The short list of "critical, non-controversial" measures Governor Paterson has sent the deadlocked state Senate for possible action tonight includes a bill authorizing Nassau County to issue bonds to finance early retirement incentives for county emp Read More
Just in time to further debunk claims that the wealthy don't pay their "fair share" of New York State taxes, the Assembly Majority Ways and Means staff has issued a pessimistic new assessment of the economic outlook ("bleak") and revenue forecast (si Read More
E.J. testified before Albany's Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees today. One tidbit illustrates the Empire State's acute dependence on Wall Street: Just how dependent on Wall Street had we become? Consider this: in 2006, auto manufact Read More
Mayor Bloomberg announced his budget this afternoon for the fiscal year that starts in July. The mayor expects that a combination of federal stimulus, state funds, tax hikes, spending cuts, and labor givebacks will close a $4 billion budget gap tha Read More
State and local governments face a total deficit of about $131 billion for 2009 and $181 billion for 2010, the Government Accountability Office . Honestly, this estimate seems low. But, low or not, it may be as good as it gets. The GAO notes that Read More
NYU prof Thomas Philippon and U-VA Prof Ariell Reshef have written a tracing the trajectory of wages in the American financial sector over the last century. Not surprisingly, financial-industry wages broke away from the rest of the economy starting i Read More
"The current global financial market crisis could have serious implications for New York’s local governments if access to the credit markets remains constrained," says a issued today by the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Read More
The Wall Street Journal has run my op-ed on the risks New York City faces in its approach to fiscal and economic problems. The thesis is that the city's main economic engine -- Wall Street and the financial-services industry -- cold be at th Read More