Two late-breaking bills stand out among more than a half-dozen pension sweeteners passed by New York’s state Legislature during the final days of the 2014 session. One would restore a benefit cut by Gov. Cuomo's Tier 6 reform, and the other would vastly expand pension credit for time served in the military. Read More
New York State’s personal income tax (PIT) collections in April were a whopping $1.3 billion lower than in the same month last year, according to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s just-released monthly cash report.* Read More
Kathy Miller and her family moved to New York from Pennsylvania. She said they discovered that just about everything here is more expensive. "Income tax is the biggest," said Miller, of Ballston Lake. "It's double here than it is in Pennsylvania. Property taxes, school taxes, groceries, gas, even our car insurance is more in New York State." Read More
NYS lawmakers are third highest paid in the country and now they want a raise? So how much do they make? Read More
By midnight on April 15, more than 8.5 million personal income tax returns for 2013 will have been filed with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Roughly one-third of those filers will owe nothing, and big chunk of total PIT receipts will come from a tiny fraction of high-income taxpayers. Read More
In line with New York’s motto — “Excelsior” — the state assumes its tax receipts are headed ever upward. Late last week, Governor Cuomo and legislative leaders announced they had agreed to a consensus forecast adding $200 million to the combined receipts... Read More
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver may seek a pay hike for members of the New York State Legislature before the year is out, today’s New York Post reports. New York part-time lawmakers now make a base salary of $79,500 a year, plus $171 for every day in Albany and added stipends for leadership positions and committee chairmanships. Read More
A big wheel at Deutsche Bank, chief risk officer and board member Hugo Bänziger, has some portentous thoughts about banking (and therefore, about New York City and State finances) in today’s FT... Read More