New York has one of the nation's largest and highest-paid state and local government workforces, according to the latest data. Based on March 2010 payrolls, the average annual salary per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee of state and local gove Read More
The image on the cover of New York State's is obviously meant to convey the sense that there's not only a light visible at the end of the budgetary tunnel, we're just about to emerge into broad daylight. But the report itself, released late yesterday Read More
New York State's 2010-11 2011-12 fiscal year appears to be off to a good start. Tax collections for the first quarter of the year were nearly $800 million above Governor Andrew Cuomo's initial budget projections, according to the June cash report posted today by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Read More
Yesterday, the New York Times accused the Republican-controlled state Senate of "" for failing to pass legislation setting up a state health insurance exchange in the waning days of the last legislative session. If the legislature doesn't pass a bill Read More
If you haven't read much about the details of the "mandate relief" provisions approved by the Legislature as the session ended last week, there's a good reason for it: virtually none of the relief priorities cited by the state's major local government groups were included. Read More
from Wednesday's "Replacing The Tappan Zee Bridge" event is up. Speakers and panelists discussed why New York needs a new bridge -- the three-plus-mile span crosses the Hudson between Rockland and Westchester -- and how to build it. One of the mos Read More
A coalition of state government employee unions in Connecticut is about to reject a proposed no-layoff contract deal hammered out last month with Governor Dannel Molloy. It's difficult to compare the Connecticut pact with the agreement reached ye Read More
After sailing unscathed (with steady pay hikes, no less) through a severe recession and fiscal crisis, members of New York's largest state government union will belatedly make some relatively small, mostly temporary financial sacrifices under the ten Read More