Good MTA news: new chief Jay Walder t that he'll continue the state-controlled transportation authority's lawsuit to have $300 million worth of annual wage hikes and givebacks to the TWU overturned. Even better, Walder made a clear connecti Read More
An calls for "the world's richest bank" -- that would be Goldman Sachs -- to "give the taxpayer a bonus" and pass on $321 million that the bank is rightfully set to collect from New York City and State government. Goldman should hold its ground v Read More
New York State and City are increasingly desperate for tax revenue. This desperation makes the highest state court's upcoming ruling on whether the Empire State Development Corp. (ESDC) has the right to seize private property for the Atlantic Yards Read More
Well, better late than never. But given in New York, Governor Paterson's may be a day late and a dollar short. Make that a billion. Just a day after state Comptroller DiNapoli in support of his own plausible estimate that the 2009-10 budget Read More
Despite a $12 million hole in the city's budget, Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings agreed to a tentative contract giving the police officers an 8 percent raise over two years--while keeping Albany taxpayers in the dark about the deal for three weeks. T Read More
That phrase is used in the headline of today's (as yet unposted) press release from the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, whose for the month of September highlights the same growing deficit spotlighted by the state tax department collect Read More
New York and Britain both face huge fiscal imbalances, partly as a result of their reliance on the volatile financial sector for too much tax revenue. And both may come up with the same purported partial solution to the problem: sales of public asset Read More
The awful outlook for public pension funds is the subject of in the Washington Post, helpfully linked by of the American Enterprise Institute. Read More
New York State's tax receipts were down 7.7 percent in September compared to the same month in 2008, according to from the state Department of Taxation and Finance. In virtually every major category, the tax numbers were below the trends forecas Read More
Two weeks ago, a Transport Workers Union (TWU) flier promised "Transit Wide Protests" against the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for next week's Oct. 14 "day of outrage." That poster seems to have disappeared in favor of an u Read More
As E.J. earlier this week, Gov. Paterson is taking a "minimalist" approach to the $2.1 - 3 billion deficit that is starting to yawn in the current budget, suggesting only $500 million worth of cuts (many of which were quickly criticized by state leg Read More
The Empire Center has posted payroll records for 121,961 custodians, bus drivers, aides, secretaries and other non-professional public school employees on their transparency site, . A full release is available , and a chart detailing the 100 hig Read More