New York’s $163 billion budget, enacted on April 9, authorizes the state to spend at a rate of $5,169 per second during its 2017-18 fiscal year, according to the Empire Center’s updated Spend-O-Meter. Read More
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The positives in New York's FY2018 budget make up a pretty short list—while the negatives are in some respects worse than usual. A quick and superficial initial rundown follows. Read More
A federally mandated state takeover of local Medicaid costs would likely set up a three-way fiscal tug-of-war between upstate counties, downstate suburbs, and New York City. Read More
Out of the clear blue sky, a provision making labor union dues fully deductible for state personal income tax purposes was inserted in New York's final fiscal 2018 budget deal, which was enacted by the Legislature over the weekend. Read More
The tentative state budget deal would pour another $385 million into the biggest, murkiest pork-barrel slush fund New York has ever seen. The latest version of the Capital Projects bill (A.3004D) would further fatten the State and Municipal Facilities Program (SMFP), building total funds available through the program to $1.64 billion. Read More
Port Authority of NY and NJ police department employees collected an average of $34,662 in overtime during 2016, up from $29,931 the year before, according to payroll data added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More
Amid the smoke and confusion surrounding this week’s on-again, off-again budget dance in Albany, Gov. Cuomo made a point well worth repeating. Noting big federal-policy changes afoot in Washington, Cuomo said Wednesday evening that his top priority was “to make sure we do not overcommit ourselves financially.” That’s an eminently responsible position. Too bad the governor hasn’t followed his own advice. Read More
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