New York’s largest state and local government employee union is ending its unconstitutional collection of mandatory agency fees from day care providers who receive subsidies from the state, according to a letter the union has sent to providers. Read More
With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama has just put added pressure on the second-biggest category of New York’s state operating funds budget—Medicaid. Obama’s recent executive order on immigration could drive up New York’s Medicaid costs by $1.1 billion to $2 billion, state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos warned in a letter yesterday to the state’s U.S. senators. Read More
If wishes were horses, the news conference held in Albany yesterday by the New York State Educational Conference Board could be re-staged as the Charge of the Light Brigade. Read More
New York’s state government pension costs will be nearly $1.6 billion above previously projected levels over the next four years, according the Mid-Year Financial Plan Update that was finally issued today—11 days behind schedule, and nearly a week after Election Day—by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Division of the Budget (DOB). Read More
Calling it an "oppressive unfunded mandate" that would impose $57 million in "near term obligations" on local governments across New York State, Governor Cuomo has vetoed a bill that would have allowed public employees to claim up to three years worth of pension service credit for time spent in peacetime military duty. Read More
Who could be against “smart schools”? The unsurprising answer: not nearly enough New Yorkers to defeat Proposal 3 on yesterday’s statewide ballot, which authorizes $2 billion in state borrowing to finance local school district purchases of computers and other classroom technology; expand schools’ high-speed and wireless Internet capacity; install “high-tech security features”; and build new classrooms for pre-kindergarten programs. Read More
Governor Andrew Cuomo, who frequently cites his success in producing “on-time budgets,” is once again behind schedule in releasing the statutorily required Mid-Year Update to the New York State’s financial plan. The Mid-Year Update for fiscal 2014-15 was due Oct. 30, last Thursday, under Section 23.4 of the State Finance Law.* As of Election Day morning, no update had appeared on the website of the governor’s Division of the Budget (DOB). Read More
Over the past 50 years, New York voters have been presented with 23 general obligation bond issues, including this year’s proposal to borrow $2 billion for school technology and the building of pre-kindergarten classroom space. The outcome of the last 22 votes is evenly split, with 11 proposals passing and 11 failing. Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-election bid is based on the assertion that he has “turned around” New York. However, the economic data pain a more mixed and muted picture of the state's recovery during his tenure. Read More
After holding it for four months, the state Senate has just sent Governor Andrew Cuomo a bill that would add hundreds of millions of dollars to state and local pension costs by allowing public employees to claim pension service credit for time spent in peacetime military duty. Read More
The second of two Election Eve check-in-the-mailbox tax credit gimmicks concocted by state officials in Albany is unfolding this week. Most New York State homeowners outside New York City have received or are about to receive a payment equivalent to roughly 2 percent of their 2014-15 school property taxes—which will average roughly $60 upstate to $150 in downstate suburbs. This is on top of the $350 tax credit sent recently to families that had at least one child under 17 as of 2012. Read More
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli likes to point out that he oversees one of the nation's best-funded public pension systems. That's true—although, given the competition, it's not nearly as impressive as it may sound. Read More