Tag: Taxes and Spending

Statewide median teacher salaries in the region increased by more than 10 percent from 2008-09 to 2012-13, according to a report released by the conservative think-tank Empire Center for Public Policy. Meanwhile, the report released Monday notes that while student enrollment, especially in upstate schools, have largely decreased, staff reductions haven’t kept up with the rate at which students have left. According to the study, more than 76,000 students have left New York state schools from 2008-09, while districts have cut 25,350 positions. Read More

Statewide, median teacher salary increased by about 10 percent between the fiscal years 2008-2009 and 2012-2013, according to a new report from the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative government finance watchdog. Read More

For upstate homeowners, the centerpiece of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed $2.2 billion tax-cut plan is a two-year "freeze" on the growth of New York's smothering property taxes. An analysis of tax rates in two local municipalities — one urban, one suburban — reveals that Capital Region homeowners' rebates could be significantly more modest than advertised. Read More

The Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative group, released a report Monday, meanwhile, that points to decreasing enrollment, increasing teacher salaries and high levels of staffing as factors in the continuing rise in school spending. Teachers in the Schenectady City School District earned a median salary of $59,651 in 2012-13, compared to $51,300 five years ago, according to the report. Read More

Americans aren’t in a New York state of mind. New York ranks 50th in domestic migration, with 328,538 more people leaving the state than moving in from other states from 2010 through 2013, according to an analysis of new census data by the Empire Center. Read More

During his budget address last week, Cuomo presented a chart showing how a self-imposed two-percent cap on state government spending growth would change the $10 billion deficit that he bridged in the 2011 budget into a $2 billion surplus by 2016. But E.J. McMahon, president of the right-leaning Empire Center, points out that the number is dependent upon “the magic footnote": It assumes $7.7 billion in future cutsthat are not lined out in the state's latest financial plan.“Has he created a $2 billion surplus? In a word, no. … This is an aspiration.” Read More

The number of people in New York who earn $1 million or more in taxable income annually jumped 8.5 percent between 2010 and 2011, the last year for which figures were available. Read More

‘Building on Success” was the theme of Gov. Cuomo’s election-year budget presentation in Albany this week. But while Cuomo boasts he’s got New York headed in the right direction, the latest economic and demographic indicators suggest we still have a long way to go. Read More