Testimony

I want to begin today by commending the state Senate for its passage last month of Governor Cuomo’s property tax cap bill. In years to come, the Jan. 31 vote may be seen as a turning point, a historic first step towards lasting relief for New York’s taxpayers. Read More

Governor Cuomo’s 2011-12 Executive Budget does not call for any significant state tax increases. The thrust of my testimony today is that the Legislature should not attempt to add tax increases to this budget—and should start actively working on a more competitive and growth-oriented tax policy for the future. Read More

Promoting better transparency and accountability in government is one of the Empire Center’s major, ongoing priorities. Read More

Let me begin by reminding everyone that the 2009-10 state budget included tax and fee increases that were initially valued at $6.1 billion, or 7.4 percent of total state fund revenues. This was the largest tax and fee increase in New York State’s history. Read More

New York’s 80-year-old Executive Budget law, rooted in Article VII of the state Constitution, has stood the test of time in many respects. But some glaring holes in the law have become more and more evident over the past couple of decades. As a result, the severity of New York State’s latest fiscal crisis has been compounded by a lack of budgetary discipline, transparency and accountability. Read More

As a former journalist and now as analyst for the Empire Center for Public Policy, I am pleased the Senate is considering a package of bills to expand the Freedom of Information Law and the Open Meeting Law. Read More

First, this economic and fiscal crisis is not just another cyclical downturn. What we have witnessed over the past year is the end of an era. Read More

Before the Senate Temporary Committee on Rules Reform Thank you for inviting me to share my thoughts about government transparency and accountability. For years, the long-standing joke in Albany was if you want to know what’s Read More

E.J. McMahon testified before the Senate Temporary Committee on Rules Reform. Read More

Delivered to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee Read More

E.J. McMahon testified before the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees. Read More

Economic conditions have obvious implications for the work of this Committee and for the Legislature in general. We are in the midst of a potentially severe and long-lasting global recession. But for New York State, the recession is only part of the problem. Fueled by the super-heated profits of the securities industry, mixed with gains from a now-popped real estate bubble, the surge in state tax revenues over the past five years was as big as anything New York has experienced during any previous five-year stretch in the last 35 years. Read More