By capping property taxes, Gov. Cuomo has tapped the brakes on local government and school spending outside New York City. He’s also taken steps to limit the growth in the local share of Medicaid over the next few years, and to curb public pension expenses further down the road. Read More
“Frankenstorm” could easily inundate the tenuously balanced budgets of New York State, New York City and countless other localities in the storm’s path... Read More
Retiree health benefits for state and local government employees are a huge, unfunded and rapidly growing liability for taxpayers throughout New York. Read More
New York’s counties, municipalities and school districts can eventually eliminate their long-term liabilities for retiree health benefits by encouraging the creation of employee-run Retirement Medical Trusts (RMTs), according to the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
In a battle going back 15 years, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has pledged to reduce Medicaid reimbursements to New York for the state's developmentally disabled centers by as much as 80 percent. Daily rates per patient at the facilities had jumped from just over $1,700 in 1999 to over $5,100 by 2011. Read More
The combined state and local tax burden on New York residents in 2010, the year before Governor Andrew Cuomo took office, reached its highest level since 1994, the last year his father held the same office, as measured by data released today by the Tax Foundation... Read More
If you ever find yourself wondering why some of the infrastructure in America’s largest and richest city seems so inadequate, you need look no farther than the southern tip of Manhattan for part of the answer. Read More
Given the Legislature's reputation for secrecy and scandals, Governor Cuomo is absolutely right to want it to open up its processes to public scrutiny -- in fact we've been saying the same thing for some years now. It would take little more than deleting four words from the Freedom of Information Law. Read More