Former Gov. Hugh L. Carey is the Harry Truman of New York state — a political figure who left office in disrepute, only to have his stature rise in later decades. Read More
Commentary
After weeks of tumult and parliamentary maneuvering—including Gov. David Paterson's threat of a government shutdown that would bring "unimaginable chaos" and "anarchy in the streets"—New York finally has a state budget for the fiscal year that began April 1. Read More
Did Gov. Paterson skillfully maneuver New York’s Legislature into adopting a tighter and more timely state budget than it was capable of producing on its own? Read More
Gov. Paterson has withdrawn his support from a proposal to raise $50 million in taxes from partners in New York-based hedge funds who live in other states. Read More
For the Empire State’s heavily burdened taxpayers, Andrew Cuomo’s campaign policy agenda holds one major cause for celebration: Now all of the leading major party candidates for governor endorse a meaningful cap on property-tax levies. Read More
New York’s latest stab at pension reform, which created a new “tier” of slightly reduced benefits, was an enormous missed opportunity. While the plan shaved away a few of the most costly sweeteners added to pension benefits since the early 1990s, it preserved the basic defined benefit plan structure. This is the core of the problem: a huge and growing financial risk for current and future taxpayers. Read More
Just because they can’t seem to agree on a state budget, don’t assume that New York lawmakers aren’t finding other ways to threaten the state’s economic future. Read More
President Obama is expected to unveil his national health-insurance plan in just a couple of months. But when it comes to expanding government-subsidized coverage, broke and recession-battered New York state has already gotten a jump on him. Read More
Those “Empire gold” license plates now cropping up on cars and trucks around New York state aren’t the only retro look coming out of Albany these days. Read More
As New Yorkers rush to meet the April 15 deadline for filing state and federal income tax returns, here is a collection of recent articles about taxes from the Empire Center and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Read More
New York state educators are warning that proposed cuts in state aid to public schools next year could force more than 14,000 teacher layoffs. Read More
“Fantasy in, fantasy out” is the way one leading economist has described the budgetary assumptions behind the new federal health care overhaul, which supposedly will reduce the projected federal deficit over the next 10 years even while creating two new federal entitlement programs. Read More