In recent memory, New York’s budget negotiations typically end with the good, the bad, and the big ugly. Is it time to change the way the state budget is negotiated? We recapped this morning’s event on the topic with EJ McMahon, Founder and Research Director of the Empire Center, and former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky.
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Pandemic, recession don’t bring down school budgets
Stephen T. Watson
This year's school elections were delayed and then shifted entirely to voting by mail thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, which also shut down schools here and across the country.
District officials worried this new method of Read More
The good, the bad and the ugly in Cuomo’s budget
“We are at the early stages of what shapes up as the biggest state and city fiscal crisis since the Great Depression,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center. “Borrowing and short-term cuts aside, the budget doesn’t chart any clear path out of it.” Read More
Medicaid cuts make the state budget, with some tweaks
Bill Hammond, director of health policy at the conservative-leaning think tank the Empire Center, suggested this is because the proposed cuts are meant to slow the otherwise rapid growth in Medicaid spending, which means an increase is still possible. Read More
‘Pork’ Bill Hangs Over Other Issues in Albany
E.J. McMahon, research director for the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank, questioned the need for these projects. His organization found recent SAM allocations paid for projects he deemed frivolous such as a skate park and a local highway garage. “It’s this huge mutual back-scratching,” he said. Read More
EDITORIAL: Pork fund a waste of taxpayer money
The Empire Center for Public Policy earlier this week came out with its regular update on how much New York state government spends on local projects that have little to do with state needs like infrastructure and social programs and more to do with helping local state legislators get re-elected. Read More
Report says move start of state fiscal year, add budget office
Moving the start of the state fiscal year to July 1 and establishing a Legislative Budget Office are among the recommendations of the Empire Center to improve accountability in the budget process. Read More
The little-known budget weapon that Cuomo could deploy this session
A new analysis by the Empire State Center for Public Policy examines how the SAM program funded “pork barrel” capital projects across the state in the past year. Lawmakers have voted every year to authorize raising several hundred million dollars in borrowing for the program. Since the program was established in 2013, more than $2 billion in total public debt has been created. Read More
Budget commission: State spending has gone up 4.9% — higher than stated
All together, these and a few other adjustments results in total spending increasing by $4.7 billion for this year, according to the Empire Center. Read More
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