States are finding it more difficult to accurately predict their revenues--and "the biggest culprit" is an increasing reliance on personal income taxes, according to a new report from the Pew Center on the States and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute... Read More
A broad, tight cap on local property taxes is a central element of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s agenda for making New York State more affordable and competitive. The governor’s tax cap has passed in the state Senate with strong bipartisan support. Its fate will ultimately be decided in the state Assembly. Read More
Gov. Cuomo's proposed 2 percent property tax cap could only be overridden by a super-majority of more than 60 percent of school district voters. Would this pose an insurmountable obstacle to supporters of higher taxes, starving schools of desperately needed funding? Cap opponents such as New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) imply as much, asserting in recent Senate testimony that the 60 percent override threshold... Read More
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s broad challenge to government unions won’t be replicated in New York state anytime soon. Read More
In today's Times, Mayor Bloomberg says that state governments don't need to curtail bargaining rights for public workers' unions. Instead, states just need to bargain better -- and give localities the authority to bargain better, too -- to protect the... Read More
A $100 million expansion of the the state's Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) surcharge is among the latest additions to a list of (so far) several hundred "redesign proposals" under consideration by Governor Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team. The proposal... Read More
The Tax Foundation is out with a new report today, which found that nationally the combined state and local tax burden... Read More
New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) has produced a new TV commercial blaming proposed state budget cuts on "tax breaks for millionaires." In fact, the proposed 2011-12 state budget includes $3.8 billion in projected revenue from the third and final year... Read More
New York's public-sector unions love to bash Wall Street, demanding punitive new taxes on investment banks as the solution to every fiscal problem. In fact, the financial sector "oligarchy" and the "new Tammany Hall" of the public-sector labor movement... Read More
The news out of China about its high-speed rail network shows that cost and time overruns aren't the worst things to happen on big transit and transportation projects. As the Times reports in a piece on China's firing of its railways minister, possibly... Read More
Retail health clinics could play an important role in expanding access to health care in New York State, according to a new study by the Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress. But first, the state needs to break down its existing regulatory... Read More
Beginning in 2014, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in March 2010, is expected to significantly extend health-insurance coverage in New York by increasing Medicaid enrollment and offering federal subsidies for the purchase of private health insurance. However, there is no guarantee that the newly insured will be able to access the health-care system in a timely fashion as new demand for services outstrips physician supply. Read More