Suffolk County lawmakers are shocked -- shocked! -- to learn that someone has been gambling with the county government's fiscal future. It's a full-blown "emergency"! In the words of County Executive Steve Bellone, the resulting problem is "larger than any of us imagined." Read More
Mike Spano was elected mayor of Yonkers last fall with the strong support of municipal labor unions. Now the state's third largest city is on the brink of fiscal disaster -- and Spano must persuade his labor friends to make significant contract concessions. Read More
Suffolk County's proposed contract with the county Police Benevolent Association, featuring an extraordinary 10-year term, calls to mind the New York Yankees' equally long 2007 deal with Alex Rodriguez. Read More
By lopping two years off a tentative decade-long contract withSuffolk County's police union, County Executive Steve Bellone at least has curtailed some of the long-term financial risk the original agreement posed to taxpayers. Read More
Over the past 37 years, starting with the near-bankruptcy of the Big Apple, serious fiscal crises in New York local governments have unfolded at a rate of one or two per decade. Read More
By capping property taxes, Gov. Cuomo has tapped the brakes on local government and school spending outside New York City. He’s also taken steps to limit the growth in the local share of Medicaid over the next few years, and to curb public pension expenses further down the road. Read More
Gov. Cuomo said last week that he’ll propose a “financial restructuring group” to help fiscally distressed local governments pursue options that would include “consolidation, mergers, shared services, reduced workforces, fewer elected officials.” Read More
In a case with potentially far-reaching implications for local taxpayers across New York, a labor arbitrator has ruled that the city of White Plains, in Westchester County, has the right to require police retirees to begin contributing to their healt Read More