Under ObamaCare, the promise ran, if you have coverage you like, you’ll be able to keep it. That turned out, of course, to be untrue. Now everyone from businesses to unions is scrambling to find a survival strategy before the law’s implementation come January. Read More
Commentary
When a government watchdog as knowledgeable as Steven Greenhut, a Bloomberg View contributor, writes that California deserves to knock New York out of last place in rankings of state business climates, it’s tempting to agree. If only he had a stronger case. Read More
Gov. Cuomo said last week that he’ll propose a “financial restructuring group” to help fiscally distressed local governments pursue options that would include “consolidation, mergers, shared services, reduced workforces, fewer elected officials.” Read More
A senior Albany lawmaker disclosed last week that he wants to investigate a new taxpayer-funded deal that will give state officials the right to use a luxury box at the Buffalo Bills' stadium. Read More
Echoing the bayou hunters in the reality show “Duck Dynasty,” Gov. Cuomo said last week that he’s “hap, hap happy” with his new budget. But there are at least five reasons for New Yorkers in general to be less cheerful about the state spending plan for fiscal 2013-14, which starts today. Read More
Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature reportedly are cooking up something like areprise of their December 2011 “tax reform” charade — which combined a $2.5 billion tax hike for million-dollar earners with small income-tax cuts for middle-class households. Read More
Gov. Cuomo is cruising toward his third consecutive on-time state budget, which will no doubt be cited as further evidence that a new era of fiscal responsibility has dawned in Albany. Yet the governor hasn’t turned his back on budget gimmickry. Read More
Police and firefighter unions in New York have reaped a bonanza from the state law allowing them to insist on binding arbitration of their contract impasses. Read More
Former New York Mayor Edward I. Koch, who died this week at 88, exemplified two extremes of budget politics in America’s largest city. When he was elected mayor in 1977, New York was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Read More
The state's largest public union is right. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to "smooth" pensions for local governments and school districts is "a bait-and-switch scheme ... that will allow public employers to underfund their pension obligations," as the Civil Service Employees Association described it last week. Read More
A few days before his latest state budget presentation, Gov. Cuomo did his best to dampen expectations that it would produce any surprises, telling The Post’s Fred Dicker: “I’m going to be taking it as more of an opportunity for what we can be doing affirmatively, but there’s not going to be any major problems revealed.” Read More
From New York’s standpoint, the best that can be said of last week’s federal tax hike is that it could’ve been worse. Taxes on the wealthy went up, but “wealthy” was defined as an adjusted gross income starting around $500,000 for married couples, instead of at the $250,000 level favored by President Obama. At least 150,000 New York state households, including small business owners, were thus let off the rate-hike hook — for now, at least. Read More