State Senate Finance Chair Carl Kruger is no fan of State Senator Liz Kreuger’s suggestion that that Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch, long a straight-shooting public-finance wonk, should lead budget negotiations, instead of Governor David Paterson.
(Josh Robin of NY1 reported that State Comptroller Thomas DiNapolli also thinks Ravitch should take a Read More
Perhaps the state should start adopting some more conservative budget projections.
A little more than two weeks after the governor unveiled his 2010-2011 budget, he’s already announced a big revision: the deficit is actually $8.2 billion, or $750 million larger than he initially thought.
The main reason for the adjustment, according to the Paterson administration: Read More
Michael Bloomberg was in Albany this morning, testifying personally in a plea for more money from the state than was proposed in David Paterson’s executive budget last week.
This is an annual game, at least in years when there are budget reductions. There are $1.3 billion in cuts according to the city’s count, which puts Read More
ALBANY—David Paterson said there are rumors of another millionaires’ tax out there.
“I thought there would be some modification, but I heard a rumor yesterday that some of my colleagues are talking about another millionaires’ tax, and that would demonstrate, I would say, a completely addictive personality,” Paterson told John Gambling on WOR. Read More
ALBANY—John Sampson thinks, not unreasonably, that the State Senate needs a new look.
“We need to come out of the box in January and start to really pass some progressive and positive legislation because people have one characterization of us,” Sampson, the leader of the chamber’s Democratic conference, told reporters during an informal chat in Read More
ALBANY—If you want to read the 2010 state budget, you’ll have to do it online.
The Budget Division just announced that it will not be printing the state’s spending plan when it is unveiled next month. This is a break from tradition–the above photo shows budget books dating back to days before the Read More
ALBANY—David Paterson just held a press conference to attack education groups who are suing him, saying the “special interests” have joined legislators who “stuck their heads in the sand.”
“What these groups have said is, ‘We’re not special interests, we’re extra special,’” Paterson said in the Red Room. “We’re supposed to get all of Read More
ALBANY—As threatened, a coalition of education groups announced on the (cold!) Capitol steps they have sued David Paterson, saying his decision to stall education payments (which were to be sent Tuesday) is unconstitutional.
The suit says that Educational Law requires the governor to make payments on a fixed schedule, that Read More
ALBANY—David Paterson said he will reverse one of the worst aspects of the M.T.A.’s just-adopted “oh-crap-we-have-no-money” budget: the elimination of free Metrocards for students.
“Had we established the tolls, the M.T.A. would not be in the difficult financial situation right now causing the M.T.A. to take some very drastic actions, one that Read More
ALBANY—Don’t like those school cuts? Blame your legislator.
“The legislature, had they passed the wealth-based plan that I initiated, we wouldn’t be here. The fact is they didn’t do anything. The only thing they did was take $391 million of stimulus money from next year and used it to fill the gap in 2009,” Read More
