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
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