Blog

Moving to a $15 minimum wage will cost New York’s Medicaid system more than double what was previously forecast, state budget officials revealed this week Read More

Governor Andrew Cuomo's budget staff has further reduced the state's revenue estimates for the current year and the three following years, adding to projected potential shortfalls during the period. Read More

For a sixth consecutive year, Governor Andrew Cuomo is behind schedule in issuing the state's Mid-Year Financial Plan Update—maintaining his perfect record of never once complying with the state Finance Law provision requiring such a report by Oct. 30. Read More

The looming repeal of the Affordable Care Act – which suddenly became much more likely with the election of Donald Trump – could open an enormous hole in New York’s state budget. Read More

The latest progress report from START-UP NY shows it’s losing participants almost as quickly as it’s adding them. Read More

New York is bucking the national trend in the largest category of health insurance costs, but in exactly the wrong way. Read More

New York’s local property tax cap has become an issue in a hotly contested Hudson Valley congressional race, where a specious anti-cap argument rejected by state courts has been revived by the Democratic candidate, Zephyr Teachout. Read More

The New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS) will reduce its pension contribution rates for a third consecutive year in 2017-18, even though the pension fund's investment returns came in well below its target rate in fiscal 2016. Read More

Nearly all of New York State's year-to-year private sector employment growth remains concentrated in New York City and its suburbs, according to the latest state Labor Department statistics. Read More

Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York's second largest union of state government employees just announced a tentative contract deal that, if ultimately extended to all state workers, could add roughly $1.5 billion in salary costs to New York's budget by fiscal 2019. Cuomo said the state had agreed to raise salaries for Public Employees Federation (PEF) members by 2 percent a year over three years, or a cumulative 6.12 percent, starting in the current fiscal year. Read More

Some of New York’s worst tendencies in bargaining with government unions were on display yesterday in Buffalo—even before the school board illegally took things behind closed doors. Read More

Based on the latest revenue numbers, New York State's fiscal situation is getting tighter by the month. Read More