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City Comptroller John Liu was asked at a Crain's NY Breakfast last week whether he would favor shifting future municipal employees from a defined-benefit pension system to a 401(k)-style defined-contribution system. His reply, according to Crain's Insider... Read More

... this week, but what the state did with the money it reaped during the bubble(s). Factoids: Between 1993, the year (roughly) before the tech boom started, and 2007, the last year of the credit bubble, New York State personal-income tax collections... Read More

Unions not surprisingly don't like salary freezes, which are increasingly popular with elected officials as the New York state, its municipalities and school districts struggle with red ink. Freezing wages, union officials argue, violates... Read More

Saying "the state has run out of money," Governor David Paterson is withholding scheduled 4 percent raises for 137,500 state employees until the Legislature enacts a state budget that closes a $9 billion budget gap. Judging from budget developments, state workers may have to wait.. Read More

Patrick M. Regan, a political science professor at Binghamton University, says his union--United University Professions--should agree to forgo 4 percent pay raises in July. In a op-ed in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, Regan writes... Read More

Would the "comprehensive reforms" unveiled today by the state Senate's Majority Democrats "fix the state’s broken budget process and give New Yorkers a fiscally responsible budget," as they claim? Of course not. There are, however, some good ideas... Read More

Support for some kind of wage freeze (state, local, school district or all public employees) is growing as shown by newspaper editorials in recent weeks (here) and (here). In the past few days, additional editorials weighing in on the topic... Read More

Unless there's surprise development, state workers will get pay checks in mid-April that are fattened with 4 percent salary increases--despite Governor Paterson's call for shared sacrifice. As Daily News columnist Bill Hammond writes () Read More

The l in today's New York Times profiles the 10 highest-earning hedge fund managers.  A quick Google search indicates that only three of the firms run by these superstars -- Soros Fund Management, Paulson & Co., and Harbinger Capital Pa Read More

As its 2009-10 fiscal year draws to a close, New York is on track to collect roughly $500 million less than originally projected from last year's temporary "millionaire tax," which raised the marginal income tax rate by up to 31 percent on taxpayers Read More