Tag: Taxes and Spending

Although Cuomo has said in recent weeks that he anticipates a $4 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year, E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Empire Center think tank said DiNapoli’s updated estimates could indicate a shortfall of as much as $6.8 billion. The current budget totals $163 billion including federal aid. “The comptroller’s new estimate boosts the shortfall to $6.8 billion, by far the biggest prospective blob of red ink on Albany’s books since Cuomo took office,” McMahon said. Read More

A federally mandated state takeover of local Medicaid costs would likely set up a three-way fiscal tug-of-war between upstate counties, downstate suburbs, and New York City. Read More

START-UP NY, New York’s signature economic development program, made headlines for creating just 408 jobs in its first two years of operations. However, bigger disappointments may lie ahead. Read More

E.J. McMahon, president of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, said music producers and game developers are getting a "very sweet deal" by piggybacking on the film industry's lobbying. Much of the subsidized business was already here, he said. Read More

New York’s $156 billion budget, enacted on April 1, authorizes the state to spend $4,947 per second during its 2016-17 fiscal year, according to the Empire Center’s updated Spend-O-Meter. Read More

Gov. Cuomo’s 2017 state budget, which he’ll present next week, is likely to call for billions of dollars in new spending on highways and bridges. Unfortunately, taxpayers won’t get their money’s worth if the state continues to insist on rigging bids for public-works projects that all but guarantee the jobs will go to unions. Read More

Local government is a labor-intensive business, and employee compensation is the single biggest element of most municipal budgets. The 2014-15 edition of What They Make, the Empire Center’s annual report on public payrolls, allows New York taxpayers to compare this key element of local government costs around the state. Read More

Gov. Andrew Cuomo quietly created the new pot back in 2013 by inserting it into a budget bill. State lawmakers approved it. Each year since then the pot has grown, so that now Cuomo and legislative leaders have given themselves the authority to borrow up to $1.1 billion for yet-to-be-named projects. Read More