In today's Post, E.J. Gov. Paterson, Lt. Gov. Ravitch, and the state legislature to "freeze wages now," observing that "[f]or the first time in nearly 20 years, New York state is running short of cash to pay its bills." The $2 billion in Read More
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in today's New York Post explains why—and how—the Paterson administration should declare a fiscal emergency and seek to impose a three-year freeze on all state and local employee salaries in New York. This would save taxpayers statewid Read More
Gov. Paterson told radio host John Gambling this morning that although arbitrators in the MTA-TWU case "probably made the correct ruling technically" to give transit workers 11.3 percent raises over three years because the rest of the city's labor u Read More
When this year's state budget was first enacted back in April, the budget gap for fiscal 2010-11 was at $2.17 billion. The in July more than doubled this estimate, to $4.62 billion. And today's says next year's gap has grown by another 47 per Read More
The Journal News has posted the annual pensions of 335,648 retired state and local government employees in a searchable data base (). Included are retirees of the Common Retirement Fund, which covers employees of state agencies and loca Read More
reported this morning that "independent" arbitrator John Zuccotti, who was supposed to represent the public in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's contract with the Transport Workers Union, planned to donate his $116,000 fee -- at $900 a Read More
Governor Paterson has now all but formally abandoned . Instead, he has tucked a hopelessly byzantine variation of the cap into that would kick in when (or if) the state ever has some extra money sitting around again. So, in place of Paterson is Read More
The number of retired New York government employees with six-figure pensions is apparently growing at a 20 percent annual rate. , newly posted by the Journal News of the lower Hudson Valley, lists 1,081 individuals with pensions of $100,00 Read More
Today's from Governor Paterson's office says the governor's proposed pension changes for new newly hired employees will save $60 billion over 30 years. But here's the missing perspective: for state government, the modest changes proposed by Paterso Read More
If Gov. Paterson cuts funding to the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority as expected, the MTA may make up for the cut by slashing payments to its pension fund, the Bond Buyer (you need a subscription). The MTA would use the t Read More
Forget the dismal economy. Or that police officers in Orangetown and Pelham Manor are among the best paid in the lower Hudson Valley. According to two arbitration panels, the police are underpaid--and deserve retroactive raises of nearly 8.2 percent Read More
Wendell Cox has a new at newgeography on how practically to open up transit monopolies. One part, which discusses how London runs its public-bus service, is relevant to New York: Transport for London ... is competitively bid. Between Read More