With little advance notice or fanfare, a constitutional amendment (S.1) that would give the Legislature much more power to shape the state budget was reported out of the Senate Finance Committee today. The Assembly version (A.2) was approved back in February, so the measure is now a big step closer to a statewide voter referendum. Read More
In their rush to pass a budget on time for the first time in 20 years, state legislators didn't forget to pass the pork. Tucked into page 683 of the in the "community projects fund" account is a $200 million lump sum appropriation "[f]or services Read More
Listening to Michael Bloomberg present the fourth budget of his mayoralty yesterday was like listening to a man having an argument with himself. The former CEO in the mayor's office made a strong case for doing more - much more - to downsize the city's exceedingly vast array of costly public services. Read More
Mayor Bloomberg's 2006 Executive Budget is technically balanced but points to huge out-year shortfalls, despite the economic recovery and surging tax revenues. E.J. McMahon, the Empire Center's director, discusses the mayor's seemingly split perso Read More
School districts across New York want to increase their spending at more than twice the rate of inflation, according to the Public Policy Institute's Annual . And despite a record aid increase of nearly $900 million in the new state budget, proposed Read More
If there's one thing on which virtually everyone in Albany agrees, it's the need to expand the availability of health insurance to the roughly 3 million New York state residents who lack it. Read More
Despite a noticeable lack of debate or public hearings on the subject, the New York State Legislature is moving towards adoption of a significant change in investment guidelines for the $120 billion Common Retirement Fund, according to a new Read More
Amid the hundreds of arcane laws enacted every year in Albany, how's a taxpayer to know which ones actually represent a huge favor to a powerful special interest group - with huge cost implications for the rest of us? Read More