A federal appeals court has ruled that nonmembers of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) cannot be required to pay for the union's efforts to organize private-sector employees. The decision, if upheld on appeal, is a setback in a campaign... Read More
A small school district in Westchester County is examining whether it can afford to educate 17 children of its employees who reside outside the district. Like many school districts in New York, the North Salem Central School District allows its nonresident... Read More
Governor Paterson has dropped a proposal to impose New York State's personal income tax on the interest income of non-resident hedge fund managers from his latest preferred list of revenue-raisers to help pay for the 2010-11 budget appropriations... Read More
Retired police officers who hope to collect a pension while working as a local police chief are facing new obstacles to double dipping. A 2008 state law has imposed a more stringent review process before any state retiree is granted a waiver allowing him... Read More
Baruch's E.S. Savas has a good piece in today's Post on introducing competitive contracting to the New York City and downstate public-bus system. As the MTA cuts routes, the state, the MTA, the city, or some combination thereof should bundle the... Read More
Discovering that government employees work extra overtime to spike their pensions is akin to learning there's gambling in Casablanca. Read More
Last week, FW wrote about sinking investment-side bank profits and their implications for New York tax revenues. Today comes another hint of bad news: as the Journal reports today (page B1), luxury retail sales have been falling again, down 3.9 percent.. Read More
In today's New York Times piece on how Con Ed has worked to keep the lights on, Queens Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris said of the New York City electricity provider that "the company had still not pumped enough money into modernizing its infrastructure." Read More
While many private-sector employees might hope for two weeks notice before being laid off, state workers would get two months notice under a bill passed by the state Senate and on the third reading in the Assembly. (Update below.) Currently, state workers get... Read More
After weeks of tumult and parliamentary maneuvering—including Gov. David Paterson's threat of a government shutdown that would bring "unimaginable chaos" and "anarchy in the streets"—New York finally has a state budget for the fiscal year that began April 1. Read More
As the Wall Street Journal reports in its quarterly review today (subscription required), investment and universal banks' securities underwriting activity over the past three months has fallen to levels not seen since the last few months of 2008. Read More
Did Gov. Paterson skillfully maneuver New York’s Legislature into adopting a tighter and more timely state budget than it was capable of producing on its own? Read More