Blog

Benjamin Kabak of 2nd Ave. Sagas has , with a discussion of an "uncomfortable issue": whether or not the pension and healthcare benefits that the MTA's unionized subway and bus workers receive are reasonable. Kudos to Benjamin for addressing an issu Read More

New York State's school boards are for the relatively low levels of nominal spending growth in their proposed 2009-10 budgets, which will be submitted to local voters across the state next week.  But in real terms--adjusting for the annual inflatio Read More

Annual health insurance premiums for active and retired state government employees in New York have risen $1.6 billion (128 percent) since fiscal 1999-2000 and are expected to increase by another $838 million (30 percent) over the next four years, ac Read More

Yale school of management prof Jeffrey Garten writes in  that a Beijing-led financial-services partnership between Hong Kong and Shanghai (Shangkong, the headline writer says) could provide serious competition to New York and London as a global fin Read More

One of Albany's senior State Capitol correspondents vacations in Flat Rock, North Carolina, and Read More

JetBlue, which employs 800 people at its Queens headquarters, might move the facility out of state in two and a half years to escape New York's high cost of doing business, the Daily News . Read More

, Nicole writes in today's Post.   The downstate economy will pay a steep price for what will be, at best, a temporary solution to the MTA's enormous budget shortfalls, she points out. For what taxpayers are giving up here, the Read More

To assuage reluctant lawmakers, Gov. Paterson has proposed that school districts be exempt from the new payroll tax that he wants Albany to impose on all employers, including public-sector employers, in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's ser Read More

Members of the state Assembly's small Republican minority have mustered the votes to block a new contract with a state employees' union on the grounds that it would be irresponsible to approve the deal in light of the state's dire economic and fiscal Read More

Now that a whole herd of horses has galloped out of New York's budgetary barn, Governor David Paterson has proposed shutting the door with an inflation-level cap on state spending. Read More

Mayor Bloomberg's 2010 Executive Budget proposal is being portrayed as "" -- but while the media and politicians focus on proposed spending reductions, a key measure of spending is actually rising at over twice the inflation rate. Read More

Earlier this afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg presented his updated budget proposal for next year, which starts in July. One thing that stands out, besides his request that Albany hike the city sales tax by half a percentage point: it's likely that over Read More