New York continued to impose one of nation's highest state and local tax burdens relative to income during fiscal 2012, according to data released today by the US Census Bureau. Read More
Tag: Taxes and Spending
Republicans in the state Senate are claiming that the new federal immigration order could end up costing New York as much as $2 billion in Medicaid costs. Read More
Four years ago, as Andrew Cuomo prepared to begin his first term as governor, the biggest problem facing New York state was how to close a $10 billion budget gap. This year, gearing up for his second term, Cuomo faces quite a different challenge: what to do with roughly $5 billion in extra cash. Read More
Albany and Binghamton topped the list for property taxes in the 2014 update of Benchmarking New York, the Empire Center web tool that connects users with tax, spending and debt data from local governments outside New York City. Read More
EJ McMahon, with the Empire Center, likens the windfall to choices a household might have to make, when it suddenly gets a small unexpected inheritance of $3000. So, he says, everybody gets excited, with one family member wanting a kitchen rehab with granite counter tops, another wanting premium cable with more sports channels. Read More
New York State residents pay some of the highest local taxes in the nation. Until now, however, New Yorkers have had no easy way to compare basic fiscal measures for the local governments that account for a large share of the taxes they pay. Read More
Who could be against “smart schools”? The unsurprising answer: not nearly enough New Yorkers to defeat Proposal 3 on yesterday’s statewide ballot, which authorizes $2 billion in state borrowing to finance local school district purchases of computers and other classroom technology; expand schools’ high-speed and wireless Internet capacity; install “high-tech security features”; and build new classrooms for pre-kindergarten programs. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy in Albany, said the defenses of the county program closely mirror those employed in favor of the state's now largely defunct $170 million annual legislative member item "slush fund." "The usual answer is, 'We know our own districts better than anybody.' ... It's basically the same argument on a smaller scale," McMahon said. "There's no shortage of worthy things. You can't be bankrolling every charity." Read More