Blog

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli today issued a that focuses on the budget process, but his most significant and potentially valuable recommendation deals with debt. Read More

mid Governor David Paterson's various troubles, a bill quietly was introduced last week--at his request--offering a pension sweetener to public employees represented by a single union: New York State United Teachers. The  would allow teachers and Read More

New Jersey imposed a 4 percent cap on local property tax increases a year before Governor David Paterson endorsed the Suozzi Commission's call for a school property tax cap in New York. But unlike Paterson's original proposal, the cap signed into law by New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine in 2007 contained a number of loopholes, including a clause exempting the cost of health insurance benefits. Read More

President Barack Obama wants to limit raises of federal government employees to 1.4 percent--far less than the 4 percent raises most New York State workers expect in the coming year. In New York, raises are determined by negotiations with public e Read More

In a Times on Washington's Wall Street bailouts and New York's economy, the Fiscal Policy Institute's James Parrott says that "the magnitude of the bailout has been so great that it will have wiped out whatever cumulative surplus" New York Read More

Teachers at the Iroquois School District, eyeing annual raises as high as 8 percent, are suggesting the district hold a "yard sale" to sell old equipment, switch to a four-day workweek, or curtail use of substitute teachers. "But a wage cut or freeze Read More

From the folks who brought you New York's "millionaire tax," it's ... another millionaire tax.  And a stock transfer tax.  And a 50 percent Is this a great state, or what? Read More

The city of White Plains is the latest example of how arbitration can produce bloated and unaffordable labor contracts. The twist, in the case of White Plains, is that the unaffordable arbitration award reportedly was recommended by the city's for Read More

State and local governments continue to use structured finance to obscure bad fiscal decisions. Today's case: Louisiana's convoluted proposed subsidy structure for the New Orleans Saints. The pending deal shows that conservative Republican Bobby Jind Read More

New York--despite facing a $55 billion liability--is one of 20 states that has set aside absolutely nothing to pay for the growing cost of health insurance for retired public employees, according to a national report. The  by the Pew Center on t Read More

New York state employees, unlike those in the private sector, have been largely untouched by the recession. State workers elsewhere have faced layoffs, benefit cuts and unpaid furloughs to help close massive budget gaps, as I point out in an op-ed Read More

The Drum Major Institute's John Petro has a in today's Daily News calling for New York to implement congestion pricing to fix New York's transit problem. "We need a long-term solution that ... creates a permanent, steady source of revenue," Read More