Benchmarking NY uses data from the state comptroller’s office to calculate effective tax rates–combined county, municipal and school taxes as a percent of market value–for thousands of localities across the state during 2017, excluding only New York City and Nassau County. Read More
Research
Any plan to reduce or eliminate what local governments pay into New York’s Medicaid budget would inevitably create winners and losers. The Assembly Republicans’ version, unveiled last month, is no exception. Read More
New York's government unions collectively spent more on lobbying last year than the state's biggest trial lawyers, landlord, tobacco and hospital interests combined. And topping the list, as usual, was New York’s powerful conglomerate of public education unions. Read More
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard has spurred much less of the new renewable energy generation than promised. Read More
Nearly two-thirds of New York State’s tax receipts are now generated by the personal income tax, or PIT. As a result, the state is very heavily reliant on highest-earning 1 percent of New York taxpayers—whose effective income tax rates have increased sharply under the new federal tax law capping state and local tax (SALT) deductions. Read More
Cuomo has further boosted the state’s already heavy reliance on taxes paid by income millionaires. This has made Albany’s revenue base more fragile and volatile — a problem aggravated by the new federal cap on state and local tax deductions, which effectively raises total tax rates for New York’s highest earners. Read More
The interactive map on this page depicts how the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will affect New Yorkers in two different adjusted gross income (AGI) ranges: $75,000 to $100,000, and $100,000 to $200,000. Read More
This report explores recent trends in New York’s Medicaid drug spending, the forces behind them, and how they fit into the national context. Read More
Last week's New York state budget approval process was even more rushed, secretive, confused and sloppy than usual—stretching through Good Friday and the first night of Passover into the predawn hours of Saturday, March 31—all in the name of meeting an ultimately inconsequential April 1 "deadline" for the start of the new fiscal year. Read More
Now that the state budget is put to bed for another year, here is a non-comprehensive rundown of health care-related highlights and lowlights. Read More
The largest revenue-raiser in the just-completed state budget, worth $2 billion over four years, is not a tax or a fee or even a legal settlement. It takes the form of semi-voluntary “grants,” mostly to be squeezed out of a Catholic Church-affiliated health plan. Read More
Buried in the state budget bills rushing towards passage under cover of Passover, Good Friday evening and the coming Easter holiday is the top item on the New York government unions’ wish list—a provision designed to trap public employees into paying union dues. Read More