In his reelection campaign, Cuomo boasts that he has reduced taxes to their lowest level in decades. All three of the New York governors to seek at least a second term since 1978—Democrats Hugh Carey (1975–82) and Mario Cuomo (1983–94) and Republican George Pataki (1995–2006)—also ran for reelection as tax cutters, though all three did more to reduce state taxes than Andrew Cuomo has done, at least so far. Read More
The second of two Election Eve check-in-the-mailbox tax credit gimmicks concocted by state officials in Albany is unfolding this week. Most New York State homeowners outside New York City have received or are about to receive a payment equivalent to roughly 2 percent of their 2014-15 school property taxes—which will average roughly $60 upstate to $150 in downstate suburbs. This is on top of the $350 tax credit sent recently to families that had at least one child under 17 as of 2012. Read More
“These certainly sound like the right goals for state tax policy. Much of what he’s proposing is a natural next step beyond what Cuomo has done,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy. Read More
New York City’s public school custodians were paid an average of $109,467 in fiscal 2014, making them the city’s highest-paid group of municipal employees last year, according to newly released payroll data posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
Empire Center President E.J. McMahon joined John Gambling to talk about Mayor de Blasio's plan to roll back Bloomberg-era savings on student transportation. Read More
“It’s as shameless a political ploy as we have ever seen,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
A former state tax commissioner who sat on both tax policy commissions convened last year by Governor Andrew Cuomo said it would be “a real challenge” for state officials to let New York's “millionaires' tax” expire on schedule at the end of 2017. Read More
The Empire Center, a nonpartisan think tank in New York, released a report today suggesting that New York has lagged behind the rest of the nation in making new millionaires. Read More