The Cuomo administration and the state Legislature have begun dishing out grants from a secretive $1.1 billion capital slush fund—all of which will be borrowed money—with no disclosure of project sponsorship or award criteria. Read More
Latest Work
There’s more than one way to frack a shale formation, and that could be very good news for New York’s economically stagnant Southern Tier — if, this time, Gov. Cuomo allows it. Read More
Days after New York formalized its ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing, a Tioga County business is looking to use a newer method to harvest natural gas from the Utica and Marcellus Shale formations. Read More
There's a good reason for Governor Cuomo's Fast Food Wage Board to decide against raising the minimum wage for fast food workers: many of them won't benefit from it. Read More
Don't look now, but given current inflation trends, next year's school property tax cap may be ... zero! That's the message of a statement released last week by the Educational Conference Board (ECB), a coalition of groups representing public school administrators, school boards and—last but hardly least—the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) labor union. The ECB's "warning" was meant as an inside-the-Albany-bubble scare tactic, but for most New Yorkers, it's good news: further confirmation that the tax cap is working exactly as intended. Read More
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has just eliminated a substantial "scientific uncertainty" cited in support of New York State's ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of deep-underground natural gas deposits. Read More
Almost three-fourths of New Yorkers agree that the property tax cap "has accomplished what was intended" and "should be continued," according to a Siena Research Institute poll released this morning. But support climbs even higher when respondents in New York City—which was not affected by the property tax cap law—are excluded. Read More
Since the enactment of the property tax cap, New York school property taxes have risen at the slowest rate since at least 1982. Read More