The Cuomo administration has released a few more details of its plan to propose an optional payroll tax for New York employers as a way to preserve some of the state and local tax (SALT) deductions capped under the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Read More
Existing state regulations, along with competitive pressures, assure that health insurers will share much if not all of the benefit of federal tax cuts with their policyholders. Rather than trying to grab the money or dictate how it's spent, lawmakers should let market forces do their work. Read More
Sign-ups for both government-sponsored and private health coverage through the New York State of Health insurance exchange surged during this year’s open-enrollment period, a sign of continued consumer demand in the face of political turmoil and rising premiums. Read More
Renewable energy companies aren’t building the windmills and solar panels Governor Andrew Cuomo hoped for when he pledged in 2015 to have 50 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewables by 2030. Cuomo’s latest solution? The state will build them itself. Read More
After many dire warnings about cuts to health care in Washington, it’s worth noting that federal funding for the state’s massive Medicaid program is still on track to go up, not down, in the year ahead. Read More
Governor Cuomo's budget proposal includes more than $1.5 billion in automatic income tax hikes, affecting many of the same people who have the most to lose from the new federal limits on state and local tax (SALT) deductions. Read More
Facing a multibillion-dollar gap in state finances, Governor Cuomo has turned to one of Albany’s favorite piggy banks: the health care industry. Read More
For the time being, at least, Governor Cuomo's 2018-19 Executive Budget left a pile of loose ends in the state tax code. With one notable exception, the initial version of the budget doesn't address any of the myriad corporate and personal income tax (PIT) conformance issues raised by passage of the new federal tax law. Instead, those issues are to be explored in a study released by the Department of Taxation and Finance, for consideration during the 30-day amendment period. Read More
Governor Cuomo’s budget makes no major change in the Essential Plan—a low-cost state-sponsored health plan—despite the loss of almost $1 billion in federal aid. Read More
A bill designed to make it harder for New York government workers to extricate themselves from labor union membership rolls is poised to move out of a key Senate committee next week. Read More
With the state facing its grimmest budget outlook in years, the legislative session shows signs of becoming a tug-of-war between public schools and health care—the two biggest recipients of state spending and, not coincidentally, the two heaviest-hitting lobbying forces Albany. Read More
State Senate Republicans today issued a "Blueprint for a Stronger New York" that combines a few solid big-picture tax reduction priorities with more of the wasteful "tax relief" gimmickry that's become a standard feature of the Senate GOP tax policy agenda in recent years. Read More