Requiring New York health plans to cover in vitro fertilization would add up to 1.1 percent to premiums, according to a state study belatedly released today. Read More
Latest
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is setting herself apart from many "Medicare for All" supporters by offering what sounds like a plan to pay for it. Unfortunately, the revenue source she keeps citing – a 4 percent tax on income – would fall short of what's needed by at least $1 trillion, and more likely $2 trillion, per year. Read More
The collapse of New York's effort to lure Amazon's "second headquarters" to Queens with more than $3 billion in city and state incentives sheds fresh light on a bigger, ongoing corporate subsidy—New York State's Film and TV Production Credit. Read More
Some of the heated attacks on Governor Cuomo's Medicaid cuts, including a claim that tens of thousands of jobs would be lost, should be taken with a grain of salt. Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has spent most of the past two weeks pointing fingers: first at President Trump, whose tax law he blames for a sudden decline in New York’s revenues, and then at state Senate Democrats, whom he holds responsible for the Amazon fiasco. But the blame game will carry Cuomo only so far. In New York state’s executive budget system, the bucks stop with the governor. And, politically, this year’s budget process will be his most challenging yet, testing both his ability to manage legislative relations and his commitment to financial restraint. Read More
Government unions aren’t letting the facts get in the way of their opposition to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s push for a permanent property tax cap. Testifying in Albany this month on Cuomo’s FY20 Executive Budget, union leaders made a number of misrepresentations regarding the cap, which since 2011 has slowed the growth of property taxes outside New York City. Read More
State Sen. Julia Salazar, a democratic socialist from Brooklyn, is backing an idea that could appeal to limited-government conservatives across New York. The first-term legislator has introduced legislation (S.3061) establishing a multi-state compact that would bar member states from offering any "company-specific subsidy." Read More
The complete 2018 New York State government payroll is now posted on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More