New York’s “cap and invest” program (NYCI), a central part of the state’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, appears designed to hold back much of the program’s sticker-shock until January 2027—after the 2026 election. Read More
Research
Presenting her budget this week in Albany, Gov. Kathy Hochul delivered more than just a financial plan. She gave the state a refreshing dose of fiscal honesty. “The truth is,” Hochul said, “we can’t spend like there’s no tomorrow, becaus Read More
The decline in union membership observed nationally appears to be occurring in New York as well. Read More
Arguably the biggest Medicaid news in Governor Hochul's budget presentation was about the current fiscal year, not the next one: The state-run health plan is running substantially over budget. Read More
New York's post-pandemic employment recovery stalled in the final quarter of 2023, with the state ending the year still 76,400 private jobs below its February 2020 level. Read More
New York’s constitutional framers explicitly rejected the governor making an in-person address to the Legislature—a custom akin to the speech from the throne of the monarchy. Read More
Upstate electricity customers today got what seemed like good news when Equinor pulled the plug on its Empire Wind 2 (EW2) offshore wind project, one of several being funded by New York customers as far away as Buffalo and Plattsburgh. The announcement however is mainly theater, because Equinor looks poised to squeeze even more money from ratepayers—in a manner that should have state lawmakers deeply concerned about how little control they’ve retained over state renewable energy spending. Read More
Long-delayed data showing outcomes from New York’s 2023 state assessment tests—taken by students in grades 3 to 8 in June—were finally released last week. It marks the second year in a row that state education officials have failed to release t Read More
New York's population decreased by 101,984 residents—the largest loss of any state—during the 12-month period that ended last July 1, according to The Empire State's population as of mid-2023 was pegged at 19,571,216, a cumulative decline of 631 Read More
Governor Hochul will soon sign or veto a bill designed to gut the ability of school superintendents, mayors and other local officials to discipline public employees. Read More
The state's health-care workforce is recovering unevenly from the pandemic, with persistently lower employment levels in some areas and robust growth in others. This mixed patt Read More
A declaring "no statistically significant evidence of tax migration in New York" and finding "high earners’ migration rates returned to pre-Covid levels" during 2022 has a glaring problem: It relies heavily on an almost microscopic sample size of Read More