Union membership in New York City remains the highest in the country but has declined in recent years, according to a new (but not yet publicly released) report from the City University's Murphy Institute. The report's main finding, as summarize Read More
The city's independent budget office (IBO) has released on New York's post-9/11 disaster and recovery spending. So who got the Liberty Bond money? As part of its $20.5 billion aid package, remember, Washington gave the city $1.2 billion to suppor Read More
The has just released a new index that takes a comprehensive approach to measuring just how powerful government unions are in each of the 50 states. Which state had the lowest ranking, denoting the most powerful Read More
The St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators is holding a on a proposal to override the state's new property tax cap as part of the county's budget. Although the tentative 2012 county budget is not due until Nov. 15, l suggest county officials are g Read More
Pension bills for New York's local governments and school districts will rise by a combined total of at least $359 million as a result of the rate increase by the state comptroller this week, based on the latest available salary data from the state Read More
New York's cities, already the most fiscally stressed class of local governments in the state, will be hit especially hard by the next wave of pension contribution increases yesterday by the state comptroller. That's because city payrolls tend to be Read More
Tax-funded employer contributions to the New York State and Local Retirement System will rise sharply in fiscal year 2013, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli today. The rate billed for members of the Employer Retirement System (ERS) will rise to near Read More
Reporting today on New York City's plan to lay off 780 school employees in October, an in The New York Times explains: "The layoffs are a direct consequence of budget cuts to schools, which have occurred in each of the last four years, forci Read More
New York has the second highest-paid state police force in the country, the Gannett News Service (GNS) last week, based on both state payroll and U.S. Census records. GNS said the average salary for all ranks of state trooper came to $112,000 as o Read More
New York State's tax collections and other receipts during the first four months of the 2011-12 fiscal year were $330 million below projections, according to the July issued yesterday by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. That dip, he noted, "largely ev Read More
Yesterday's by Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) will help Gov. Cuomo reach his workforce savings targets in a tightly balanced state budget. Almost as important, Cuomo's with the largest state government union -- including a three-year Read More
“If the plodding national economy stumbles into another recession, New York — plagued by high unemployment and the prospect of a rising tide of layoffs on Wall Street — probably will take a tumble, too.” That’s the main takeaway from an article in today’s New York Times on the outlook for the city’s economy — which, of course, has inevitable implications for all of the Empire State. Read More