Sometime this summer, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will perform the financial equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of his hat -- explaining how a cash-poor, heavily indebted state government (and its Thruway Authority, whose credit rating outlook was just downgraded to "negative") will come up with $5 billion to $6 billion to build a new bridge across the widest stretch of the lower Hudson River. Read More
Earlier today, the Supreme Court, after signaling numerous concerns with ObamaCare during oral arguments, reversed course and upheld the law basically in its entirety by a vote of 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts providing the swing vote. Read More
Seventeen years ago, the state Court of Appeals ruled that New York State has a constitutional obligation to ensure that public schools provide all students with a "sound basic education." Read More
The closing bell on Wall Street last Friday also marked the end of the fiscal year for many public pension funds across the country, including the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS), which finances pensions promised to 420,000 active and retired professional educators working mainly for school districts outside New York City. Read More
A task force co-chaired by former New York Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch this week reached an "unambiguous" conclusion about the fiscal stresses on state governments: "The basic problem is not cyclical. It is structural." Read More
Suffolk County's proposed contract with the county Police Benevolent Association, featuring an extraordinary 10-year term, calls to mind the New York Yankees' equally long 2007 deal with Alex Rodriguez. Read More
The Obama administration quietly issued a new waiver last month that allows states to change the rules of how success is measured in welfare reform. Read More
By lopping two years off a tentative decade-long contract withSuffolk County's police union, County Executive Steve Bellone at least has curtailed some of the long-term financial risk the original agreement posed to taxpayers. Read More