The Buffalo Chronicle
State Budget
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State reduced funding for public health in decade before pandemic
Sharp reductions in state funding for core public health functions over the past decade may have weakened New York’s defenses against the coronavirus pandemic, according to testimony delivered today by Bill Hammond,…
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For now, Cuomo is still managing the State budget process
BY E.J. McMahon With less than a month to go before the April 1 start of New York State’s 2022 fiscal year, Governor Cuomo has been politically wounded by the allegations of…
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Schumer announces $5.6B in statewide public transit funding included in FY 2021 bipartisan appropriations package
U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, today announced the inclusion of more than $5.6 billion for public transportation agencies across New York…
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Amid Cuomo’s fulminations, New York’s budget gap keeps shrinking
BY E.J. McMAHON State tax receipts in the month of December came in $1.4 billion above the latest projection by Governor Cuomo’s Division of the Budget (DOB), according to a cash report…
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Seeking bigger federal handout, Cuomo proposes record budget
BY E.J. McMAHON Somewhere within that vast fog bank of a FY 2022 Executive Budget that Governor Cuomo began to roll out today is a structural budget gap, opened during the pandemic recession and…
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Pending pharmacy ‘carve-out’ could increase Medicaid costs rather than controlling them
BY BILL HAMMOND A pending change to New York’s Medicaid program known as the pharmacy “carve-out” is drawing opposition from a range of interests, including insurers, AIDS clinics and the health-care labor…
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State tax receipts strong again in November, but jobs recovery remains slow
BY E.J. McMAHON New York State’s tax receipts in November were a whopping $800 million above Governor Andrew Cuomo’s projections for the month—further evidence that the current-year budget gap is probably much…
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Report: Lift union contracts’ shroud of secrecy
Public officials are negotiating with unions in secret and ratifying far-reaching contracts without adequate public input, The Empire Center today warned in a new report, Dealing In The Dark: NY’s Secretive Government…
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New York’s jobs recovery chugged to a near-halt in October
BY E.J. McMAHON After rising sharply once the economy began to reopen, New York’s jobs recovery ominously appeared to run out of steam in October, according to the state’s monthly jobs report.…
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With State officials’ freeze through 2023, more reason to ice all government pay
BY CAM MacDONALD In light of the state government’s “extremely precarious financial position,” New York’s state lawmakers, judges, statewide elected officials and certain gubernatorial appointees should not receive pay raises in the…
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New Yorkers’ personal income growth rebounded a bit in 2019
BY E.J. McMAHON After a weak 2018, personal income growth matched or exceeded national averages in most parts of New York State in 2019, according to the latest estimates from the federal Commerce Department’s Bureau…
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Fewer workers, not more jobs, explains New York’s September unemployment rate drop
BY E.J. McMAHON New York State’s unemployment rate has fallen sharply since the economically devastating pandemic lockdown last spring. But as state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli points out in his latest economic report,…
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With hopes dashed for “Blue Wave” bailout, Cuomo needs to deal with budget shortfall
BY E.J. McMAHON With the national election results still unclear, Governor Cuomo can no longer put off tough decisions on how to balance New York’s pandemic-ravaged state budget. Believing most national polls,…
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DiNapoli predicts $3.8 billion more in State tax receipts
BY E.J. McMAHON New York State’s tax receipts in the current fiscal year will exceed Governor Cuomo’s latest projections by $3.8 billion—still down from last year, but a big improvement over the…
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What unemployment benefits are in House Democrats’ latest coronavirus relief bill?
BY MATT WEIDINGER Late Monday, House Democrats released an updated version of the “Heroes Act,” the massive $3.4 trillion coronavirus relief bill that passed the House mostly along partisan lines in May but has languished since…
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Top construction official’s charges are an indictment of Cuomo’s policies
BY KEN GIRARDIN Yesterday’s indictment of New York’s top construction union official on federal corruption charges raises a big question: if private companies are paying bribes to avoid having to work with certain construction…
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FDNY adds more $200K pensions as new career retirees average $140K
More than three-quarters of last year’s retirees from the City of New York’s Fire Department (FDNY) were eligible for six-figure pensions, with 40 of them eligible for pensions over $200,000 according to…
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State forces school districts to give raises—and layoffs
BY KEN GIRARDIN Months of bad decisions and inaction by New York state officials have put school districts in the awkward position of having to give pay raises to most teachers while…
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Even after aid cut, New York will spend most on education
BY IAN KINGSBURY Governor Andrew Cuomo is withholding 20 percent of state school aid allocations pending federal bailout negotiations. The decision has been met with alarm and objection from district leaders and New York teachers unions.…
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Cops dominate latest list of six-figure pensions
Most of the newest retirees eligible for pensions over $100,000 from the New York State and Local Retirement System were retired police officers, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website.…
