Tag: Taxes and Spending

Mike Spano was elected mayor of Yonkers last fall with the strong support of municipal labor unions. Now the state's third largest city is on the brink of fiscal disaster -- and Spano must persuade his labor friends to make significant contract concessions. Read More

Federal prosecutors suggested this week that a "culture of fraud" has afflicted the Long Island Rail Road. They were referring to alleged phony disability claims by LIRR employees -- but the phrase could just as well describe the chronic lowballing of past cost estimates for the LIRR's East Side Access connection to Grand Central Terminal. Read More

Sometime this summer, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will perform the financial equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of his hat -- explaining how a cash-poor, heavily indebted state government (and its Thruway Authority, whose credit rating outlook was just downgraded to "negative") will come up with $5 billion to $6 billion to build a new bridge across the widest stretch of the lower Hudson River. Read More

The Obama administration quietly issued a new waiver last month that allows states to change the rules of how success is measured in welfare reform. Read More