Research

Staff salaries are the dominant category of spending in public school budgets across the state. And the largest item within that category is teacher salaries, which consistently rank among the highest in the country. Read More

In what he calls a “bold agenda” for New York’s future, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has dusted off one of Albany’s creakiest bipartisan infrastructure fantasies: high-speed passenger rail service. Read More

In the face of New York's rapidly rising Medicaid spending, both the Cuomo administration and some of its critics have pointed to demographics as a driving factor. The state's population is aging, they have said, so long-term care costs should be expected to increase. There are two main reasons to doubt this narrative. Read More

Amid Albany’s Medicaid over-spending crisis, the state Health Department is reconfiguring a little-known portion of the deficit-ridden program in what looks like a scheme to squeeze union dues from roughly 110,000 Medicaid-subsidized in-home caregivers. Read More

A fact-check of the op-ed by state Budget Director Robert Mujica, defending the governor's Medicaid proposals, shows it to include exaggerated and misleading arguments. Read More

Wednesday's hearing on the governor's Medicaid budget gives lawmakers a chance to learn more from top officials about how the program developed its $4 billion deficit. Here are some suggested questions. Read More

A “prevailing wage” expansion in Governor Cuomo’s budget is riddled with carve-outs—and new discretionary power for the governor. Read More

An unusual clause in Governor Cuomo's Medicaid budget would trigger $2.5 billion in across-the-board cuts if the Legislature doesn't otherwise agree to a package of savings. Read More

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s response to the Empire State’s big Medicaid deficit, as laid out in his budget presentation on Tuesday, was a disappointing mix of delay, deflection and delegation. Read More

Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to further tilt New York’s public-sector collective bargaining landscape in favor of public employee unions—this time to pressure new employees to join. Read More

Governor Cuomo's response to New York's big Medicaid deficit, as laid out in his budget presentation on Tuesday, was a disappointing mix of delay, deflection and delegation. Read More

This year marks the 90th anniversary of New York State’s first Executive Budget, presented by Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1929. Constitutional amendments establishing the Executive Budget process had been approved by New York voters in November 1927, capping a more than decade-long bipartisan effort to bring order to what had been a shambolic and fiscally profligate legislative budget process. Read More