With school property taxes continuing to rise across New York State, Albany's leading Republicans are pushing for a major expansion of the STAR (School Tax Relief) program in the next state budget. But more STAR spending will do nothing to reduce New York's oppressive state and local tax burden. Instead, it will promote faster growth in school spending and property tax levies unless it is tied to a firm cap on school district budgets or taxes. Read More
With school property taxes continuing to rise across New York State, Albany's leading Republicans are pushing for a major expansion of the STAR (School Tax Relief) program in the next state budget. But more STAR spending will do nothing to reduce New York's oppressive state and local tax burden. Instead, it will promote faster growth in school spending and property tax levies unless it is tied to a firm cap on school district budgets or taxes. Read More
Governor Pataki and legislative Republicans are pushing for a major expansion of the STAR (School Tax Relief) program in response to growing concern about skyrocketing school property taxes. But as explained in this new by the Read More
When premium increases are capped, insurance companies tend to seek rate increases closer to the limit. Tighter regulation of premiums could undermine the profitability of a company whose financial health the state is banking on to finance health care programs. The focus should be on health insurance regulations that drive up rates. Read More
With its emphasis on reducing dependency and putting people to work, the historic federal welfare reform of 1996 produced spectacular results in New York and across the country. In the past decade, welfare caseloads across the Empire State have dropped 60 percent, and the child poverty rate in the state has decreased 20 percent. Read More
Your Feb. 28 editorial on the impact of California's celebrity-backed tax hikes ("Meathead Economics") certainly struck a chord with anyone monitoring the trends here in the Empire State. Read More
The following is the text of a letter to the editor published March 11 in the Schenectady Daily Gazette: New York State's failure to adjust its personal income tax structure for inflation has, indeed, increased the tax burden on m Read More
New York State created new private sector jobs at a little more than half the national pace last year, according to newly released statistics from the state Department of Labor (DOL). The of revised annual averages shows the state gain Read More