Mayor Bloomberg stood up for rich New Yorkers when he advised against the state raising income taxes on the wealthy. Why? He said, "I think at this point, where we're in competition with other cities around the world for entrepreneurs and the best and the brightest, it's not the time to be raising taxes." Assembly Democrats suggest raising the tax rate for incomes of $1 million+, which would mean a $1.5 billion in additional revenue.......

With the writers' strike looking like it'll wrap up this week, Crain's points us towards another problem for New York's entertainment industry. Seems our neighbor Connecticut has started to offer up a deal no self-respecting Hollywood suit can refuse -- a 30% tax rebate on all production costs. The incentive program started in 2006 and in 2007 alone we've lost approximately $400 million in production revenue to the Constitution State. The problem has spread to......

It's a refrain that already sounds familiar and will no doubt be repeated many times more: Officials expect real estate revenues to fall, causing lots of number crunching in budgets. The NY Sun reports that the city forecasts "a 39% decline in sales volume for all commercial transactions through 2009, and the median price of those transactions is expected to decline by 32%." Since the city charges 2.6% tax of the sale price, while the......

So much for halting the hike! Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Spitzer have both given their approval of the MTA's proposed 4-7% fare hikes for subway and bus riders. The base fare will remain $2, but the unlimited Metrocard prices will increase. The Mayor (from China apparently) said, "Based on the information that my staff and I have received and reviewed over the past few weeks, I am now satisfied that the MTA budget is a......

With the MTA's vote whether to raise subway and bus fares coming in less than three weeks, speculation is running high about what will happen. Even though Governor Spitzer said that the base subway and bus fare will remain $2, unlimited Metrocard fares - which 85% of riders use - will rise. The MTA has insisted the fare hikes are necessary, given projected deficits and upcoming capital construction, but many elected officials believe that the......

The top judge in New York State, Court of Appeals Chief Justice Judith Kaye, has threatned to sue the state if judges don't get raises by the summer. And according to the NY Times, a proposal to give them raises seems to have been a victim of the last minute deal-making for the state budget - Governor Spitzer did include a retroactive pay raise for judges, but lawmakers proposed a raise for both judges AND......

The Transportation Bond Act, which will direct $2.9 billion of state money to various projects including MTA ones, passed yesterday by a slight/fair margin (depending on which paper you read), 55% to 45%. The proposition was on ballots statewide, and the bulk of the money will help NYC transportation projects: Half the money will go to the MTA, towards the Second Avene Subway and linking Grand Central to Penn Station for LIRR service, while other......

The city and state have allegedly worked out a deal to eliminate 4% of the sales tax on clothing or shoes under $110. The city is able to go forward with this since there's a $3.6 billion budget surplus this year (not that we want to put that money back into other services, like the MTA...). So far, the politicians who say they are interested in eliminating this are Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Pataki, and State......

Mayor Bloomberg is getting very impatient about the state of the West Side Stadium, asking political leaders in the state to go ahead and approve the gosh-darn thing already. (The gosh-darn emphasis is Gothamist's.) What's funny is that the Mayor wants everyone to ignore Cablevision's lawsuit against the MTA, Jets, and City, which accuses all three entities of colluding to give the Jets the West Side railyard rights. Now, a few state panels need to......

In crazy political news, the effort to recall Gray Davis as Governor of California has been gaining unexpected momentum. Davis was re-elected in 2002, but may be on this November's ballot (he let the state budget deficit go to $38 billion). Possible candidates for governor? Dianne Feinstein for the Democrats, Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Republicans (he'll figure that all out after Terminator 3 opens; if his box office is hot, Gothamist thinks he'll do......