Month: December 2008

Last week’s election of a Democratic senator, Darrel Aubertine, in the Watertown-Oswego area is seen by many as an indicator that Republicans could lose control of the state Senate this year, bringing an end to the long reign of Senate Majority Lea Read More

ALBANY — From New Jersey to California, many states are contemplating a raft of painful budget cuts as they wrestle with evaporating tax revenue and ballooning deficits. But in New York, which faces the same economic uncertainties, no such sever Read More

ALBANY — With the economy weakening and tax collections slowing, members of the State Assembly are discussing a plan that would raise income taxes on the wealthiest 3 to 4 percent of New Yorkers. The proposal, which is being promoted heavily in Read More

Hewlett-Woodmere school officials more than doubled the salary of a private attorney on its payroll in his last two years at the district -- substantially boosting his New York State pension -- while paying his law firm more than $400,000 in addition Read More

A "one-house budget" is the way the optimists in Albany are describing the plan by the Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, and his fellow Democrats to raise by 1 percentage point taxes on New Yorkers who earn a million dollars a year or more. Ne Read More

So now we know how much money the state has to spend in its next budget - and how much it doesn't. That's an achievement in itself. For years, the governor, Assembly and Senate each held to their separate revenue projections, and for years the differ Read More

To say that the reform agenda that Eliot Spitzer campaigned for as a gubernatorial candidate has been largely unachieved would be an understatement. After barely a year in office, in which tales of his administration’s alleged dirty tricks and thre Read More

McMahon, an expert in municipal budget, tax and reform issues, believes it would be "basically impossible" for lawmakers to discuss the state budget while the Spitzer scandal remains unsettled. While New York state and the country remain fixated o Read More