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Blog
Transportation
Three Takeaways from the MTA's Financial Plan
July 2018 Update
August 13, 2018
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) released its 2019 Preliminary Budget and four-year financial plan last month. Here are three important takeaways.
Blog
Transportation
How Will The MTA Fight Its Four-Alarm Fire?
July 13, 2020
Federal aid should be a significant contributor to solving this crisis. Yet, even if the MTA receives all the aid it has requested, its leaders face hard choices about how to manage the resources they control.
Testimony
Transportation
Impact of COVID-19 on the MTA and Public Transportation
Testimony to the New York State Senate and Assembly
August 25, 2020
The MTA shouldmake the hard choices that will be necessary to reduce spending and keep the system operating.
Blog
Transportation
How Much Do City Taxpayers Really Contribute to the MTA?
February 21, 2020
City taxpayers pay 71% on MTA non-toll, non-federal revenues.
Blog
Transportation
The MTA’s Preliminary 2017 Budget: Good News Now, But Risks Down the Track
September 27, 2016
Reviews the MTA's preliminary 2017 budget and points to risks, including expiring labor contracts and looming OPEB liabilities.
Blog
State Budget
The Rational Funding Plan for SUNY and CUNY Should Be Extended
March 21, 2016
Why reauthorizing a rational funding plan for the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY) to raise tuition makes sense.
Blog
Transportation
Tsk-tsk on Governor’s TIF Proposal
February 02, 2018
The FY 2019 Executive Budget proposed to allow the MTA to create tax increment financing districts in NYC to raise revenue for capital improvements. Though TIFs can play a useful role, the proposal is flawed.
Blog
Public Workforce
TWU Contract
Productivity Not a Done Deal
February 18, 2020
The agreements should include greater savings, including workrule changes, to offset the impact of these increased costs.
Blog
State Budget
5 Proposals that Should be Left Out of the FY21 Enacted Budget
March 29, 2020
New York State’s bleak fiscal outlook requires lawmakers pass a “bare bones” fiscal year 2021 budget that is focused on funding critical services and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blog
State Budget
6 Things to Look for in New York State’s Mid-Year Budget Update
October 30, 2016
What are the important things to look out for in The Mid-Year Update to the FY 2017 Financial Plan? Coveres revenue projections, economic development, collective bargaining, medicaid, minimum wage, and budget gaps.
Blog
State Budget
Don’t Get Too High on Potential Marijuana Revenues
December 13, 2018
There is significant revenue potential from the marijuana industry, but research suggests that many months or years of careful planning precede consistent revenues.
Blog
State Budget
2020 Vision
A Four-Pronged Approach to Focus on a Balanced, Transparent State Budget
January 09, 2020
As New York State aims to remedy the current year deficit and close next year’s budget gap, State leaders should be striving to prepare the State for the future.
Blog
State Budget
Twice as Much as Advertised
New York State Spending Growth
February 06, 2018
Spending growth in the NYS Fiscal Year 2019 Executive Budget will be 4.1 percent - more than twice what was claimed when the budget was released.
Blog
State Budget
The State Budget Cap Has Lost Its Meaning
May 29, 2018
Keeping with Albany tradition, the state's leaders adopted the budget on the final day of last fiscal year in the wee hours of the morning with little debate and no transparency, once again proclaiming the budget complies with a 2 percent growth cap.
Blog
State Budget
New York State Budget (Actually) Grows at 2 Percent, Assuming $2.5 Billion in Medicaid Savings Realized
February 20, 2020
Under 2? It's True! (This time.)
Blog
State Budget
New York Taxes: Layers of Liability
June 25, 2020
Any consideration of tax increases should include the impact on State and local economic competitiveness
Blog
State Budget
Flipping the Switch
Difficult Fiscal Decisions Compound as State Shifts from Spending Growth to Cuts
July 15, 2020
Flipping the switch from robust spending growth to spending cuts will require making significant hard choices to balance the budget and reduce future fiscal gaps.
Blog
City Budget
Federal Aid—Needed, But Unlikely to Solve New York State’s and New York City’s Fiscal Problems
A Look Back at Stimulus Funding During the Great Recession
December 01, 2020
Even with considerable additional federal aid the State and City still will have to implement significant actions.
Blog
Pensions & Benefits
2016 Benefit Sweetener Scorecard
May 02, 2016
The Citizens Budget Commission’s 2016 Benefit Sweetener Scorecard identifies more than 60 such bills active this session. These bills could cost the State and local governments hundreds of millions of dollars per year, and since about half the bills do not specify a fiscal impact, the potential costs could be significantly greater.
Blog
State Budget
Heading the Wrong Way on the Thruway
March 23, 2016
Governor Andrew Cuomo proposal to provide nearly $2.3 billion of State funds from bank settlements to subsidize the New York State Thruway Authority would reverse a long-standing practice of funding the Authority from toll revenue and would put New York taxpayers on a course for financing road and bridge infrastructure that makes little economic or fiscal sense.