School districts across New York State will increase their per-pupil spending next year by nearly one and a half times the current rate of inflation -- despite falling real estate values and clear signs of an economic slowdown -- according to an analysis issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
Healthy skepticism was warranted back in January, when Gov. Eliot Spitzer first announced he would name a special commission to recommend a cap on school property taxes. Sure, the governor's rhetoric was tough and right on the mark. And he was embracing an idea he'd rejected during his 2006 gubernatorial run - and choosing his primary opponent, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi to chair the commission, ensuring this would at least be a high-profile effort. Read More
LAST week's state Senate approval of Gov. Paterson's proposed cap on school property taxes seems to have induced a nervous breakdown in the powerful statewide teachers' union. Read More
Economic conditions have obvious implications for the work of this Committee and for the Legislature in general. We are in the midst of a potentially severe and long-lasting global recession. But for New York State, the recession is only part of the problem. Fueled by the super-heated profits of the securities industry, mixed with gains from a now-popped real estate bubble, the surge in state tax revenues over the past five years was as big as anything New York has experienced during any previous five-year stretch in the last 35 years. Read More
The often opaque world of school finances has become more transparent with a new tool that allows New Yorkers to analyze how their school districts spend money and to compare them to nearly 700 other districts around the state. Read More
Gov. Paterson seems to have a bad case of amnesia on the issue that once identified him most strongly with New York taxpayers’ interests. Just less than a year ago, Paterson endorsed a blue-ribbon commission’s recommendation for a broad and comprehensive cap on the growth of local school-tax levies -- the single largest factor in sky-high property taxes outside New York City. Read More
A year ago this week, Gov. David A. Paterson announced his support for a broad cap on school property taxes across New York - the key recommendation of a tax relief commission chaired by Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi. Read More
The often opaque world of school finances has become more transparent with a new tool that allows New Yorkers to analyze how their school districts spend money and to compare them to nearly 700 other districts around the state. Read More