Just when it looked like New York's free-spending public schools were finally about to meaningfully tighten their belts, news came from Washington yesterday that the U.S. Senate had cleared the way for another $26 billion dose of "stimulus"... Read More
On Aug. 3, the state Senate passed a bill containing nearly $800 million in tax hikes and other provisions that represent the final piece of the budget for the fiscal year that began April. Passage of the 2010-11 appropriation bills was completed by the Legislature June 28--after which Gov David Paterson vetoedthousands of line items, mainly legislative pork-barrel “member item” spending. Read More
Noting a reported increase in wealthy households in the New York City metropolitan area, Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal is mystified that "New York still has huge budget problems given the wealth surge in 2009 and much-publicized tax burden... Read More
As expected, Governor Paterson has sent the state Legislature yet another version of his proposal to cap local property taxes. Replicating the language he submitted as part of the 2010-11 Executive Budget, the governor's latest program bill also hews... Read More
Governor Paterson has sent the Legislature a chapter amendment that would delete a proposed new hedge fund tax from the state's pending 2010-11 revenue bill. By approving the chapter amendment, which is expected to happen today, the state Assembly... Read More
Officials in New Hartford say they were surprised to learn recently that town bookkeeper Carol Fairbrother retired in 2007 and now collects a pension of $42,696 on top of her $58,714 salary. Read More
Notwithstanding media coverage predicting New York's "latest budget ever," it's worth noting that all of the state's 2010-11 budget appropriations already have been adopted. What's left hanging is a revenue bill encompassing $828 million in additional... Read More
New Yorkers can now search for the names, titles, base salaries and total wages of 409,878 individuals who were employed by the New York City government during 2009 at SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More