Michael Bloomberg has never been shy about telling us how he wants to be remembered. His fondest wish, he has said, is that historians will credit him with turning around the city’s public school system.
Perhaps they will. At the moment, however, it seems more likely that Mr. Bloomberg will be remembered for keeping the city’s treasury on an even keel during two tumultuous economic downturns. It has been a masterful, even historic, performance. Read More
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli hasn’t delivered much in the way of good news since taking over from Alan Hevesi, who resigned in disgrace in 2006. But the other day, the man who keeps the state’s books and watches over its pension funds had reason for a slight smile. New York, he announced, collected some $800 Read More
For years, decades even, New York has been dithering about an impending budget catastrophe: the ever-escalating cost of offering gold-plated and utterly outdated pension benefits to public employees. Everybody knew something had to be done. There were some brave attempts to create a fix here and there, but unions made it clear that they would Read More
Mayor Mike Bloomberg made his annual Blue Room budget presentation for the New York City press corps this afternoon and took aim at officials in Albany and Washington who he said are taking money from the city’s coffers.
“We are in better shape than most cities for two prime reasons: we’ve made smart investments in Read More
New York City’s only Repubilcan congressman, freshman Michael Grimm, got a mixed reaction from the crowd in Brooklyn last night, thanks to his vote in favor of the Republican budget plan that severely cut back spending on social programs like Medicaid and Medicare.
“Get it all out Get it all out,” Read More
New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, an advocacy group dedicated to mitigating some of the harshest cuts in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget, is out today with a radio ad targeting the governor and lawmakers over the millionaire’s tax.
The ad, which is set to air in New York City and the state’s major metropolitan regions, ties Read More
Andrew Cuomo, who has taken his budget barnstorming around the state, makes the case to New Yorkers who couldn’t make it to Rochester or Hempstead or Binghamton with a video delivered from the Red Room, which he calls the most beautiful room in the entire state Capitol.
Cuomo tries to pin the prospect of a Read More
Mayor Bloomberg released his preliminary budget today which aims to close a $4.58 billion deficit without increasing taxes.
Bloomberg’s budget outlines a plan to soften the worst of the blows suffered from state funding cuts to education and city services. The plan increases education funding to compensate for some of the loss while relying on Read More
New York lawmakers Peter King and Nita Lowey sent a letter to President Obama today imploring him to meet New York’s financial needs for homeland security in his proposed budget for the fiscal year 2012.
Peter King serves as the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Lowey is the only New Yorker on Read More
In their ideological zeal, the new Republicans on Capitol Hill seem eager to gamble everything — the financial reputation of the United States, the international status of the dollar, even the chance of a worldwide depression — on a showdown over the national debt ceiling. What has been mostly a routine if unpleasant debate in Read More
