Research

The first quarter update to New York State's 2009-10 financial plan will be released by the Governor's sometime this week.   The plan is expected to reflect the potential for a significant deficit this year, and worsening budget shortfalls in the Read More

Earlier this week, Streetsblog had of a House bill that would allow regional transit agencies such as New York's MTA to spend up to 30 percent of their federal grants on operating costs. Under current law, federal money goes toward capital investm Read More

New York scores a mediocre number 36 on Based on 40 measures of competitiveness grouped into 10 categories, the Empire State ranked dead last in "Cost of Business" and "Workforce," the latter apparently weighted heavily by New York's high unionizatio Read More

In a debate yesterday, Brooklyn City Councilman David Yassky was the only one of four candidates for city comptroller to say that Albany should consider legislating a less generous pension tier for public-sector workers even without union support of Read More

Between fiscal years 2002 and 2007, New York City's tax revenues increased by 74 percent, to $37.8 billion (really, see ).* A new by Washington's Government Accountability Office (GAO) helps show why. Read More

The net flow of funds from New York State to Washington was a famous obsession of the late , who collaborated on an (nicknamed "The Fisc") to track the numbers.   Today, the federal government issued its annual accounting of one side of that ledge Read More

Gov. Paterson has a that would have weakened oversight power of the Buffalo Fiscal Stabilization Authority.   As the Buffalo News , this was the second legislative attempt in the past year to remove the city from "hard" control status, w Read More