So, how is Governor Andrew Cuomo paying for that $100 billion infrastructure "development initiative" that, as he put in his State of the State message yesterday, "would make Governor Rockefeller jealous"? The answer: for the most part, he actually isn't. Read More
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) could be taking the money-losing state Barge Canal off the back of the Thruway Authority under the fiscal 2017 state budget that will be proposed today by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Assuming this Buffalo News report is true, it would explain how Cuomo intends to finance his proposal to freeze Thruway tolls for five years even while building the $4.8 billion Tappan Zee Bridge replacement. Read More
The statewide $15 minimum wage proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo would cost New York at least 200,000 jobs, with the most severe impact felt in upstate regions that are already struggling to create jobs, E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center, testified today. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center, testified before the Senate Labor Committee on the impact of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to impose a $15 statewide minimum wage. Read More
Gov. Cuomo’s 2017 state budget, which he’ll present next week, is likely to call for billions of dollars in new spending on highways and bridges. Unfortunately, taxpayers won’t get their money’s worth if the state continues to insist on rigging bids for public-works projects that all but guarantee the jobs will go to unions. Read More
Apparently looking to make a big splash with a pre-budget rollout of downstate infrastructure initiatives, Governor Andrew Cuomo aimed for the biggest body of water he could find: the Long Island Sound. The "2016 agenda" Cuomo unveiled before the Long Island Association today included revived plans for a third track on the main line of the Long Island Railroad, improvements to regional airports and other development projects. But the governor couldn't resist capping off the agenda with a real attention-getter: a $5 million feasibility study of "a tunnel connecting Long Island to either the Bronx, Westchester County or Connecticut." Read More
Tim Hoefer joined Liz Benjamin to discuss Gov. Cuomo's veto of legislation that would have strengthened the Freedom of Information Law. Read More
The Empire Center, a fiscally conservative think tank, files thousands of so-called FOIL requests annually for public payrolls, pensions and other spending. It said the bills would have provided more teeth to hold state agencies more accountable to taxpayers. Read More