Apr 12
2012
The Center for Working Families has issued a report detailing the vast sums the Bronx Bombers spent on lobbying and campaign contributions while they were pushing for subsidies to help build their billion dollar ballpark.
Apr 9
2012
NY Times: “The distress of the last four years has added a cautionary postscript … a program that built its reputation when times were good offered little help when jobs disappeared. Despite the worst economy in decades, the cash welfare rolls have barely budged.”
Apr 4
2012
At $79,500, New York legislators are the third-highest-paid state lawmakers in the nation. And then there’s the stipends and per diems they pay themselves. The Albany Times Union has the details.
Apr 3
2012
Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston outlines how to revise the tax code to stop subsidizing corporations and the super rich and get the economy back on its feet.
Apr 3
2012
Buffalo and Grand Island schools get a slice of pork, called ‘”bullet aid” in the new state budget. Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders insist there’s no pork in the budget, but $30 million is school aid is assigned in a manner very similar to member earmarks under previous administrations.
Mar 29
2012
Higgins would have to pull a Chris Lee to lose his job. Hochul would have to pull, well, a Hochul to keep hers.
Mar 29
2012
ProPublica investigation raises “the specter that groups may be working together in ways that violate the rules, campaign finance experts said. We also found instances in which overseers of some political action committees directed hefty fees to their own companies, a legal form of self-dealing.”
Mar 26
2012
Momentum grows for clipping wings of town IDAs that grant tax breaks other governments have to live with