How big are the fiscal challenges faced by New York State in second half of its 2019 fiscal year? Are tax receipts and spending living up with projections? What's the outlook for the next few years? We don't know—because, for an eighth consecutive year, Governor Andrew Cuomo has missed the statutory deadline for producing a Mid-Year Financial Plan Update. Read More
Seven years after its enactment, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s cap on property tax levies continues to be a target of unfounded criticism by some politicians and candidates who either don’t understand the cap or deliberately misrepresent how it works. Read More
In a replay of the notorious Pataki-Rivera deal of 2002, the Cuomo administration has quietly ordered a multi-billion-dollar Medicaid rate increase to hospitals and nursing homes, with the money earmarked to boost employee pay and benefits. Read More
In the heat of close-fought elections that could give them a state Senate majority for the first time in 10 years, Democrats have been sending mixed signals on single-payer health care. Read More
Compare the taxes, spending and debt of local governments across New York State. Read More
In a press conference at Albany Medical Center on Monday, Senator Chuck Schumer deplored what he called a "dramatic cut to upstate New York hospitals," which he claimed would force layoffs and threaten "critical care services such as cancer treatment, addiction treatment and prescription drug access." The senator's depiction of a complex policy change was alarmist and misleading. Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s effort to campaign for re-election as a master builder of new infrastructure has been undermined by headlines about New York City’s crumbling subway system. Meanwhile, much less public and political attention is being paid to his management of another major transportation asset: the New York state highway system. Read More
Four months after the Janus decision, tens of thousands of New Yorkers are taking home bigger paychecks thanks to the end of forced union fees, having saved about $30 million in the last three months. The ruling brought New York unions in li Read More
There has been a sharp and growing economic divide between upstate and downstate. Read More
At stake is not only the quality of care for 20 million New Yorkers, but also the fate of a fifth of the economy and the livelihoods of 1.2 million health workers. Read More
The highest earning one percent of New York City residents generated 43 percent of city income taxes and 51 percent of the New York State income taxes collected from individuals living in the city as of 2016, according to newly released data from the Independent Budget Office (IBO). The IBO's latest tax liability estimates highlight once again New York's heavy dependence on the top 1 percent, for which the income cut point as of 2016 was $713,706. Read More
Unearthed videos of 1982 Cuomo-Lehrman debates: An example of how much (and, in some ways, how little) has changed in NY politics over the intervening decades. Read More