proposals" under consideration by Governor Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team. The proposal... Read More

The Tax Foundation is out with a new report today, which found that nationally the combined state and local tax burden... Read More

New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) has produced a new TV commercial blaming proposed state budget cuts on "tax breaks for millionaires." In fact, the proposed 2011-12 state budget includes $3.8 billion in projected revenue from the third and final year... Read More

New York's public-sector unions love to bash Wall Street, demanding punitive new taxes on investment banks as the solution to every fiscal problem. In fact, the financial sector "oligarchy" and the "new Tammany Hall" of the public-sector labor movement... Read More

The news out of China about its high-speed rail network shows that cost and time overruns aren't the worst things to happen on big transit and transportation projects. As the Times reports in a piece on China's firing of its railways minister, possibly... Read More

Retail health clinics could play an important role in expanding access to health care in New York State, according to a new study by the Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress. But first, the state needs to break down its existing regulatory... Read More

Add the Bethlehem Central School District to the small, but growing, list of public entities taking action to bring spending in line with economic reality.   Officials of the Albany area school district that they had implemented a voluntary sala Read More

Sen. Chuck Schumer says he could be all for Deutsche Borse buying the New York Stock Exchange ... so long as the New York Stock Exchange name comes first. "The New York Stock Exchange is one of the most trusted, preeminent brands in the financial world... Read More

The Post has a good editorial today on Mayor Bloomberg's plan to cut pension costs by taking away a "bonus" check from uniformed workers who have already retired: [W]hile the mayor has standing to ask for relief, the notion is fanciful... Read More

It's all well and good that Assembly and Senate leaders have agreed on a "roadmap" towards adopting a budget by April 1, including a March 15 deadline for passing one-house budget resolutions and forming conference committees, and a March 28... Read More