That's the argument in this provocative City Journal essay by D.J. Jaffe, who says the "skewed priorities" of the state Office of Mental Health are actually preventing the delivery of adequate care to the most seriously mentally ill. Jaffe warns that... Read More
Governor Cuomo proposed a cap on Superintendent salaries earlier this week, but as it relates to bringing school district spending down, it’s the equivalent of trying to chop down a tree with nail clippers. Read More
Although his proposed property tax cap will put pressure on counties, municipalities and schools to reduce their costs, Gov. Cuomo has punted the related issue of mandate relief to a "redesign team" comprised of stakeholders including representatives... Read More
States are finding it more difficult to accurately predict their revenues--and "the biggest culprit" is an increasing reliance on personal income taxes, according to a new report from the Pew Center on the States and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute... Read More
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