The financial meltdown will have enormous consequences for taxpayers across the country — but nowhere more so than in New York.  That’s because the Empire State has become excessively dependent on tax revenues generated by a Wall Street that no longer exists.

Spending by New York’s state and local governments — including long-term contracts with well-compensated public-sector union workers — has risen to levels that simply cannot be sustained.   As a result, the state is rapidly depleting surplus funds from the boom years while heading into a multi-billion-dollar budgetary abyss.

This page features web links to articles, reports and testimony from the Empire Center and the Manhattan Institute, as well as from other informed observers.  For daily postings on the economy and the fiscal crisis, see www.nyfiscalwatch.com.

Teachers Not Thrilled With NYSUT Tax Hike Advocacy
NYPublicPayrollWatch.net, March 4, 2009
A soak-the-rich tax campaign backed by New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) isn’t sitting too well with some of NYSUT’s own members–including at least a few who find themselves on the verge of being labelled “wealthy” targets of the tax hike.

Tax Hike Toll Would Be 22,000 Private Jobs, Economist Warns
A proposal to raise New York’s personal income tax rates on high-income households will cost the state 22,000 private-sector jobs if enacted, according to an economic analysis by the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center for Public Policy.

NY Without Wall Street
by E.J. McMahon, New York Post, Feb. 11, 2009
You know New York is in real trouble when it needs an economic reality check from the ex-KGB hood who rules Russia.

Taxing rich would hurt NY
by E.J. McMahon, Albany Times Union, Feb. 3, 2009
Proponents of a “millionaire tax” are justifying the proposal on both fiscal and moral grounds — claiming it’s necessary not just to close the state’s massive budget gap, but to restore “fairness” to the tax code. To paraphrase the late Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan, they’re entitled to their own opinion, but they’re not entitled to their own facts. And the facts simply don’t support the claim that New York’s tax structure is tilted in favor of the rich. Nor does economic experience support the claim that we can adopt a soak-the-rich tax strategy without negative economic consequences in an already severe recession.

The concept of “shared sacrifice” eludes local school districts
by E.J. McMahon, Journal News, Jan. 30, 2009
Education advocates in the Hudson Valley and throughout New York state are predicting thousands of teachers and aides will lose their jobs if the Legislature adopts Gov. David Paterson’s proposed school-aid cuts for the coming year. But budget cuts affecting services to children can be avoided – if the adults in the system are willing to make some minor sacrifices.

A Sock in the Face
by E.J. McMahon, New York Post, Jan. 27, 2009
What Sen. Charles Schumer is touting as a “shot in the arm” for New York looks more like a sock in the face to the state’s taxpayers.   The federal bailout will do painfully little to forestall the massive tax hikes now being cooked up in Albany and City Hall. Nor will it do much to “stimulate” New York’s economy (unless, like Schumer and too many other leading New York politicians, you pretend public-sector unions and Medicaid providers are engines of economic growth).

The Millionaire Myth Will Keep NY in the Poorhouse
by E.J. McMahon, New York Daily News, Jan. 23, 2009
Now that they control both houses of the New York Legislature, Democrats in Albany are reportedly preparing to raise the state income tax on high-income New Yorkers to help plug a $15 billion budget gap. A leading tax-hike advocate justifies the move on the grounds that “for the last 30 years we’ve been shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to middle-class families.” In fact, just the opposite is true.

E.J. McMahon Webcast Interview on Budget, Fiscal and Economic Issues
Journal News / LoHud.com Editorial Board
Jan. 8, 2009 (click here, then follow on-screen instruction to view webcast)

Taxing NY to Death
by Stephen Kagann, New York Post, Jan. 7, 2009

DC Can’t Save Us
by Nicole Gelinas, New York Post, Jan. 5, 2009

MTA Madness: The Politicians Haven’t Helped
by Nicole Gelinas, National Post, Dec. 19, 2008

A Bloodless Budget
by E.J. McMahon, New York Post, Dec. 18, 2008

A Just Plain Terrible Tax Proposal
by E.J. McMahon, New York Post, Dec. 5, 2008

Gov’s Brave Talk
by E.J. McMahon, New York Post, Nov. 13, 2008

New York State’s Fiscal Reckoning, City Journal, Fall 2008

The financial-market implosion and the coming transformation of the securities industry will expose the fundamental flaw in New York State’s woefully overextended public finance model. The state budget is today geared to run on an ever-expanding stream of high-octane revenues from a Wall Street that no longer exists—and the rest of New York’s economy isn’t nearly robust enough to make up the difference.

Mike’s Labor Pains
by Nicole Gelinas, New York Post, Nov. 10, 2008

E.J. McMahon Interview with John Gambling on WOR-AM
Oct. 21, 2008

Income Tax Idiocy: NYC Mulls Hikes in Downturn
by E.J. McMahon, New York Post, Oct. 20, 2008

Gold-Plated Pensions
by E.J. McMahon, New York Post, Oct. 8, 2008

If You’re Voting With Your Pocketbook Proceed With Caution
by E.J. McMahon, New York Daily News, Sept. 16, 2008