Running for a fourth term in 1994, Gov. Mario Cuomo sat on a mid-year budget report that would have called attention to a growing hole in the state budget. It was only after losing the election that Cuomo released the report -- and George Pataki discovered he was inheriting a budget gap of at least $4 billion. Read More
Crucial details of New York's $113 billion state budget are negotiated in secret and shrouded in darkness. But this year's gubernatorial campaign is providing real hope for change in Albany. Both major-party candidates, Republican John Faso and Democrat Eliot Spitzer, appear committed to boosting the fiscal transparency and accountability of state government. Read More
Two years ago, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School made headlines with a report thoroughly documenting the "dysfunction" of New York's state Legislature. While the Brennan Center is decidedly left-of-center on many public policy issues, its dissection of Albany's legislative process reached conclusions that cut across ideological and partisan lines. Read More
With the election of New York's governor just seven weeks away, Democrat Eliot Spitzer and Republican John Faso have released plans to reform Medicaid and rein in its soaring costs. But given their timid suggestions, New Yorkers should hardly expect any significant drop in Medicaid's skyrocketing budget or savings from lower property taxes. Read More
Natural disasters and economic crises can often bring out the best in people. But they also have a way of bringing out the worst in politicians as typified by the way some New York state legislators have reacted to the latest series of increases gasoline prices. Read More
From the perspective of Labor Day 2006, employment and wage trends in New York since the beginning of this decade could be described as a tale of two sectors: private and public. Read More
Employment and wage trends in New York State since the beginning of this decade could be described as a tale of two sectors: public and private. Read More
The recent enactment of sweeping changes in federal laws governing private pension plans, the issuance of a scathing auditors' report on the collapse of San Diego's pension fund, and the disclosure of potential shortfalls in New York City's pension funds all point to what should be the nation's next big target for financial reform. Read More
New York’s state and local governments provide their retired employees with continuing health insurance coverage on the same basis as active workers, at benefit levels far more generous than those available to taxpayers employed in the private sector. Read More
Sometime soon, the Census Bureau is expected to announce that the nation's population has surpassed 300 million people. Read More
In Mario Cuomo's last year as governor, New Yorkers' combined state and local tax burden was 13.7 percent of their income—fully 3.2 percentage points above the national average, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. As of 2005, the Tax Foundation estimates, the Empire State's combined tax burden is down to 12 percent—1.9 percentage points above the national average. Read More
New York City's current budget is an object lesson in why too much money is just as serious a problem as too little. New York ended the last fiscal year with $3.8 billion more than it expected to spend. . . but while taxpayers historically have borne tax-rate hikes to fund the city's predictable cyclical deficits, they will not see tax cuts due to the current record surplus, unless Mayor Bloomberg takes advantage of this temporary boom time. . . Read More