From Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to Senate Republicans to business groups, a drumbeat for election-year tax cuts is underway. Advocates urged state lawmakers Wednesday to reduce broad-based taxes for all New Yorkers next year instead of continuing a pattern of politically targeted tax cuts. Read More
Tax reform is long overdue for New York and the state’s high taxes can no longer be ignored, said E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for NY Policy. McMahon said a drop in the state’s corporate and income taxes are needed to help boost the business climate in New York and keep companies in the state. Read More
Business groups as well as progressive social service groups told New York officials they must put an end to decades of targeted, often politically fueled tax breaks and, instead, fairly cut taxes to turn around one of the country's worst business climates. Read More
At the start of Wednesday's Senate hearing on potential reforms to state tax policy, GOP Sen.Carl Marcellino said he was "hoping to hear creative ideas," rather than the same old litany of how bad our taxes are. As it turned out, there was a bit of both... Read More
Local officials around the state are breathing a sigh of relief after Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced Tuesday that their required contribution to fund public employee pensions will tick down. It's the first decrease since 2010, and it comes in the wake of a major spike after the 2008 stock market crash... Read More
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
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