Taxpayer-funded employer contributions to public pensions in New York State will rise by billions of dollars in the next few years, threatening to divert scarce resources from other essential public services in the midst of a fiscal crisis, according to a new report from the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
The looming state budget gap, which could easily exceed $10 billion, is the most obvious and immediate challenge facing Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Read More
Andrew Cuomo’s unorthodox State of the State presentation this week highlighted a disparity between his muscular rhetoric and his (so far) cautious approach to governing. Read More
On the eve of what could be the biggest state budget showdown ever in New York, Gov. Cuomo has taken a big step toward delivering on the single most important promise he made to taxpayers in his successful 2010 campaign. Read More
Gov. Cuomo is framing his state budget proposal as an effort to end Albany’s ingrained habit of unsustainable and unaffordable spending. Read More
Governor Cuomo’s 2011-12 Executive Budget does not call for any significant state tax increases. The thrust of my testimony today is that the Legislature should not attempt to add tax increases to this budget—and should start actively working on a more competitive and growth-oriented tax policy for the future. Read More
New York’s Legislature should avoid adding any tax increases to the proposed 2011-12 state budget, E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy testified today before the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees. Read More
Beginning in 2014, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in March 2010, is expected to significantly extend health-insurance coverage in New York by increasing Medicaid enrollment and offering federal subsidies for the purchase of private health insurance. However, there is no guarantee that the newly insured will be able to access the health-care system in a timely fashion as new demand for services outstrips physician supply. Read More