In recent months, states and cities have lobbied for their piece of the bailout pie. Among other requests, they've asked the federal government to support municipal bond markets by directly buying municipal bonds through the new programs that the Tr Read More
The analysts at Municipal Market Advisors think that should Sen. Barack Obama win tonight, President Obama's planned income-tax hike on individual households earning over $250k could push up demand for tax-exempt municipal bonds. Read More
Governor Paterson is reportedly close to striking a deal with state employee labor unions under which the governor will drop his plan to layoff off over 7,000 state workers in exchange for the unions' acquiescence to (a) Read More
After wavering on the issue in recent weeks, Governor Paterson today seemed to rule out tax increases as part of the solution to the state's growing budget problem -- at least for the next 18 months. "I don't think there should be any taxes at thi Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, gave testimony on Monday at the 2014 Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on taxes. Read More
These boots were made for walking, as the song goes. Unfortunately for New York, they’re walking right out of the state, with the latest Census figures showing Florida about to overtake us as the nation’s third-most-populous state. Read More
Governor Cuomo’s 2014-15 Executive Budget would devote more resources to initiatives described as “tax cuts” than any state budget we’ve seen in quite a few years. This in itself is an encouraging sign of the recognition that New York needs to do more to shed its reputation as a high-cost, high-tax state. Read More
The Empire Center’s Explore Your State Budget app has been updated to reflect financial data in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2014-15 Executive Budget. Read More