Nearly 8,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees—including more than 4,800 in the past year—have been added to New York’s state government payroll since the fall of 2006, according to data from the state comptroller’s office. Read More
Tag: Taxes and Spending
The most noteworthy aspect of Gov. Pater son's news conference yesterday wasn't the detailed breakdown of his $2 billion in proposed changes to close a projected shortfall in the current state budget. Read More
Economic conditions have obvious implications for the work of this Committee and for the Legislature in general. We are in the midst of a potentially severe and long-lasting global recession. But for New York State, the recession is only part of the problem. Fueled by the super-heated profits of the securities industry, mixed with gains from a now-popped real estate bubble, the surge in state tax revenues over the past five years was as big as anything New York has experienced during any previous five-year stretch in the last 35 years. Read More
New York's huge budget deficit—$15.4 billion in the next 15 months—will force difficult choices in terms of government services and tax policies for years to come. To engage intelligently in that debate, New Yorkers need far more information than we now receive from Albany. Read More
Now that they control both houses of the New York State Legislature, Democrats in Albany are reportedly preparing to raise the state income tax on high-income New Yorkers to help plug a $15 billion budget gap. Read More
THE House of Representatives this week is expected to pass a federal stimulus package that could pump at least $17 billion of noncapital funding directly into New York's state and local government coffers over the next two years. Read More
E.J. McMahon testified before the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees. Read More
New York's public employee unions are spearheading a campaign to raise state income taxes on the wealthiest households as an alternative to Gov. David Paterson's proposed budget cuts. Read More