Tax-funded contributions to the New York State Employee Retirement System (ERS) will have to jump by 61 percent between 2010 and 2011, . Contributions for members of the Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS)--already higher to begin with--will r Read More
The New York Times has about city and state or "moderate-income housing." The head of New York State's Housing Finance Agency, Priscilla Almodovar, said one aspect of the plan will involve using the state's credit to guarantee mortgages fo Read More
DESPITE the improving national and regional economy, New York City's budget remains stuck in a hole. With operating expenses momentarily in check, the city's continuing fiscal imbalance stems mainly from big projected increases in the cost of Medicaid, debt service, employee health benefits - and, seemingly out of nowhere, pension contributions. Read More
Should physicians, who are licensed by the state of New York, be required to take a civil service exam in order to work for the state of New York? A state judge thinks so, but that's unlikely to be the last word on the controversy. Read More
Is Westchester County racially segregated? That’s the premise of the landmark legal settlement that, if approved by the Board of Legislators, will have the county build some 750 units of affordable housing in high-income areas. Read More
In a , the Washington Post reports that "the biggest" of the nation's too-big-to-fail "banks are even bigger" today, with three big banks alone owning more than 30 percent of the nation's deposits, and four big banks issuing "one of every t Read More
Oneida County employees participating in a proposed cash buyout program would have a strong incentive to get their co-workers to join them: their payments will increase if more employees participate. Read More
The chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority (similar to our SEC), Lord Turner, yesterday floated the idea of a global tax on financial transactions to shrink "a swollen financial sector," the FT . Turner admits that "the probl Read More
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has notified board members that the state-run authority has decided to petition a state judge to vacate state arbitrators' recent to the Transport Workers Union, which called for 11.3 percent raises Read More
Today's WSJ that "a stream of hedge-fund managers ... are quitting the U.K." as the nation levies a new tax rate of 51 percent on people earning more than $250,000 annually, starting next April. "We have reached a tipping point, in term Read More
Between the second quarter of last year and the same period this year, the ranks of New York City's unemployed nearly doubled, from 192,987 jobseekers to 361,390 jobseekers, the city comptroller . But unemployment among people who have a bachelor' Read More
The Post that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants to spend $20 million giving developers of unsold condos up to $50,000 a unit if they'll turn "market rate" homes in Harlem and Brooklyn into "affordable housing" homes. In one examp Read More