It's official: after a decade in which the New York State pension fund's annual return on assets averaged less than half its target rate, the fund will need to jack up its taxpayer-funded contribution rates next year, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced today. Read More
Don't look now, but the feds are dropping more cash from helicopters -- and the Empire State is already grabbing a big handful. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius announced yesterday that 2,000 employers throughout the country had applied for a piece... Read More
Is New York state ungovernable? Back in April, Gov. David Paterson seemed to think so. Confounded by the Legislature’s paralysis in the face of a deepening fiscal crisis, the lame-duck governor complained to the Wall Street Journal that New York lacked “a structure that empowers a single leader to get his or her state out of a major conflict.“ Read More
The names and salaries of 186,223 people who worked for New York’s county, city, town and village governments in 2009-10 are available at www.SeeThroughNY.net Read More
In 2008, Barrett was paid a total of $1,500 to speak at two separate events in West Virginia, the money coming from federal grants. He was paid a total of $2,850 by the Schenectady school system for four appearances, while also collecting... Read More
Last month, the state-run MTA said that it might raise the price of a 30-day subway and bus pass from today's $89 to $104 -- a pretty hefty 17 percent increase. That's still the case in the MTA's latest on-line literature about fare hearings, too. Read More
New York's state comptroller reportedly is going to reduce the state pension fund's discount rate from 8 percent to between 7.5 percent and 7.75 percent, Bloomberg News just reported. The lower the discount rate, the higher the required tax-funded... Read More
New York's state budget gap for 2011-12 -- the first year of the next gubernatorial administration -- is now projected at nearly $8.2 billion, according to the 2010-11 Enacted Budget Report released today by Governor Paterson's Division of the Budget (DOB). Read More
It's not clear whether the Japanese scandal was caused by pension fraud, faulty government bookkeeping or "disintegrating family ties," reports the New York Times. Read More
New York governors have the power they need to control spending. Is New York State ungovernable? Back in April, David Paterson seemed to think so. Read More
InvestmentNews says that more residents of high-tax states, mindful of looming federal tax hikes as well as higher state taxes, are moving south. As Ernst & Young tax partner Greg Rosica tells author Hilary Johnson: We haven't had a situation like... Read More
Just when it looked like New York’s free-spending public schools were about to do some serious belt-tightening, along comes the US Senate this week to clear the way for another $26 billion “stimulus” dose, including $600 million for K-12 education in the Empire State. Read More