As if $420 million in annual handouts to the film and television industries wasn’t enough, New York State legislators are now proposing to give millions to the music industry and Broadway. Read More
Category: Blog
Is Wall Street roaring back — as a revenue-generating force for New York’s insatiable state and city governments, that is? You might get that impression from glancing at today’s press release from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, which headlines the finding that the average bonus for securities industry employees in New York “grew by 15 percent to $164,530 in 2013, which is the largest average bonus since the 2008 financial crisis, and the third highest on record.” Read More
“Why are property taxes so high? Because we have 10,500 local governments,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday, repeating (yet again) his favorite mantra. Cuomo clearly wants to imply that he’s referring to 10,500 autonomous entities, falling over one another in a virtual orgy of bureaucratic excess. Read More
Over at SeeThroughNY, our team works really hard to post fresh data quickly and accurately — when it’s available, that is. Read More
New York’s economic performance over the past decade was mediocre — but its future looks worse, according to the 5th annual Rich States, Poor States report, just issued by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Read More
It seems increasingly clear that New York’s state tax collections will fall below target for the fiscal year ending next March 31. Read More
Public subsidies of sports arenas, stadiums and ballparks “cannot be justified on the grounds of local economic development, income growth or job creation, those arguments most frequently used by subsidy advocates.” Read More
My latest Newsday column looks at the complexity of the New York State’s personal income tax, the temporary income tax changes enacted last December, and Governor Cuomo’s promise (so far, unfulfilled) to appoint a commission to consider a “comprehensive overhaul” of the tax code. Read More