Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned last week that if New York City fails to control unsustainable employee compensation costs, it could find itself trapped in the same "downward cycle" as bankrupt Detroit... Read More
Tag: Budgets
For David Skeel of Penn Law School, Detroit’s bankruptcy filing is a reminder that Congress ought to pass a bankruptcy law for state governments. Read More
It's no secret the county budget is tight. Accounting for roughly 1 percent of the budget is the base salary of the top 25 highest-paid county employees. Chautauqua County has a 2013 budget of roughly $230 million. According to numbers gathered from See Through NY, the total base pay for those 25 employees was $2,338,008 in 2013. The number is a 2.8 percent increase over the base pay for the 25 highest-paid county employees in 2012. It is an 8.4 percent increase from 2009. Read More
In a half-century of public life, Richard Ravitch has been lieutenant governor of New York, head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a mayoral candidate, an adviser to many politicians and an instructor of many journalists in the wonkier aspects of governance. As a kind of fiscal first responder, he is one of those guys called in when an agency (or a bank, or, in one case, Major League Baseball) faces crisis. But lately he is best known as a prophet of gloom. When Ravitch, who is 80, is invited to lecture or debate or op-edify, his hosts expect tales of fiscal imprudence heading toward a grim comeuppance; they are not disappointed. And he has a tendency to be right. Read More
The task of jump starting New York's struggling economies is going to require a lot of work from lawmakers in Albany; but, is needed to help local governments keep up with rising costs. Last week, officials got a sobering reminder of what's at stake when Detroit declared bankruptcy, because several upstate cities face the same issues as the Motor City. Capital Tonight's Nick Reisman tells us more. Read More
When Nassau Democratic lawmakers agreed with Republicans last month to borrow $40 million to pay long-overdue tax refunds, both sides declared a victory for bipartisanship. Though it drew little public attention, the county legislature's unanimous vote also included borrowing another $6 million for undefined capital projects and approval of specific improvements in Democratic districts. Read More
There is no shortage of proposed solutions to the fiscal crises New York municipalities are grappling with. But one of the simplest strategies—developing multiyear financial plans and posting them for all to see—has yet to catch on. Read More
Among the things New Yorkers will really need over the next four years is a city controller who’s willing to be a forceful and effective watchdog and advocate for taxpayers. Unfortunately, personal peccadilloes aside, Eliot Spitzer’s record as governor of New York raises serious questions of his suitability for this particular job. Read More