The state Legislature should join Governor Cuomo in resisting and rejecting proposals to further increase state taxes on New York’s highest earners, E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center testified to the joint legislative fiscal committees today. Read More
The state’s current fiscal challenge is caused by excess spending, not insufficient taxes. The governor’s projection of PIT receipts—which apparently have recovered from the post-tax reform disruption in the final quarter of fiscal 2019—assumes a steady continuing uptick in revenues across the next four years, despite the continuing phase-in of significant “middle class” income tax cuts through 2025. But this could prove overly optimistic. Read More
Data released at the first meeting of the governor's Medicaid Redesign Team on Tuesday provided an updated picture of the program's long-term care costs, and the results were eye-opening. Read More
The number of six-figure pensions paid to retired New York City education professionals has increased more than fivefold in the past decade, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More
Staff salaries are the dominant category of spending in public school budgets across the state. And the largest item within that category is teacher salaries, which consistently rank among the highest in the country. Read More
In what he calls a “bold agenda” for New York’s future, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has dusted off one of Albany’s creakiest bipartisan infrastructure fantasies: high-speed passenger rail service. Read More
In the face of New York's rapidly rising Medicaid spending, both the Cuomo administration and some of its critics have pointed to demographics as a driving factor. The state's population is aging, they have said, so long-term care costs should be expected to increase. There are two main reasons to doubt this narrative. Read More
Amid Albany’s Medicaid over-spending crisis, the state Health Department is reconfiguring a little-known portion of the deficit-ridden program in what looks like a scheme to squeeze union dues from roughly 110,000 Medicaid-subsidized in-home caregivers. Read More