It’s both ironic and fitting that Victor Gotbaum, longtime leader of New York City’s largest municipal-workers union, died on the 40th anniversary of the fiscal crisis. Read More
Category: Media Coverage
Andrew Cuomo likes a good competition. Where should the state send school aid? Let’s have a contest. Who should build new upstate casinos? Let’s have another contest. What do we do about the aging Tappan Zee Bridge? Contest. How do we redesign the region’s major airports? Contest. Read More
The new state budget has managed to unite the free-market Empire Center and the far-left Working Families Party. This meeting of the minds came over a classic move: Lawmakers slipped in a provision granting a fat tax break on sales the of private planes and luxury yachts. Read More
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority got railroaded in the state's newly adopted budget, advocates charged Thursday. Facing a $15 billion gap in its capital budget, the MTA received a paltry $250 million from the state's $6 billion windfall from recent legal settlements. Read More
At a campaign stop in Albany last October, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an ambitious new plan to revolutionize New Yorkers’ access to broadband internet with $500 million in state funding. Read More
With the new state budget in Democrat-dominated New York approved this week, the state's top Republican declared victory on many of his party's priorities: no tax increases, curbed spending, support for businesses and protecting state aid for suburban schools. Read More
The New York State Senate spent $332,419 over a six-month period on offices vacated by two senators who had resigned, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More
Government for sail? State lawmakers missed the boat on some ambitious reform proposals in the state budget — but they managed to enact a tax break for luxury-yacht buyers. Read More