The state bailed out the MTA with a $1.5 billion payroll tax earlier this year. But it turns out revenues from the payroll tax will come in $200 million less than expected. If only the state and the MTA had had someone back then to tell them that th Read More
Fresh from a key court victory, Albany's Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), via its subsidiary, the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation (BALDC), yesterday approved the issuance of up to $800 million in bonds for the construction o Read More
It like Chicago's parking-privatization deal was a bad deal for the city and a good deal for Morgan Stanley, the concessionaire. Under the 2008 deal, Morgan Stanley bought the rights to the city's parking-meter revenue for 75 years -- including the Read More
A few thoughts on the late-breaking Albany deal to pass the so-called , now stalled for good reason in the Senate after passing in the Assembly: Not for the first time, some of New York's well-meaning are being suckered by a bill title. Like most Read More
In their weekly outlook, Municipal Market Advisors (MMA) tries to dampen the hysteria over a "coming municipal market collapse," saying that although "state and local credit quality is undeniably getting worse," we're unlikely to see mass-scale muni Read More
reported this morning that "independent" arbitrator John Zuccotti, who was supposed to represent the public in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's contract with the Transport Workers Union, planned to donate his $116,000 fee -- at $900 a Read More
Wendell Cox has a new at newgeography on how practically to open up transit monopolies. One part, which discusses how London runs its public-bus service, is relevant to New York: Transport for London ... is competitively bid. Between Read More
New York and Britain both face huge fiscal imbalances, partly as a result of their reliance on the volatile financial sector for too much tax revenue. And both may come up with the same purported partial solution to the problem: sales of public asset Read More