Senate Republicans today put the blame on Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, for failing to get a budget deal complete.

“1 agree with Governor Paterson’s statement today that the Legislature should be acting on a deficit reduction plan today, instead of waiting until Monday.  The only problem is he has not submitted [...]

With the state facing a cash crunch, Gov. David Paterson warned today he may have to resort to steps that other states have taken—such as layoffs, furloughs or shutting down pre-kindergarten program—if lawmakers don’t make budget cuts this month.

A report from Moody’s Investors Service this week, meanwhile, said the state could lose its stable credit [...]

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is coming out with a report today will show that the state’s cash crunch is getting even worse.

DiNapoli said his office will release a report that shows New York faces a cash-flow deficit of up to $1.4 billion in late December, higher than projections from Gov. David Paterson’s budget office.

It means the [...]

Talk was rampant this afternoon that Rudy Giuliani will not run for governor next year and is considering instead a run for U.S. Senate.

The New York Times reported Giuliani will not run for governor, and the Daily News is reporting he’s going to run for Senate.

There is no official word from Giuliani’s camp, but a [...]

The war of words continued today over the failure of Gov. David Paterson and the Legislature to reach a deal to close the state’s $3.2 billion mid-year budget gap.

Paterson said he continues to get pushback from state senators, Democrats and Republicans, over his plan to cut aid to schools and health care.

Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Sheldon [...]

The state’s top court today upheld the rights of Westchester County and the state to legally extend benefits to same-sex couples married in other states.

The state Court of Appeals rejected a Christian legal group’s claim that the extension of benefits to gay couples was illegal based on current state law.

But the court stopped short of [...]

Gov. David Paterson wouldn’t predict when he and lawmakers will reach a deal on the budget—maybe tomorrow he said. And thus he wouldn’t say how long he plans to keep them in town.

“I feel that we are continuing to negotiate and we are just going to have to lock this down as soon as we [...]

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had opposed the initial legislation to reform the state’s scandal-scarred public authorities, said this afternoon that he supports the modified bill.

He said the bill removes some of his initial concerns, such as requiring authorities to sell land at fair market value no matter the use and not giving [...]

Lawmakers are still without agreement on a budget deal, but they are making their way through Gov. David Paterson’s legislative agenda that he put on the special session calendar since last week.

They’ve passed legislation that would let local governments make it easier to form cooperative health-benefit plans and other consolidations and eliminated a loophole that [...]

The union-backed Fiscal Policy Institute is promoting a national study today that claims the middle class in New York pays a slightly higher share of their income in state and local taxes than the rich.

But the report by The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, titled “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems [...]