Governor Cuomo’s third State of the State address included a laundry list of potentially pricey initiatives, ranging from an extended school day to a state-subsidized venture capital fund. We’ll find out how he intends to pay for it all next Tuesday, when he presents his 2013-14 Executive Budget plan, which will need to close a budget gap projected at nearly $1 billion without even assuming any new programs. Read More
A sweeping but little-noticed provision in Governor Cuomo’s 2013-14 Executive Budget would, in the words of this Article VII bill memo, “eliminate all local government and school district reporting requirements to state agencies unless the Mandate Relief Council votes to continue them.” Read More
Private sector employment in New York increased by 1.7 percent during the 12 months ending in August, a period in which the number of private jobs in the U.S. as a whole grew by 2 percent, according to the latest monthly report from the state Labor Department. Read More
The latest economic data for New York continues to relate a tale of two states. Private sector employment growth in New York as a whole slightly trailed the national average on a year-to-year basis, but was much stronger in the New York City metropolitan area. The 52-county upstate region grew at just half the national rate from April 2012 to April 2013, according totoday’s monthly jobs release from the state Labor Department. Read More
So, what to make of this Tier 6 pension thing? Is it truly “bold and transformational” ? Read More
New York’s rate of growth in withholding tax receipts during the final quarter of 2012 was among the lowest for any state with an income tax, according to the latest quarterly State Revenue Report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Read More
New York comes in at number 35 on CNBC’s latest annual ranking of “Top States for Business.” This is down a tick from New York’s ranking on the same scale a year ago. Read More
You might think the union representing New York teachers would not favor weakening the source of its members’ future pensions. But you’d be wrong. Read More