New York City is heralding record tourist travel to New York for this year. But broken down by quarter (numbers exclusively reported by FiscalWatch for the moment, although anyone can ask the city for them), the figures tell a more sober story. (more…)

Of next year’s expected $700 billion federal infrastructure stimulus package, New York state likely will get $4 billion for mass transit, with most of that money going toward city projects, including a second station on the planned extension westward of the #7 train. The media greeted the announcement as good news, but it actually shows why it’s such a bad idea for wealthy cities to depend on federal policies for rational infrastructure planning. (more…)

New York City projects a 1.8 percent decrease in sales-tax revenue this fiscal year, cutting $85 million out of cash receipts. But early post-Christmas estimates of holiday sales point up the likelihood that New York will further slash its sales-tax estimates in January, bringing the city closer to income-tax increases. (more…)

State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, in a quest to become the Ghost of New York City Yet to Come, released his report on the city’s budget yesterday. The document illustrates starkly what is going to happen in New York if we do not face the inevitable. We’ve been running an unsustainable budget based on fumes from the Wall Street bubble, but those fumes are quickly vanishing into the winter ether. (more…)

Smart private-sector companies are aggressively slashing white-collar pay and benefits to get costs under control amid slumping revenues. New York’s public sector, by contrast, has no such clear, assertive plan, even though the state* and the MTA together have more than 13,000 workers earning six-figure salaries. (more…)

New York lost another 126,209 residents to other states during the 12 months ending July 1, according to newly released U.S. Census estimates.  The Empire State’s loss to “net domestic migration” has reached 1,575,864 people since 2000 — the most of any state’s, topping California’s outflow of 1,378,706 residents to the rest of the country during the same period. (more…)

A parade of public officials, plus one alleged, attempted shoe-thrower, went before the state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority today largely to berate the MTA for passing a budget that includes significant service cuts to subways and buses.

But the elected officials who took time out from their busy schedules to offer their criticism also should be criticizing themselves. Numbers-wise, while the MTA certainly can and should do much by itself to cut its white-collar staff, it won’t get its costs down to reasonable levels until it substantially renegotiates its biggest labor contract, with the city’s Transport Workers Union, as some numbers will help demonstrate. (more…)

States and cities hoping to fill in budget gaps with cash-outs of future toll-road revenues and the like by handing revenue-generating assets over to private operators for up-front money may be sobered up by a report out yesterday from Australia-based Macquarie Infrastructure Group. (more…)

Gov. Paterson has released the state budget on a history-making day. For the first time ever, the Federal Reserve has cut the interest rate at which it lends to banks to as low as zero (and as high as a quarter of a percentage point). This action puts Paterson’s proposal that state workers give up a scheduled 3 percent salary hike in perspective. (more…)

Governor Paterson’s proposed “obesity tax” on sugared soft drinks has already captured most of the media attention among the $4 billion in new taxes and fees in Governor Paterson’s budget.  But by far the largest single element in Paterson’s revenue package is a $652 million increase in the state’s existing “assessment” on utilities.  Any such increase will ultimately be borne by utility ratepayers, adding $652 million to what are already some of the highest energy costs in the nation. (more…)