Some awful ideas just keep turning up. Take, for example, the old state and city stock transfer tax. The last vestiges of the tax were effectively phased out in 1981, although technically survives due to a weird tax law quirk whose repeal has b Read More
Comptroller Bill Thompson just released a quarterly staff with some good economic and fiscal data for New York City. Personal income tax withheld were down 7.2 percent in the third quarter (which ended in September) relative to the Read More
held a good debate last night on whether or not President Obama's economic policies are working. The participants -- three for the president's policies, three against -- focused a big part of their discussion on what the White House has done about Read More
Just how ephemeral is Wall Street's "recovery"? State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli notes in today's that securities firms' profits are reaching record highs, because "the sharp decline in interest expenses (to $5 billion in the second quarter of 2 Read More
The market value of assets in New York State's Common Retirement System increased by 18.3 percent during the first half of the 2009-10 fiscal year, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced today. That brings the total fund value to $126 billion — Read More
"Wall Street Recovering Faster Than Anticipated" is the headline on today's press release from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office, heralding a that points to potential record-breaking profitability and lower-than-expected employment losses a Read More
Senate Democrats are "secretly considering" up to $1 billion in "new taxes on medical services" as an alternative to health care spending cuts in Governor Paterson's deficit reduction plan, according to in today's New York Post. Such a t Read More
Four days after proposing to slash the salaries of 350 Harrison town employees by 20 percent, Supervisor Joan Walsh was re-elected supervisor by voters in the affluent Westchester County suburb. With the town facing a budget gap between $3.3 milli Read More
Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a major settlement with J.P. Morgan Securities concerning the fascinating municipal-corruption case of Jefferson County, Alabama. Under the deal, J.P. Morgan, which doesn't admit or deny any Read More
LAST week, Gov. Paterson activated New York’s “health-emergency preparedness plan,” as a prudent precautionary measure to deal with a potential swine-flu epidemic. Read More
In their weekly outlook, Municipal Market Advisors (MMA) tries to dampen the hysteria over a "coming municipal market collapse," saying that although "state and local credit quality is undeniably getting worse," we're unlikely to see mass-scale muni Read More
In today's Post, E.J. Gov. Paterson, Lt. Gov. Ravitch, and the state legislature to "freeze wages now," observing that "[f]or the first time in nearly 20 years, New York state is running short of cash to pay its bills." The $2 billion in Read More