Complete payrolls for four school districts, updated teacher union and school superintendent contracts, and a new interactive user forum have been added today to SeeThroughNY.net, the government transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
In yesterday's column, Daily News Errol Louis quotes Lillian Roberts, the head of the city's civilian DC-37 union, saying that "When our people retire, the average one will receive something like $20,000 a year." Read More
New York State and City continue to put faux pressure on municipal unions to win cost-savings concessions on pensions and healthcare costs for state and city taxpayers. Coincidentally, bond-raters at Moody's have just come out with a report that says Read More
The often opaque world of school finances has become more transparent with a new tool that allows New Yorkers to analyze how their school districts spend money and to compare them to nearly 700 other districts around the state. Read More
Small towns are losing millions of dollars on derivatives bets just when they can least afford to lose money. Why are we surprised? Read More
New York State residents pay some of the highest local taxes in the nation. Until now, however, New Yorkers have had no easy way to compare basic fiscal measures for the local governments that account for a large share of the taxes they pay. Read More
Gov. Paterson came into office with a different attitude. David Paterson took office as governor of New York on March 17, 2008 -- the day Bear Stearns collapsed. He spent the following nine months warning of worse things to come. Read More
With enactment of the 2009-10 New York State budget, "New York will leapfrog New Jersey to claim the mantle of America's worst tax code for business." Read More