Ralph: "The bills will get bigger and bigger, and I'll get less to eat. I'll start losing weight. Then you know what I'll look like?" Read More
Tag: Budgets
Albany's revenue base is rapidly shrinking, but the financial plan left on the table by the former governor, Eliot Spitzer, would allow the state budget to keep on growing as if shares in Bear Stearns were still selling in the low hundreds. With barely two weeks to go before the start of the next state fiscal year, it remains unclear whether Mr. Spitzer's successor will rein in spending before it's too late. Read More
The completion of New York State's budget was the greatest challenge awaiting David Paterson when he was sworn into office as New York's governor just two weeks before the start of a new fiscal year, which begins April 1. Read More
Even before it was over, this year's New York state budget process had devolved into a giant step backward for fiscal responsibility, accountability and transparency. Given Albany's already rock-bottom standards in all three areas, this was quite an accomplishment. Read More
Eliot Spitzer had been governor for less than a month when he addressed a crowd of dignitaries at the state Education Department. The department's historic building was an appropriate setting for a historic proposal: pumping more money into public education than ever before, in return for more accountability than ever. Read More
GOV. Paterson has pledged the state will "learn to do more with less" in closing a projected $6.4 billion gap in the 2009-10 fiscal year. Read More
The financial-market implosion and the coming transformation of the securities industry pose a risk to the national economy. But they especially imperil New York State, which for decades has built its budgets on the expectation of raising ever-greater revenues from a Wall Street that now no longer exists. Read More
The most noteworthy aspect of Gov. Pater son's news conference yesterday wasn't the detailed breakdown of his $2 billion in proposed changes to close a projected shortfall in the current state budget. Read More