Attorney General Andrew Cuomo handed down an indictment yesterday against former political consultant Hank Morris and former pension-fund chief investment officer David Loglisci. Both men, Cuomo alleges, were involved in a Hevesi-era state pension fu Read More
Supporters of a massive increase in New York State’s marginal income tax rates are crowing over an in today’s New York Times, headlined “Taxes Not Seen as Making the Rich Flee New York.” The article (in which I’m quoted) focuses Read More
Famous pretend insurance company AIG, responding to popular demand, has released a list of its major structured-finance counterparties -- that is, those banks, municipalities and the like that stood to lose the most if AIG had gone under without mass Read More
The financial meltdown will have enormous consequences for taxpayers across the country -- but nowhere more so than in New York. That's because the Empire State has become excessively dependent on tax revenues generated by a Wall Street that no longer exists. Read More
A friend in Washington, D.C., passes along . Sneak preview: you can't fit it in a suitcase. Read More
GOV. Paterson and state legis lative leaders announced yesterday that they've agreed to use most of New York's unfettered federal stimulus money to restore spending to the governor's budget and to avoid any further spending cuts. Read More
Governor Paterson and state legislative leaders announced today that they've agreed to use most of New York's unfettered federal stimulus money to restore spending to the governor's budget and to avoid any further spending cuts. The result will be Read More
March isn't half over yet -- but we already have a winner! Even with the state budget unsettled (with all that implies, bad ideas-wise), the worst idea of the month is surely a proposal by state Sen. Carl Kruger for avoiding East River bridge tolls Read More
Advocates of a continue to attempt to mislead the public about who pays how much of the current state income tax. Read More
Fitch Ratings just released its survey of big investors' views of the future of various debt markets "going forward." Of the insurance companies, pension and hedge funds, and other asset managers that responded, 12 percent said that the tax-exempt m Read More
Before Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith stalled the plan yesterday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had come up with a compromise idea to raise new money for the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority: charge a $2 toll for drivers to cro Read More
Last week, Gov. Paterson wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner asking for a two-pronged federal bailout of the municipal bond market. "The current financial crisis has severely hurt the ability of local governments to borrow," Paterson wr Read More