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 But New York City, which Mayor Bloomberg once likened to a "," will do the opposite if it follows through with the mayor's idea to raise income and sales taxes early next year. Read More

In a column today, Times columnist David Brooks contrasts the auto sector with the financial sector. The column illustrates why the recovery of the financial sector will be less straightforward and more difficult than the recovery of any oth Read More

The cost of New York State's Medicaid program, which already spends twice as much per recipient as the national average, will still be rising at a double-digit pace if the Legislature enacts the latest round of mid-year "cuts" proposed by Governor Pa Read More

"The current global financial market crisis could have serious implications for New York’s local governments if access to the credit markets remains constrained," says a issued today by the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Read More

My in today's New York Post gives Governor Paterson credit for his continuing "straight talk" on budget issues.   As for the , on the other hand: Unfortunately, for all the doomsday headlines and special-interest caterwauling Read More

India's current plight shows why it's not a good idea for any local or state government in America to think it can depend on private-public partnerships to fund its infrastructure construction projects once it's out of municipal-borrowing capacity (o Read More

Governor Paterson will propose a mid-year cut in state aid to public schools as part of a $2 billion budget reduction package to be released tomorrow. Here's a chart that provides some perspective on the budgetary debate ahead: [caption id="at Read More

The Wall Street Journal has run my op-ed on the risks New York City faces in its approach to fiscal and economic problems. The thesis is that the city's main economic engine -- Wall Street and the financial-services industry -- cold be at th Read More

Yesterday, another New York art auction went , with a Christie's sale bringing in $146.7 million against a "low" estimate of $240.7 million. "Of the 82 works for sale, 36, or more than 40 percent, of the auction went unsold," the Times repo Read More

In the of today's , a Canadian takes aim at New York City's sky-high corporate tax burden: The effective combined U.S. federal, New York State and New York City tax rate of roughly 46% to 47% that corporations pay on their New York City Read More