Should New York State voters be asked to approve a $5 billion "Clean Water, Clean Air & Green Jobs Bond Act" this year? That question will be the focus of a public hearing the state Assembly will hold on May 27 in Albany. Read More
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Well, what do you know? Barely a month after its enactment, New York State's biggest income tax hike since 1961 has already driven away one of the Empire State's wealthiest and most productive residents. Make that former Read More
Benjamin Kabak of 2nd Ave. Sagas has , with a discussion of an "uncomfortable issue": whether or not the pension and healthcare benefits that the MTA's unionized subway and bus workers receive are reasonable. Kudos to Benjamin for addressing an issu Read More
Gov. Paterson seems to have a bad case of amnesia on the issue that once identified him most strongly with New York taxpayers’ interests. Just less than a year ago, Paterson endorsed a blue-ribbon commission’s recommendation for a broad and comprehensive cap on the growth of local school-tax levies -- the single largest factor in sky-high property taxes outside New York City. Read More
A searchable online database including salaries of 255,959 teachers and administrators employed by New York State’s public schools and colleges during the 2007-08 school year was posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the government transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
New York State's school boards are for the relatively low levels of nominal spending growth in their proposed 2009-10 budgets, which will be submitted to local voters across the state next week. But in real terms--adjusting for the annual inflatio Read More
Annual health insurance premiums for active and retired state government employees in New York have risen $1.6 billion (128 percent) since fiscal 1999-2000 and are expected to increase by another $838 million (30 percent) over the next four years, ac Read More
Yale school of management prof Jeffrey Garten writes in that a Beijing-led financial-services partnership between Hong Kong and Shanghai (Shangkong, the headline writer says) could provide serious competition to New York and London as a global fin Read More