In November 2003, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research issued a report describing New York state’s public-pension system as “a ticking fiscal time bomb. Read More
Commentary
Advocates of the misnamed “millionaire’s tax” enacted in New York State last year claimed that it would restore “fairness” to a tax code that favored the rich. Read More
The challenges confronting Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo won’t be limited to closing a state budget gap now estimated at between $9 billion and $11 billion. Cuomo and the Legislature will also need to respond to growing fiscal distress among New York’s local governments. Read More
For all of Andrew Cuomo’s good intentions, Albany’s muck remains as deep as ever, with a projected 2010-11 state budget shortfall approaching $10 billion. But the fiscal quicksand needn’t swallow up the next Gov. Cuomo as it did the last one. Read More
Will Andrew Cuomo defy the special interests that have long controlled Al bany -- starting with the public-sector labor unions whose political arm endorsed him -- to deliver the kind of change he promised in his successful campaign for governor of New York? Read More
Tonight’s seven-way, 90-minute New York guber natorial debate sounds more like the premise for a TV reality show than a forum for airing the most critical issues facing the Empire State. Read More
New York state and local governments’ liabilities for retiree health coverage run to the hundreds of billions of dollars -- a burden that’s only now coming into full view. Read More
Like a leaky faucet, New York state was drip-drip- dripping businesses and jobs to other states for all but one of the 15 years leading up to the official end of the last economic expansion in 2007. Read More
On Aug. 3, the state Senate passed a bill containing nearly $800 million in tax hikes and other provisions that represent the final piece of the budget for the fiscal year that began April. Read More
From the end of 2007 through 2009, more than eight million jobs were lost. The national unemployment rate rose to more than 10 percent for the first time in nearly 30 years. Read More
Is New York state ungovernable? Back in April, Gov. David Paterson seemed to think so. Confounded by the Legislature’s paralysis in the face of a deepening fiscal crisis, the lame-duck governor complained to the Wall Street Journal that New York lacked “a structure that empowers a single leader to get his or her state out of a major conflict.“ Read More
New York governors have the power they need to control spending. Is New York State ungovernable? Back in April, David Paterson seemed to think so. Read More