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Richard Ravitch, New York's putative lieutenant governor, "is looking into using pension funds to help insure municipal bonds," according to an "insider" quoted in . But more than a few pension fund managers and investors believe that using pension Read More

My in today's New York Post is about the fiscal folly (economics aside) of trying to balance the state budget with higher taxes on a relatively small number of affluent New Yorkers whose incomes and portfolios have dropped sharply in the re Read More

Almost all of can be traced to falling tax receipts.  But rising spending will represent a growing share of the problem over the next three years.  In fact, more than one-third of the projected growth in next year's gap, and over half the Read More

Given , it should come as no surprise that the state's is forecasting a  $2.1 billion deficit for the current fiscal year.   But some of the financial details released by the Division of the Budget (DOB) today are getting even more worrisome. Read More

Writing in today's FT, investment-banking veteran (and former New York bailout-facilitator) Felix Rohatyn and ESC consulting-firm president Everett Ehlrich, pointing out that states still face $200 billion in operating deficits in the next t Read More

A new out from the state's Financial Control Board (FCB), which reviews New York City's finances, shows the updated value of New York's projected costs over time for providing healthcare to retirees. This liability has grown by 36 percent in the t Read More

Classic cartoon characters have an entertaining knack for suspending the basic laws of physics--for example, when Wile E. Coyote propels himself in pursuit of the Road Runner through the use of a sail "pushed" by a fan strapped to his back.  So perh Read More

In his annual report to the state's Financial Control Board yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg offered this intriguing fact: "the labor force is growing faster in New York City than elsewhere in the country. Our growth - at 1.6 percent - is nearly twice that Read More

Five months ago, Brooklyn/Queens Rep. Anthony Weiner how hard he had fought to include $1 billion in money for the nation's police officers in the $787 billion federal stimulus package. Now it turns out that President Obama is leaving New York out o Read More

In remarks accompanying his annual city budget report, Comptroller (and mayoral candidate) Bill Thompson said that the city's tax revenues have "evaporated." After a 37 percent decline in personal-income tax revenues over two years, these revenues w Read More

New York led the nation in K-12 education spending per pupil in 2006-07, according to .  The Empire State's school spending of $15,981 per pupil was 65 percent above the national average of $9,666.  New York's total school spending of nearly $51 bi Read More

The question is posed by Money graf: The National Institutes of Health, the country's top research agency, is awarding recovery money to projects proposed long before the recession. With $8 billion extra dollars to spend on research, ag Read More