New York State leaders want to leverage the expanded authorization of video-lottery terminals (VLTs) to raise state revenues and to bail out the troubled thoroughbred racing industry. The high stakes inherent in that effort are documented in a new Read More
Two local government officials are promising to introduce resolutions opposing the condemnation of private properties to make way for an industrial park in suburban Syracuse. This marks the first example in New York of official backlash against the recent U.S. Supreme Court's recent Kelo v. City of New London ruling, which adopted a very expansive definition of government's "eminent domain" power to seize private property for economic development projects. Read More
New York is the costliest big city in the country for a healthy single person looking to buy health insurance -- and Albany's policies are largely to blame.That's the finding of by the online insurance broker eHealthInsurance.com, based Read More
With the ashes of September 11 still smoldering, Michael Bloomberg won his first New York mayoral term largely because city voters assumed that he would stick with Rudolph Giuliani’s most successful policies. Read More
In order to improve New York City's schools, Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrasse is ordering New York State to massively increase funding for the school system: $5.6 billion annually, plus another $9.2 billion for capital expenditures. But is Justice DeGrasse's remedy really the last word in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case? Our panelists discussed why the Legislature is constitutionally free to consider other approaches. Read More
A few weeks ago, the Empire Center and the Manhattan Institute the Legislature's apparent rush to pass a significant shift in the law governing investments by New York's $120 billion state and local pension fund. Although the bill was a top pri Read More
New York State and New York City were pushing the envelope on "public use" condemnations of private property to benefit other private owners even before the practice was ratified in a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision last week. The Kelo ruling provides more than enough justification for a careful reconsideration of eminent domain and its uses by the UDC and other government agencies in New York. Will any of our elected officials take the hint? Stay tuned. Read More
Economic growth in New York exceeded the rate for most other states between 2003 and 2004, but personal income growth for New York state residents remains below average. The positive data on economic growth come from Gross Stat Read More