With the new state budget in Democrat-dominated New York approved this week, the state's top Republican declared victory on many of his party's priorities: no tax increases, curbed spending, support for businesses and protecting state aid for suburban schools. Read More
Albany's biggest, juiciest capital pork pie — the mysterious State and Municipal Facilities Program — just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Read More
In many respects, New York City looks economically and fiscally as strong as it’s ever been. But it’s still worth recalling that, 40 years ago this week, things were very different. Read More
New York’s $142 billion budget, enacted on April 1, authorizes the state to spend $4,503 per second during its 2015-16 fiscal year, according to the Empire Center’s updated Spend-O-Meter. Read More
It’s fitting that New York’s fiscal year starts April 1, since the annual state budget so often has elements that sound like a bad joke. Read More
One of the best things about New York's newly adopted state budget for fiscal 2016 is something that's not in it (yet): a costly new state subsidy of homeowners' local property taxes. Governor Cuomo's Executive Budget proposal included an income tax credit (of the type also known as a "circuit breaker") that, when fully implemented by 2019, would funnel $1.7 billion a year to about half of the state's homeowners, plus renters. Read More
Government for sail? State lawmakers missed the boat on some ambitious reform proposals in the state budget — but they managed to enact a tax break for luxury-yacht buyers. Read More
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan for allocating $5.4 billion in windfall funds has survived, almost intact, in the agreed-upon New York State budget for the 2016 fiscal year, which starts April 1. Consistent with Cuomo’s original vision, the final plan shortchanges basic transportation and municipal infrastructure. Read More