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New York and its local governments—and yet the new state budget will pump even more money into New York's biggest capital pork-barrel slush fund. Read More

In the race to vaccinate its oldest and most vulnerable residents, New York has fallen behind. Although the state's overall COVID-19 vaccination rate is somewhat higher than th Read More

New York state today began its 2022 fiscal year without an adopted budget—which, in itself, is not a big deal. The state government can continue to pay bills and employee salaries next week if either final appropriat Read More

As a budget deal nears in Albany, reining in spiraling Medicaid costs seems to be the last thing on anyone's mind. Governor Cuomo is advancing only Read More

Preliminary enrollment data from the State Education Department (SED) show that New York experienced the largest decline in public school enrollment in four decades. While the estimate is dramatic, it is also likely overly conservative. New Census data hint at a greater drop-off. Read More

New York has a lot riding on the pace of business reopening and resumption of normal activities in the coming months. Read More

Governor Cuomo and the Legislature are seeking to raise taxes on New York's highest earners—giving the Empire State's already high-taxed income millionaires a bigger financial incentive to avoid New York Read More

A hospital lobbying group at the heart of scandals plaguing the Cuomo administration is again getting the governor's help in pushing a late change to the state budget. Aides to Read More

Tax proposals embraced by Democrats represent a sizable increase in a top rate that already stands at an all-time record high. Read More

In an echo of the Cuomo administration's stonewalling on nursing home data, the governor's office has for a third time delayed releasing records of its vaccine review panel, this time until mid-April. Read More

Every year for over a decade, the Empire Center has submitted Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the payrolls of MTA corporate subsidiaries. And in almost every Read More

With two weeks to go before the start of New York State's 2022 fiscal year, Democratic majorities in the Assembly and Senate have staked out similar budget priorities calling for the biggest spending hikes on record wh Read More