Ken Girardin

New York has just enacted a pandemic-crisis budget that might as well have been written in disappearing ink—shakily “balanced” on hopes of a huge federal bailout and ultimately backstopped by the potential for unprecedented deficit borrowing. Read More

When it comes to responding to the coronavirus, New York is likely to struggle with a pre-existing condition: the Taylor Law. Governor Andrew Cuomo has authority to suspend portions of the Taylor Law—and to preserve vital public services, he should. Read More

#NYCoronavirus: With state revenues crashing and joblessness skyrocketing, more than a third of the New York state government workforce is scheduled to get a 2 percent pay raise in less than a week. Read More

#NYCoronavirus: As they make their now-routine announcements about new cases of coronavirus, some New York health officials have been publicizing the public places and events that the infected people visited, to put others on notice about their own possible exposure. This is a useful and no-cost strategy for flattening the curve that other agencies should follow. Read More

A splinter group of Rochester teachers is threatening to stage a wildcat strike tomorrow, and the response from the school district, the teachers' union and state public-sector labor regulators could decide whether other New York districts face similar threats. Read More

Albany police are among the latest group of workers benefiting from the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME decision. Read More

Virginia Democrats are poised to legalize collective bargaining for government employees. In November Democrats brought Richmond under their total control for the first time in more than a quarter-century. The new legislative majorities seem intent on ignoring the painful lessons of New York state’s half-century experiment with government unions. Read More

You’ve got to hand it to New York State United Teachers: the union maintains a remarkably straight face while arguing that the nation’s highest-spending schools and best-paid teachers are starved for funding. Read More