Just because they can’t seem to agree on a state budget, don’t assume that New York lawmakers aren’t finding other ways to threaten the state’s economic future. Read More
Research
Voters in New York's suburban, rural and smaller city school districts approved 92 percent of proposed school budgets yesterday, according to the New York State School Boards Association. This is above the historical average approval rate of 83 percent... Read More
Layoffs of up to 10,000 state employees are "on the radar screen," according to the New York Post. Citing an unnamed Paterson administration official, the Post reports Governor Paterson has been told the "no layoffs" memorandum signed... Read More
A federal judge has temporarily blocked a one-day furlough of state workers until he can hear arguments in two weeks. In doing so, however, he also referred to a pay freeze upheld in Buffalo. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn also ruled... Read More
Governor David Paterson is proposing an early-retirement option for the state and its local governments that he says is “designed to achieve cost-savings for public employers and to avoid layoffs of public employees in this time of fiscal need.” Read More
Spiraling costs of employee benefits--as well as 4 percent pay raises--are squeezing the budgets of both New York State and New York City. According to the state Division of Budget (DOB), employee benefits (pensions, health insurance, federal payroll taxes... Read More
e21 has a good staff editorial up on the now-tragic Greek crisis, with possible implications for New York and California. The plan for Greece, of course, is for Europe and the IMF to bail out the debt-drenched nation's bondholders, by imposing austerity... Read More
When freezing salaries for public employees has been proposed, critics said it couldn't be done. But an analysis of court decisions shows that the state Legislature has the power to freeze the salaries of all state, local and school district employees... Read More
President Obama is expected to unveil his national health-insurance plan in just a couple of months. But when it comes to expanding government-subsidized coverage, broke and recession-battered New York state has already gotten a jump on him. Read More
If lawmakers reject a separate bill furloughing 100,000 state workers for one day during the week of May 10, Governor David Paterson is prepared to package the measure as part of a budget extender bill, forcing legislators to risk shutting down state... Read More
Those “Empire gold” license plates now cropping up on cars and trucks around New York state aren’t the only retro look coming out of Albany these days. Read More
Salaries of school superintendents in the Buffalo region have outpaced inflation during the past decade, according to the Buffalo News (here). Pay for all but one school superintendent in Erie and Niagara counties outpaced inflation, in most cases... Read More