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Andrew Cuomo’s unorthodox State of the State presentation this week highlighted a disparity between his muscular rhetoric and his (so far) cautious approach to governing. Read More

In his compelling inaugural speech on New Year’s Day, Gov. Cuomo embraced “a very specific mandate for change that the people want.” Read More

Following up on a campaign promise, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is saying he will freeze the salaries of state government workers for a year. Is this a big deal? No. I explain why in this post at the Manhattan Institute's new website, www.PublicSectorInc.org. Read More

The looming state budget gap, which could easily exceed $10 billion, is the most obvious and immediate challenge facing Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Read More

Defenders of public employee pension systems often make the case that pension benefits are not all that generous. The outrageous cases you see on the news — Long Island police retiring in their 40s with pensions in excess of base pay, administrators “retiring” with six-figure pensions and then going back to work with another government agency, one ex-FDNY firefighter running marathons on his $86,000 “disability” pension — are the exceptions, they say. Read More

New York State's leading organization of municipal officials today  a temporary statewide freeze on public-sector wages, reform of the state's pension system and other significant changes to public-sector labor laws as essential steps to help loc Read More

In November 2003, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research issued a report describing New York state’s public-pension system as “a ticking fiscal time bomb. Read More

Taxpayer-funded employer contributions to public pensions in New York State will rise by billions of dollars in the next few years, threatening to divert scarce resources from other essential public services in the midst of a fiscal crisis, according to a new report from the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More