Governor Andrew Cuomo is urging youth to sign up for available jobs, basically hanging out a "help wanted" sign for the state's NY Youth Works and Summer Youth Programs. Read More
Research
New York politicians should heed the message of this week's Wisconsin recall election: You can defy the public-sector labor machine and live to tell the tale. Read More
Governor Andrew Cuomo is betting the house on Medicaid managed care ringing up estimated savings of $34 billion, to be split between New York and the federal government over the next five years. Read More
Publicly traded financial firms put out a lot of reports, and they're long. But you don't get to learn what really happens inside such companies until something's gone wrong. Read More
Reversing decades of precedent, all but one of the state's public pension funds are now refusing to release the names of hundreds of thousands of retired employees who collect billions of dollars a year in taxpayer-guaranteed pensions. Read More
The enactment of New York’s local property tax cap has touched off a valuable ongoing debate on the role of state mandates in pushing up county, municipal and school costs. However, while local officials can make a compelling case for repeal of mandates like the Triborough amendment, they shouldn’t be let off the hook when it comes to self-inflicted wounds. Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn't yet settled (or announced) a financing plan for the Tappan Zee Bridge reconstruction project. But Europe's recent experience highlights the perils of relying solely (or significantly) on ever-higher tolls. In Continental E Read More
The weekly City and State opens its feature on the minimum wage issue with a portrait of Michelle Dawkins, who rises at 2:30 a.m. to earn $7.25 an hour ferrying wheelchair-bound passengers among the terminals at JFK airport. Assuming she is able to work 40 hours a week without a sick day, Dawkins “will make $15,080 over the course of a year,” the article says. Read More
During New York's Tier 6 pension-reform fight earlier this year, public employee unions claimed Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wanted to "let Wall Street gamble" with pension money. Last week brought a reminder of who's really rolling the dice. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced that the pool of investments backing the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS), of which he is sole trustee, earned 5.96 percent during the fiscal year ended March 31. Read More
Public pension funds in New York and across the country are continuing to rely on overly optimistic assumptions about their future investment gains, as detailed in a major New York Times story yesterday. 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
New York State’s biggest public pension fund underperformed last year, returning 154 basis points less than the 7.5 percent return assumed in its actuarial calculations, which in turn ultimately drive taxpayer-funded pension contributions. Read More