Tag: Taxes and Spending

E.J. McMahon, executive director of the fiscally-conservative Empire Center, noted that statewide bond acts are often rejected by voters and he said the education bond proposed by Cuomo seems to rely on an arbitrary number and would pay for technology that will be outdated and useless before it's even paid off. “My concern is that it was pulled out of thin air and it was used to fill space in the State of the State that was thin on education stuff,” he said Sewer and infrastructure upgrades are a significant expense faced by many municipalities, including some that still directly discharge waste into the Hudson River during storms. Beaches in communities along Lake Erie are regularly closed during summer months because of sewer discharge into the water. Old pipes, decaying electrical systems and other infrastructure problems have stalled private development in many upstate cities, McMahon said. While McMahon said he didn't support the whole environmental bond, the $2 billion directed toward infrastructure is increasingly necessary, but gets little notice during an election year. “It's the non-sexy, really important thing that seems like it won't happen while we're paying for iPads and technology for schools,” he said. Read More

New labor contracts for 52 teachers’ unions and 104 school superintendents, ratified since July 1, 2013, are now available on www.SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website, which is home to the most complete public collection of collectively-bargained school district contracts in the state. Read More

The upstate economy is in particular need of help. New York ranks 21st in the country for private-sector job growth since November 2010, but the 50 counties outside the New York City area taken alone would rank last in the nation for job growth, according to the Empire Center for New York Policy. Read More

Empire Center President E.J. McMahon spoke to WSHU radio in Long Island about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State address on Wednesday. Regarding Cuomo's proposed property tax plan, McMahon described it as a "so-called freeze." "It is not going to produce any significant or lasting saving for anybody," he added. Read More

Edmund J. McMahon, the president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative research group, said he remained unconvinced that the promised property tax measures would have any substantial economic impact. “These are tiny marginal temporary savings,” Mr. McMahon said. “They won’t do anything to speak of for the economy. They are meant to increase the ability of the governor and Legislature to say they reduced your property taxes.” Read More

E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center, a think tank, said the incentives were too small to greatly benefit homeowners or prod government consolidation. He estimated the maximum tax credit a Suffolk County homeowner could receive would be around $125; for Nassau County, closer to $200. Most upstate residents would get less than $100. "It's not fiscally significant," McMahon said. "I don't know how this is going to create positive impact on the economy." Read More

While several business groups praised the tax-cutting effort, some conservative and liberal groups issued warnings about the package’s value. “How do you call this meaningful?” E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, said of the property tax savings, which he said would be worth only about $60 for average homeowners in Erie and Niagara counties. “Are they honestly saying that giving folks in Western New York $60 a year is going to boost the upstate economy? Really?” he added. Read More

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