The financial meltdown will have enormous consequences for taxpayers across the country -- but nowhere more so than in New York. That's because the Empire State has become excessively dependent on tax revenues generated by a Wall Street that no longer exists. Read More
Commentary
GOV. Paterson and state legis lative leaders announced yesterday that they've agreed to use most of New York's unfettered federal stimulus money to restore spending to the governor's budget and to avoid any further spending cuts. Read More
You know New York is in real trouble when it needs an economic reality check from the ex-KGB hood who rules Russia. Read More
Governor David Paterson is being pressured by some of his fellow Democrats to raise income taxes on the wealthiest households in response to New York States $13 billion state budget gap. Read More
New York's public employee unions are spearheading a campaign to raise state income taxes on the wealthiest households as an alternative to Gov. David Paterson's proposed budget cuts. Read More
Education advocates in the Hudson Valley and throughout New York state are predicting thousands of teachers and aides will lose their jobs if the Legislature adopts Gov. David Paterson's proposed school-aid cuts for the coming year. Read More
THE House of Representatives this week is expected to pass a federal stimulus package that could pump at least $17 billion of noncapital funding directly into New York's state and local government coffers over the next two years. Read More
Now that they control both houses of the New York State Legislature, Democrats in Albany are reportedly preparing to raise the state income tax on high-income New Yorkers to help plug a $15 billion budget gap. Read More
New York's huge budget deficit—$15.4 billion in the next 15 months—will force difficult choices in terms of government services and tax policies for years to come. To engage intelligently in that debate, New Yorkers need far more information than we now receive from Albany. Read More
In his first annual address to legislators last week, Gov. David A. Paterson said, "The state of our state is perilous." Yet his energy platform promises to visit more peril upon the Empire State. Read More
The media treated it as good news when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union said last week that they'd settle their next contract through binding arbitration. Read More
Say this much for the "mobility tax": Unable or unwilling to find more cash in operational savings, capital cuts, or the farebox, the Ravitch Commission apparently tried to find the least-awful way to raise another $1.5 billion for the MTA. Read More