In their weekly outlook, Municipal Market Advisors (MMA) tries to dampen the hysteria over a "coming municipal market collapse," saying that although "state and local credit quality is undeniably getting worse," we're unlikely to see mass-scale muni Read More
In today's Post, E.J. Gov. Paterson, Lt. Gov. Ravitch, and the state legislature to "freeze wages now," observing that "[f]or the first time in nearly 20 years, New York state is running short of cash to pay its bills." The $2 billion in Read More
in today's New York Post explains why—and how—the Paterson administration should declare a fiscal emergency and seek to impose a three-year freeze on all state and local employee salaries in New York. This would save taxpayers statewid Read More
Gov. Paterson told radio host John Gambling this morning that although arbitrators in the MTA-TWU case "probably made the correct ruling technically" to give transit workers 11.3 percent raises over three years because the rest of the city's labor u Read More
When this year's state budget was first enacted back in April, the budget gap for fiscal 2010-11 was at $2.17 billion. The in July more than doubled this estimate, to $4.62 billion. And today's says next year's gap has grown by another 47 per Read More
reported this morning that "independent" arbitrator John Zuccotti, who was supposed to represent the public in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's contract with the Transport Workers Union, planned to donate his $116,000 fee -- at $900 a Read More
Governor Paterson has now all but formally abandoned . Instead, he has tucked a hopelessly byzantine variation of the cap into that would kick in when (or if) the state ever has some extra money sitting around again. So, in place of Paterson is Read More
The number of retired New York government employees with six-figure pensions is apparently growing at a 20 percent annual rate. , newly posted by the Journal News of the lower Hudson Valley, lists 1,081 individuals with pensions of $100,00 Read More