New York City's World War II-rooted "housing emergency" is now officially indefinite—and has spread, potentially, to every corner of New York State. But the potential negative impacts of the law won't be limited to the Big Apple. The law is likely to have a chilling effect on prospects for multifamily investment and development in struggling communities across New York—especially upstate. Read More
Dozens of the health-care bills percolating through the Legislature in the closing days of session have one thing in common: They would add to the already high price of health insurance in New York State. Read More
Two pension funds affiliated with 1199 SEIU, the state's largest and most influential union for health-care workers, recently disclosed that they are in critical status due to funding or liquidity problems for an 11th straight year. Read More
There's good news and bad news about Rochester schools from a new study comparing the variation in educational quality within urban educational systems. The good news: measured by standardized pupil proficiency scores, there's only an 8.6 percentage point gap between good and bad schools in Rochester. The bad news: even Rochester's good schools—those in the 75th percentile—have the lowest proficiency scores among the 68 largest urban school systems in the country. Read More
New York’s AFL-CIO has issued a statement blasting the “misinformation campaign” by business groups fighting organized labor’s push to impose union pay levels on private developments receiving public subsidies. There is, indeed, plenty of misinformation wafting around this issue—but virtually all of it originated in the union camp. Read More
New York lawmakers and Governor Andrew Cuomo last year tapped their favorite slush funds for more than $500 million in pork barrel spending, according to the latest tally posted at our SeeThroughNY transparency database. And before the current session ends in two weeks, the Legislature could once again jack up its favorite pork appropriations. Read More
New York got less electricity from renewable sources in 2018 than it did the year before despite significant state intervention. Read More
Yesterday’s school budget votes proved once again New York’s school districts aren’t having much difficulty staying under—or overriding—the property tax cap. Read More