Research

Many state and local governments throughout the country - led by both Democrats and Republicans - have found that opening more public services to private competition can produce significant cost savings and quality improvements. Read More

The State Legislature appears close to passing a significant change in the law governing how the comptroller invests New York’s $120 billion Common Retirement Fund for state and local employees. But the bill has potentially far-reaching implications that deserve more careful consideration—and a public hearing. Read More

If there's one thing on which virtually everyone in Albany agrees, it's the need to expand the availability of health insurance to the roughly 3 million New York state residents who lack it. Read More

Listening to Michael Bloomberg present the fourth budget of his mayoralty yesterday was like listening to a man having an argument with himself. The former CEO in the mayor's office made a strong case for doing more - much more - to downsize the city's exceedingly vast array of costly public services. Read More

After tweaking a few of their house rules and adopting a state budget on time for the first time in 20 years, many New York State legislators would have you believe they've fixed all or most of what's broken in Albany. Read More

The former U.S. senator from Nebraska moved to New York in 2001 to become president of the New School University. A Democrat, Kerrey reportedly was planning to endorse the reelection bid of the city's nominally Republican mayor, Michael Bloomberg. Read More

With little advance notice or fanfare, a constitutional amendment (S.1) that would give the Legislature much more power to shape the state budget was reported out of the Senate Finance Committee today. The Assembly version (A.2) was approved back in February, so the measure is now a big step closer to a statewide voter referendum. Read More

Federal income tax cuts enacted during the past four years have been particularly benefcial to New York, saving Empire State residents a total of $36 billion through 2004. However, as documented in this report, New Yorkers are also being hit harder than most Americans by what’s been called “the most serious problem faced by federal taxpayers” — the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Read More

With or without Gov. Pataki's cooperation, state legislators are expected to finish passing a series of budget bills before the new fiscal year begins Thursday. Read More

High state and local taxes are widely recognized as a significant obstacle to stronger economic growth, especially for Upstate communities whose natural competitors are lower-cost regions of the Midwest and Southeast. Read More

Once the Legislature adopted a "temporary" personal-income-tax increase in 2003, it was only a matter of time before someone in Albany moved to make the tax hike permanent. Read More

Approaching what could turn out to be yet another stalemate with the Legislature, Governor Pataki says the last four years have been "the worst ... since the Great Depression" for New York State's finances. Read More