New York State is broke. Like a runaway train, New York's budget is in danger of running completely off the rails. It needs to be brought under control—before it's too late. Read More
Category: Reports
New York State government payrolls shrunk by 1,856 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, or less than one percent, during a two-year period ending in January 2010, according to the latest data from the Office of the State Comptroller. However, the state still employed more workers than it did at the same point six years ago, in the wake of a less severe economic downturn and fiscal crisis. Read More
Governor Spitzer’s proposed $120.6 billion budget called for state-funded spending growth of 7.8 percent — three times the rate of inflation — while raising business taxes by roughly a half-billion dollars. The budget also included a significant expansion of state-subsidized school property tax breaks for homeowners, to be phased in over three years. 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. Officials of the state’s largest teachers’ union claim aid cuts will “devastate” education, leading to a “drastic” reduction of programs and “much larger class sizes.” Read More
Governor David Paterson is proposing an early-retirement option for the state and its local governments that he says is “designed to achieve cost-savings for public employers and to avoid layoffs of public employees in this time of fiscal need.” Read More
Governor David Paterson has proposed legislation to implement a cap on school property tax levies in New York State. His original tax cap bill was passed by the state Senate in August 2008, but died in the state Assembly. Paterson's latest tax cap proposal was submitted to the Legislature on July 30, 2010. Read More
On Aug. 3, the state Senate passed a bill containing nearly $800 million in tax hikes and other provisions that represent the final piece of the budget for the fiscal year that began April. Passage of the 2010-11 appropriation bills was completed by the Legislature June 28--after which Gov David Paterson vetoedthousands of line items, mainly legislative pork-barrel “member item” spending. Read More
The names and salaries of 186,223 people who worked for New York’s county, city, town and village governments in 2009-10 are available at www.SeeThroughNY.net Read More