New York City's average compensation cost per municipal employee is $106,743, and has grown 63 percent since fiscal year 2000, according to a Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) released yesterday. While base pay has grown faster than inflation d Read More
An anonymous Paterson Administration official is in today's Albany Times Union as predicting that the governor's budget proposal would include an “aggressive set of cuts” that will leave “blood in the streets.” Maybe he meant ke Read More
Addressing the possibility of mid-year cuts in school aid, which Senate leaders are pledging to avoid, Governor Paterson is quoted in today's Newsday as saying: "Seventy-one percent of the resources we spend on education are administrative. We can make a lot of cuts ... without touching the classroom or affecting teachers." Read More
Hardly anyone seems to believe that recent events in the global economy and financial markets will lead to long-term price stability.* So assuming a recession is upon us, what’s next: or ? S Read More
Governor Paterson went before a congressional committee today to a federal stimulus package to aid financially troubled states--including this pitch for added funding for infrastructure repair: We in New York have many programs involving Read More
On the heels of Governor Paterson's gloomy budget update, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli the state's Common Retirement Fund has lost 20 percent of its value since April 1. That would translate into a drop of $31 billion from the March 31 level Read More
Governor David Paterson is right on the money in calling for "bold and aggressive action to reduce state spending" to deal with the severe and worsening fiscal crisis detailed in today's . At this point, after months of dire warnings, there's hardl Read More
From my presentation at yesterday's Manhattan Institute "Market Meltdown" conference, a chart depicting the 10-year trend in public pension fund contributions by New York State and City taxpayers: Pension contributions over the past eight years ha Read More