As the Empire Center’s Ken Girardin reported last week, new SMFP cash “was noticeably missing from the budget bills adopted on April 1, raising the suspicion that a fresh infusion” will be part of the Big Ugly legislation rushed through in the end-of-session crush. Read More
E.J. McMahon, research director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, estimated that expanding the prevailing-wage mandate in New York to all projects that get public support would boost construction costs significantly. In an essay published after the legislation was filed, McMahon argued the proposed expansion resembled a “costly protection racket” for New York’s “politically powerful labor cartel.” Read More
New York lawmakers and Governor Andrew Cuomo last year tapped their favorite slush funds for more than $500 million in pork barrel spending, according to the latest tally posted at our SeeThroughNY transparency database. And before the current session ends in two weeks, the Legislature could once again jack up its favorite pork appropriations. Read More
The governor and state Senate would dedicate the revenue for the MTA — but you can bet they’ll count it as their contribution to the agency. (And the Assembly just wants the tax to fund its overall huge boost in statewide spending.) It also means trouble for future MTA budgets, the Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon warns, since real estate tax revenues are highly volatile. Read More
In a "Groundhog Day"-like replay of tactics from last year, health-care interests are again using an unlikely threat of spending cuts in Washington to demand special treatment in the upcoming state budget. The question now is whether the governor and the Legislature will play along with the movie for a second time in a row – and whether it will have the same ugly ending. Read More
Government unions aren’t letting the facts get in the way of their opposition to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s push for a permanent property tax cap. Testifying in Albany this month on Cuomo’s FY20 Executive Budget, union leaders made a number of misrepresentations regarding the cap, which since 2011 has slowed the growth of property taxes outside New York City. Read More
Even as Governor Cuomo pushes for required insurance coverage of in vitro fertilization, he is withholding a study of how much the coverage would cost for premium payers. Read More
Just-disclosed campaign spending by the Greater New York Hospital Association sheds additional light on health-related developments in Albany last year. Read More