Here’s a puzzling statistic: Recipients enrolled in Medicaid managed care plans use emergency rooms more often, not less, than those in the old-style “fee for service” program. Read More
Blog
A study charges that Medicaid managed care plans are systematically denying care to elderly and disabled shut-ins. While the report raises concerns, its findings do not warrant abandoning an important reform effort. Read More
Upstate New York's largest metro areas experienced little or no job growth during the year ending in June, according to the latest state Labor Department employment report. Read More
For several years now, Governor Andrew Cuomo has been misusing employment statistics to back up claims that his policies have ignited an economic resurgence in upstate New York. It happened yet again today, when the governor was in Binghamton to announce that Dick's Sporting Goods had decided to locate a 650,000 square foot distribution center in the Broome County Corporate Park. Read More
After another year of low inflation, most local governments will again base their tax caps on a growth factor of less than one percent. Read More
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli accentuates the negative in a new audit of the state’s Medicaid managed care program, faulting two participating insurers for “wasting millions of state Medicaid dollars.” But he omits two important pieces of context. Read More
New York emerged as the second-costliest state for employer-sponsored health insurance after its premiums rose at more than three times the national rate in 2015. Read More
The best news to come out of the final days of the 2016 legislative session may have concerned what didn’t pass. Read More
START-UP NY, New York’s signature economic development program, made headlines for creating just 408 jobs in its first two years of operations. However, bigger disappointments may lie ahead. Read More
Yesterday marked the end of a second straight sub-par fiscal year for most of the nation's state and local public pension funds, including all five New York City funds and the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS). Read More
Some of New York State’s major transportation infrastructure projects are now benefiting from expanded use of the design-build process—but a costly pro-union rider has been attached to proposed legislation extending design-build authorization to public works financed by New York City, and could set a troubling precedent. Read More
New York's Legislature couldn't leave town without making it easier for the music and gaming industries to collect up to $50 million a year in tax subsidies, modeled after the state's existing (and outrageous) giveaway to film and TV producers. Read More