The Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) began as an effort to bring market-driven efficiency to New York’s hospital industry, but has evolved into little more than a revenue source. Read More
Research
Governor Andrew Cuomo's free college tuition proposal raises a boatload of questions about cost, eligibility, justification—and, last but not least, winners and losers. The governor hasn't issued his proposal in legislative form, so we don't know many crucial details of how he intends to cover average annual tuition of up to $6,470 for bachelor's degrees and up to $4,800 for associate's degrees at colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) and City University of New York (CUNY) systems. Read More
Governor Cuomo’s warnings about how repealing the Affordable Care Act would affect New York should be read with caution. Read More
Some New York hospitals are commanding far higher prices than their competitors, and market leverage – not quality or demographic factors – is the most likely explanation. Read More
New York lost another 191,367 residents to other states during the year ending last July 1, and its population declined for the first time in a decade. Read More
New York City's Independent Budget Office (IBO) has released its latest data on the distribution of city and state income taxes among city residents—and, once again, the numbers show the tax burden is very light on low- and middle-income residents while relying very heavily on top earners. Read More
The state Public Service Commission has quietly reduced the amount of renewable energy that utilities will have to purchase next year by 94 percent. Read More
Governor Cuomo reportedly has not ruled out an extension of New York's "millionaire tax"—a supposedly temporary added bracket that effectively adds 29 percent to the personal income tax of individuals earning at least $1 million or joint-filing couples earning $2 million. Read More
New York City's move over the next three years to a $15-an-hour minimum wage—the highest ever, after adjusting for inflation—will take the city into uncharted territory, fraught with risks and trade-offs for workers and businesses. Read More
New York State’s tax revenues have fallen more than $1 billion behind projections since the current state budget was adopted eight months ago. When the fiscal year starts April 1, it’ll be staring into the gaping maw of at least a $689 million shortfall. Under the circumstances, a new corporate-tax giveaway is the last thing Albany needs. Read More
Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill that marks the most substantial improvement to the Freedom of Information Law in years, limiting the amount of time that public entities can stall a FOIL request after a judge has ordered the release of public records. Read More
For most of the past year and a half, Gov. Cuomo has sought to make the 421-a affordable housing program both less effective and more wasteful, by mandating the use of higher-priced unionized construction workers on 421-a projects. Read More