Month: January 2025

Last month’s local school district votes were notable for what was missing from most ballots — propositions to purchase zero-emission school buses.  Cost may be a factor. Read More

The pension plan covering most New York City government agencies, including the City’s subway system, had 70 members with pension payments of at least $200,000 last year, almost quadrupling 2019’s tally of 19, according to new Read More

New York has an education problem that no one really likes to talk about: it spends more than any other state or country in the world yet achieves mediocre results at best. This might come as a surprise, especially since some politicians and pundits Read More

Voters in 24 New York school districts return to the polls on Tuesday for school budget revotes. Last month, voters in 96 percent of school districts outside New York City conducting votes approved their school budgets for the upcoming year. The 6 Read More

UPDATE: The bill discussed in this post passed the Senate at around 3:30 a.m. Friday by a vote of 57-2. Legislation that would mandate a $10 "dispensing fee" for filli Read More

New York's health-care industry stands to lose billions of dollars in federal funding under the major budget bill being debated in Washington – a rare and jarring turn of events for a sector accustomed to steadily in Read More

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s payroll surpassed $8 billion in 2024 – a 2.6 percent increase since 2023, according to , the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Overtime, as measured using payroll records, tota Read More

Every session of the state Legislature brings a fresh crop of proposals that would drive up health-care costs, and 2025 is no exception. Here is a sampling of pending bills tha Read More