Seizing on the hardships of young firefighters and cops who have received skimpy disability pensions after being forced into retirement by line-of-duty injuries, unions representing the Bravest and Finest are pushing to roll back hard-won pension reforms. Read More
Tag: Andrew Cuomo
The Empire Center argues that the tax cap as it is written now is working and should be made permanent. E.J. McMahon, the president and founder of the Empire Center, makes the case for the cap. McMahon will also discuss new data on firefighter pensions. Read More
In what's becoming annual tradition, a handful of bills increasing pension benefits for groups of public employees passed in New York's Legislature this year. Read More
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders huddled behind closed doors Monday to find still-elusive deals on a range of matters as a corruption-weary Capitol looks to end the 2015 session. Read More
The Yonkers school district will be the first to get a special added state aid handout from a $100 million "Upstate Distressed Schools Fund" announced over the weekend by Governor Andrew Cuomo. But it's not as if public schools in the City of Gracious Living have been shortchanged. Read More
New York City’s pension costs will reach nearly $8.8 billion in the coming 2016 fiscal year — more than double the 2006 level and nearly eight times the 2001 amount. Yet now, with a week to go in the state legislative session, Albany is poised to drive those costs even higher. Read More
Don't look now, but given current inflation trends, next year's school property tax cap may be ... zero! That's the message of a statement released last week by the Educational Conference Board (ECB), a coalition of groups representing public school administrators, school boards and—last but hardly least—the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) labor union. The ECB's "warning" was meant as an inside-the-Albany-bubble scare tactic, but for most New Yorkers, it's good news: further confirmation that the tax cap is working exactly as intended. Read More
A couple of years ago, when New York’s property tax cap had been through only one school-budget cycle, many people were ready to give the cap a thumbs-down. In an RBJ Daily Report Snap Poll conducted at the time, nearly 60 percent of respondents disagreed with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s assessment that the law was a “tremendous success.” That was then. Read More