States and cities hoping to fill in budget gaps with cash-outs of future toll-road revenues and the like by handing revenue-generating assets over to private operators for up-front money may be sobered up by a report out yesterday from Australi Read More
Gov. Paterson has released the state budget on a history-making day. For the first time ever, the Federal Reserve has cut the interest rate at which it lends to banks to as (and as high as a quarter of a percentage point). This action puts Paterson's Read More
Governor Paterson's proposed on sugared soft drinks has already captured most of the media attention among the $4 billion in new taxes and fees in Governor Paterson's budget. But by far the largest single element in Paterson's revenue package is a Read More
An anonymous Paterson Administration official is in today's Albany Times Union as predicting that the governor's budget proposal would include an “aggressive set of cuts” that will leave “blood in the streets.” Maybe he meant ke Read More
An anonymous Paterson Administration official is in today's Albany Times Union as predicting that the governor's budget proposal would include an “aggressive set of cuts” that will leave “blood in the streets.” Maybe he meant ke Read More
City comptroller William Thompson released his regular "" report today. It's not necessary to go into the gory details, since it's past time for everyone simply to stipulate that things are ugly so that we can get on with life. The good news, though, Read More
Supporters of an income tax increase in New York State were, until recently, pushing what they called a "millionaire tax." But now that the number of millionaires is rapidly shrinking, Albany's most vocal tax-hike proponents have lowered their taxa Read More
Investment manager Bernard Madoff has allegedly admitted to what could be the biggest single criminal financial fraud ever, with up to $50 billion in losses. What does it mean for New York? Read More
Today's Citizens Budget Commission panel on "" (the link is to the full report, with good case studies) offered an excellently reasoned and evidenced summary of what the private sector can and cannot do when it comes to public-infrastructure Read More
Also in today's Times is a written to illustrate the foolishness of what my colleague Heather Mac Donald would probably call part of the victimology culture. The author, Linda Hirshman, notes that there will be "almost no women" on Obama's Read More
The Times that New York City's Industrial Development Agency is preparing to issue an additional $341.2 million in tax-exempt financing "on behalf of the Yankees and Mets" to finish building their new ballparks, in addition to the more tha Read More
What can Brazilian power lines teach New York about introducing private-sector competition to its public-bus system? In 1999, Brazil started to hold auctions open to both public and private sector players interested in improving the nation's trans Read More