Despite the prospect of exploding budget gaps in the future, Albany has taken only modest steps toward streamlining state government, such as closing a few prisons and offering $20,000 buyouts to state employees. Read More
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Workforce Reduction Plans (WRPs) submitted by state agencies will save $260 million over the next two years "through a combination of severance payments, attrition, and the elimination of funded vacancies," the. Pardon us for holding our applause. Read More
Attention New York: on the eve (roughly) of the one-year anniversary of Lehman Brothers' collapse, a new report from J.P.Morgan in London opines that because of the effects of eight likely financial-regulatory changes worldwide, "what is certain ... Read More
New York City will track the whereabouts of its 379 building inspectors with GPS technology installed, not in their city-issued vehicles, but in their cell phones. Read More
The financial and corporate sectors' highest rollers during the boom-and-bubble period have also been hit hardest by the recession. A on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal reviews how the downturn is affecting the incomes of th Read More
Almost all of the projected $2.1 billion deficit in this year’s New York State budget can be traced to falling tax receipts. But rising spending will represent a growing share of the problem over the next three years. In fact, more than one-third of the projected growth in next year’s gap, and over half the growth in the gap for fiscal 2013, can be traced to spending increases beyond those forecast by the Division of the Budget (DOB) in April. Read More
Jay Walder, Gov. Paterson's pick to head the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, took questions from Democratic senators today ahead of their Thursday vote on his nomination. Of interest: Walder's views on private-public partnerships and whethe Read More
The MTA's continued funding woes aren't just hurting mass transit riders and downstate taxpayers. They're hurting New York's ability to keep its bridges and tunnels in reasonable repair. Bond analysts at Fitch may downgrade the debt backing the Tr Read More