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
Among the many objections raised by public school groups when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo began pushing his tax cap last year, perhaps the weakest was the claim by teacher unions that the law would "erode democracy." Read More
Federal prosecutors suggested this week that a "culture of fraud" has afflicted the Long Island Rail Road. They were referring to alleged phony disability claims by LIRR employees -- but the phrase could just as well describe the chronic lowballing of past cost estimates for the LIRR's East Side Access connection to Grand Central Terminal. Read More
New York politicians should heed the message of this week's Wisconsin recall election: You can defy the public-sector labor machine and live to tell the tale. Read More
The small Hudson Valley city of Poughkeepsie is now home to some of the best-paying summer jobs ever: $51.71 an hour. That’s right: $51.71 an hour. Read More
Sometime this summer, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will perform the financial equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of his hat -- explaining how a cash-poor, heavily indebted state government (and its Thruway Authority, whose credit rating outlook was just downgraded to "negative") will come up with $5 billion to $6 billion to build a new bridge across the widest stretch of the lower Hudson River. Read More
A task force co-chaired by former New York Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch this week reached an "unambiguous" conclusion about the fiscal stresses on state governments: "The basic problem is not cyclical. It is structural." Read More
The Obama administration quietly issued a new waiver last month that allows states to change the rules of how success is measured in welfare reform. Read More