Tag: Public Pensions

Are New York City's public-pension managers running an investment fund -- or an affordable-housing program? Read More

Governor Cuomo has projected that maintaining a 2 percent cap on annual growth in state expenditures could lead to a budget surplus of up to $2.9 billion by fiscal year 2017. The key question, in his words, is “how do you use this period of growth to actually increase the economic competitiveness of the state of New York?” Based on our analysis of New York’s state and local tax structure, that question could be answered by addressing the following five initial tax policy priorities, which would not only make New York more business-friendly, but would reduce the high tax burden on all New York residents Read More

Local officials around the state are breathing a sigh of relief after Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced Tuesday that their required contribution to fund public employee pensions will tick down. It's the first decrease since 2010, and it comes in the wake of a major spike after the 2008 stock market crash... Read More

Per-pupil funding and expenditures in New York schools grew steadily during the 2000s, with local revenues accounting for the largest proportion of most districts’ aid, according to a report this week from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The report shows that certain areas of the state have consistently higher per-pupil funding and spending. But western New York districts typically received and spent less than districts in other parts of the state, according to the report. Victor schools in Ontario County fell into the lowest categories, receiving and spending less than $15,000 per student. Read More

New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is using the power of the state's $160 billion pension system to urge President Barack Obama to order federal agencies and programs around the country to recognize gay marriages performed in New York. Read More

A billion dollars is big money in anyone’s book. Especially when those dollars come from you, the taxpayer. That’s how much money the US Railroad Retirement Board says might have been scammed by Long Island Rail Road retirees falsely claiming disability benefits. Read More

Last year's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., had a big impact in New York, perhaps most notably with enactment of a tough new gun control law known as the SAFE Act. But it also made it easier for retired cops to "double dip" — that is, to collect their full public pensions while working full-time as school guards, otherwise known as resource officers. Read More

Teens who spend their summer working for the village of Green Island can expect some spending cash, maybe a tan, and the beginnings of a state pension. Even if it takes an act of the Legislature. Read More