Who should ultimately control police discipline in New York: elected officials through their appointed police commissioners, or unelected labor arbitrators chosen in part by labor unions? The question has plainly picked up added resonance in recent days. Gov. Cuomo will soon have a chance to answer it. Read More
On John Gambling's radio show this morning, Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos reiterated his warning that President Obama's executive order on immigration could cost the state as much as $2 billion. “Our estimates are conservative,” Skelos said. But Skelos' numbers, which he has used to warn of potential cuts to other programs, appear to present a worst-case scenario for the state budget from the president's order, which could add thousands of previously undocumented immigrants to the state's Medicaid rolls. Read More
Empire Center President E.J. McMahon spoke with Capital Tonight host Liz Benjamin about Governor Cuomo's veto of a pension sweetener bill. Read More
If GE and IBM have some truly great and promising ideas for next-generation semiconductor materials, why do they need a New York taxpayer subsidy to develop them? Ira Stoll has provided some answers in a must-read column. Read More
After seven months of foot-dragging, New York's economic development agency finally got around to answering the Empire Center's request for details of state spending on an advertising campaign promoting the Start-Up NY tax-free zone program. The total price tag for the campaign over the past year has been nearly $35 million, most of it spent on TV commercials outside and inside New York State, according to the summary we received. Read More
Gov. Cuomo’s ads trumpet the claim that “New York is open for business.” They also say New York “is ranked No. 2 in the nation in new, private-sector job creation.” A closer looks tells a different story. According to the latest state data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, last year New York’s economic growth ranked 46 out of 50 states. At 0.7 percent, it amounted to less than half the national average. Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's decision to give state workers an hour off to watch the U.S. play Germany in Thursday's World Cup match drew cries of foul from a constituency that's every bit as passionate as soccer fans: public employees. Read More
No, it is not April 1: Gov. Andrew Cuomo really did give all New York State employees "an extra hour for extended lunch" to watch the mid-day World Cup soccer match between the U.S. and Germany. An hour's worth of time for all 125,555 full-time equivalent employees of the executive branch of state government translates into at least $4 million in wages and salaries, based on the latest payroll data from the state comptroller's office. Read More