One fiscal watchdog called that surplus an illusion. "It's purely aspirational," said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center, a conservative think tank. He said a more realistic projection shows New York with a $2 billion deficit in two years rather than a $2 billion surplus. Read More
E.J. McMahon of the fiscally conservative Empire Center said that adopting the budget wouldn’t lead to the $2 billion surplus Cuomo proposes using to offset the tax cuts, though he said it’s a fine goal. Instead, by traditional measures, it has budget gaps of $1.6 billion in 2016, $2 billion in 2017 and $3 billion in 2018. “He has basically changed the rules,” McMahon said. “ … It’s like a coach saying we’ve not only won more games, we’ve already scored 30 more points, when it’s actually his goal to score 30.” Read More
Cuomo has said that he could flip what is currently projected as a $1.7 billion deficit for the next fiscal year into a $2 billion surplus by 2016, provided he can hold state spending growth to two percent or less. That's going to be quite difficult, fiscal analysts note, as the state has already committed to spending increases for education and health programs. “Two percent growth in state operating funds yields the 'surplus' he's talking about. The question, though, is that 40 percent of that is Medicaid and school aid, and those are assumed to increase at four percent each year, and in Albany, those are seen not as caps, but floors,” said E.J. McMahon, president of the business-backed Empire Center. “So if that's off-limits to reduction, it's very difficult to see how everything else gets reduced enough to hold that two percent line.” Enter the waiver. If the state were able to count on the additional federal revenue, it could direct some of its own money elsewhere. Read More
The Empire Center crunched the numbers for new superintendent contracts ratified after July 1, 2013. In the Capital Region, the average salary was a modest $139,571. On Long Island, it was $208,422, followed by $207,540 in the Mid-Hudson region and $154,506 in the Finger Lakes. In some of the state's districts, salaries have topped $400,000. Read More
Some workers earned more than $43 per hour taking part in a post-disaster cleanup project during the summer of 2012, according to data gathered by an Albany-based think tank. A total of 156 people in the Capital Region earned about $1.4 million during the 90-day campaign to clear debris left in and along waterways by floods in the late summer of 2011, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy Inc. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a nonprofit think tank, questions what kind of businesses will get into [Start-Up NY] and how many lasting jobs it will create. "Some of them will fail and won't produce any economic benefits," McMahon said. "It's capitalism; that's how it works." Read More
For the first time ever, Nassau Comptroller George Maragos has posted all 2013 contracts online, listing the vendor name, the amount and a description of the project -- though the list of more than $700 million in contracts is not yet searchable or sortable. Maragos said the list posted on the comptroller's public Facebook page will be updated weekly as new contracts are approved and vendor claims are paid. E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank, questioned why Maragos is posting the information on Facebook rather than the county website. "A Facebook page is somewhat self-promotional for him," McMahon said. He also noted the list was not searchable or sortable. Read More
In his State of the State message last week, Gov. Cuomo once again cited the new Tappan Zee Bridge as a symbol of his ability to move forward on big, important infrastructure projects. But the governor hasn’t leveled with commuters and truckers on what they’ll be paying for this progress. Hint: a lot more than they do now. Read More