COLONIE—Rick Lazio walked into the state Conservative Party's annual Political Action Conference yesterday just as the previous speaker was finishing up.
As Lazio was introduced by James Malone, an old friend from Long Island, the room began to fill, until there were no more empty seats and some attendees were left standing in the Read More
ALBANY—The budget-related narrative since David Paterson released his draft spending plan earlier this month has been dominated by new taxes and fees, funding cuts, and the prospect of more federal aid.
Selling state assets has flown below the radar. But a commission looking at the subject issued this preliminary report, without Read More
ALBANY—Now, David Paterson seems very much like a man looking to reach an accommodation with his liberal critics over the budget.
In a conference call with reporters, Paterson said, "If you listen to the opponents of this deficit, and you ask them, what's your proposal, they may talk about personal income taxes."
Of course, if Read More
ALBANY—Oh, now he's done it.
This was supposed to be a budget battle, over technical minutiae on Medicaid reimbursement streams and Wick's Law, to make all but the biggest government geek's eyes glaze over.
But there they were, right on pages 125 through 136 of a budget briefing binder: new taxes and fees on Read More
A quick trip into the counterfactual: Let’s say Mayor Michael Bloomberg meets Governor Eliot Spitzer in an Albany coffee shop. Discreet place, the kind where people keep to themselves and no one notices things they’re not supposed to.
Mr. Bloomberg persuades Mr. Spitzer to lean on the State Legislature to alter the property-tax structure of Read More
E.J. McMahon’s Empire Center for New York State Policy just tossed up on its Web site a lovely gift to political reporters and junkies: A complete list, obtained via FOIL request, of legislative pork, known in Albany as “member items.”
The list, the release notes, includes 83 Little League grants in 2005 alone. (And Read More
The Manhattan Institute released a pair of studies today, which illustrate a central weirdness about this election: the most coherent attacks on Mike come from the right, but conservatives don’t really have a candidate.
One piece, by Nicole Gelinas, takes on “The Limits of Pragmatism” and basically argues that New York needs a Read More
The folks over at the liberal Drum Major Institute seem to have enjoyed the Times’s story today on the Manhattan Institute‘s waning local influence, and add their own slap:
“Certainly the Manhattan Institute has sensed a political opportunity to stir up xenophobia in the absence of contributing to a meaningful conversation about Read More
We’re honestly not sure if Adriano Espaillat is joking here, but E.J. McMahon has turned up a bill from the Manhattan Assemblyman and Beep candidate that would set a minimum wage for stand-up comics.
From the sponsor’s memo:
“Often comedians in the New York City area are paid approximately $20,000 per year. Often Read More
Freddy’s stock transfer tax plan is sort of lying in tatters at the moment, the general sense being that it’s a totally unnecessary item with the side-effect of triggering the apocalypse.
We were always a bit confused by Freddy’s court order bit, but there’s a basic honesty to his plan: as the Sun has Read More
