#NYCoronavirus: With this year's tax return filing date push postponed to mid-July in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Cuomo has revived his old complaints about the TCJA's $10,000 cap on itemized state and local tax (SALT) deductions. But under the circumstances—a crashing economy and exploding federal deficits—his case for restoring SALT is even weaker than it was before the crisis. Indeed, it verges on preposterous. Read More
#NYCoronavirus: The Cuomo administration is about to begin running up charges on that $11 billion credit card the Legislature handed the governor in the new budget. Under the budget's the Education, Labor and Family Assistance budget bill, Cuomo is authorized to borrow up to $11 billion this year in the form of up to $8 billion in bond anticipation notes (BANs) and $3 billion from “line of credit facilities and other similar revolving financing arrangements.” Read More
#NYCoronavirus: Governor Cuomo is invoking his "emergency" powers to unilaterally defer a 2 percent pay hike otherwise scheduled for most unionized state government workers during the new fiscal year. Read More
#NYCoronavirus: Downstate New Yorkers are three times more likely than upstaters to have been tested for Covid-19 – and four times more likely to have been positive when checked. Read More
#NYCoronavirus: The coronavirus pandemic has been an acid test for government, revealing bureaucratic incompetencies, unnecessary regulations—and, in Albany, an agency that has failed to perform one of its central functions. Read More
#NYCoronavirus: The state Health Department released additional coronavirus data that gives a clearer picture of which counties and age groups have been hardest hit by the pandemic so far. Read More
The new state budget finally takes credible steps to address the Medicaid crisis of recent history. What's missing is a clear plan for weathering the far larger crisis of the present and future. Read More
#NYCoronavirus: The Legislature isn't just delegating emergency spending control powers to Governor Cuomo as part of the new state budget. It's also handing him a deficit-financing credit card with an $11 billion limit. Read More
#NYCoronavirus: As New York State lawmakers debate the Medicaid budget during a public health crisis, here are seven things they should keep in mind. Read More
#NYCoronavirus: The coronavirus pandemic has just claimed its first big institutional victim: the New York State Legislature, which handed Governor Cuomo broad and unprecedented leeway to "adjust or reduce" state spending in the fiscal year that began today. Read More
The world has changed since Governor Cuomo tasked his Medicaid Redesign Team with finding $2.5 billion in savings to help balance the state budget. Yet even in light of the coronavirus pandemic, many of the panel's recommendations still make sense – and are arguably more necessary than ever. Read More
When it comes to responding to the coronavirus, New York is likely to struggle with a pre-existing condition: the Taylor Law. Governor Andrew Cuomo has authority to suspend portions of the Taylor Law—and to preserve vital public services, he should. Read More