Far from being asked to sacrifice during the "Great Recession" that began in December 2007, the data indicate that state and local government workers thrived amid the economic misery afflicting most taxpayers. Read More
Category: Commentary
Assemblyman Sam Hoyt has given local residents a clear-eyed and realistic assessment of the fiscal crunch facing school districts throughout the region and the state Read More
“Fantasy in, fantasy out” is the way one leading economist has described the budgetary assumptions behind the new federal health care overhaul, which supposedly will reduce the projected federal deficit over the next 10 years even while creating two new federal entitlement programs. Read More
New York state educators are warning that proposed cuts in state aid to public schools next year could force more than 14,000 teacher layoffs. Read More
As New Yorkers rush to meet the April 15 deadline for filing state and federal income tax returns, here is a collection of recent articles about taxes from the Empire Center and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Read More
Those “Empire gold” license plates now cropping up on cars and trucks around New York state aren’t the only retro look coming out of Albany these days. Read More
Just because they can’t seem to agree on a state budget, don’t assume that New York lawmakers aren’t finding other ways to threaten the state’s economic future. Read More
New York’s latest stab at pension reform, which created a new “tier” of slightly reduced benefits, was an enormous missed opportunity. While the plan shaved away a few of the most costly sweeteners added to pension benefits since the early 1990s, it preserved the basic defined benefit plan structure. This is the core of the problem: a huge and growing financial risk for current and future taxpayers. Read More