One of the best things about New York's newly adopted state budget for fiscal 2016 is something that's not in it (yet): a costly new state subsidy of homeowners' local property taxes. Governor Cuomo's Executive Budget proposal included an income tax credit (of the type also known as a "circuit breaker") that, when fully implemented by 2019, would funnel $1.7 billion a year to about half of the state's homeowners, plus renters. Read More
Government for sail? State lawmakers missed the boat on some ambitious reform proposals in the state budget — but they managed to enact a tax break for luxury-yacht buyers. Read More
How does a state find itself approving a tax exemption just for luxury yachts? Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature economic development program, Start-Up NY, has been slow to start up in the Syracuse area. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy think tank, said, "Only in Nassau would a cap with a supposed limitations produce payouts of $500,000. Almost any place else in the country, this would leave people flabbergasted and shaking their heads." Read More
As part of his plan for allocating $5.4 billion in one-shot windfall funds, Governor Cuomo wants to spend $500 million to expand the availability and capacity of broadband Internet access across New York. But given pressing traditional infrastructure needs, should broadband rate a high priority? Do we really need it? The governor's case, on closer inspection, is less than compelling. Read More
A little-noticed section of Governor Cuomo’s State of the State “Opportunity Agenda” calls for investing another $100 million in state money in startup companies—even as federal auditors probe Innovate NY, the state’s original dalliance with venture capital (VC). Read More
The city’s elevator repair bills are going through the roof. Each of the 3,330 elevators in the city’s housing projects goes out of service an average of once a month, officials said. Elevator failures and shutdowns for maintenance — along with huge raises for elevator mechanics — have caused costs to skyrocket. Read More