New York State and Erie County officials today reportedly will join in announcing that the Buffalo Bills have signed a 10-year renewal of their stadium lease, and that team owners have agreed to pay a $400 million penalty if they move out of Buffalo before the lease expires. Read More
Based on their just-introduced one-house budget, Assembly Democrats don’t support Governor Cuomo’s proposal to eliminate all required reports by local governments and school districts to state agencies. From a transparency and accountability standpoint, that’s good news for taxpayers and the general public, as explained here. Read More
Defending the new state budget’s three-year “millionaire’s tax” extension in a Newsday op-ed today, Governor Cuomo writes: “The extension doesn’t take place until 2015, the year our financial projections show a $5-billion budget gap. By extending this tax, which generates $2 billion, the state addresses the future gap.” Read More
Governor Andrew Cuomo understandably is touting a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study that ranks New York in tenth place for growth, productivity and livability among the 50 states. The governor said the Empire State had moved up 11 places from its position in last year’s “Enterprising States” study. Read More
How does Governor Cuomo intend to pay for a new Tappan Zee Bridge? Nicole Gelinas explores that question in an op-ed in today’s New York Post. Taking a closer look at cross-Hudson traffic trends, she suggests that higher bridge tolls alone aren’t unlikely to cover it. Read More
The last update to New York State’s financial plan, issued in early November, projected state operating funds budget gaps as far as the eye could see. Nothing new there: out-year projected shortfalls have been a feature of state budgets in New York since the current accounting system was enacted 30 years ago, and Governor Cuomo could accurately argue the gaps have gotten smaller on his watch. Read More
A 21st Century Rip Van Winkle, awakening after a two-year catnap, might assume based on this morning’s newspaper headlines that David Paterson had been elected governor in 2010. But after rubbing his eyes and donning his reading glasses, old Rip would discover that the governor now getting ready to execute an 180-degree turn on taxes — just as Paterson did in 2009 — is none other than Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Read More
New York is cited as “something of a case study in all that is wrong with Medicaid,” but also as a state “in the vaguard” of Medicaid reform, in a new National Affairs article by Paul Howard, director of Manhattan Institute’s Center for Medical Progress. Read More