Public Finance

CHARTS: Mayoral Candidates' Incomes, Minus John Catsimatidis

Several of New York City's mayoral hopefuls released their tax returns or reported their 2012 income this week to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Below is a quick breakdown of what the candidates made in 2012 by sector, though the figures for Sal Albanese, Anthony Weiner (who hasn't form ... More >>

NYIT and Cardean Learning Ordered to Pay $4 Million For Swindling Students

The New York Institute of Technology and Cardean Learning, a for-profit online education company, will have to pay back $4 million for orchestrating a scheme to suck federal funds out of unsuspecting students, according to court documents obtained by the Voice. NYIT, a not-for-profit college with a ... More >>

The Anatomy Of A Lap Dance: How Rubbing Your Ass On People Could Soon Be "Art" In New York

Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," Michelangelo's "David," and a lap dance from some stripper named "Cinnamon" could all soon have something in common -- each could be considered "art" here in the Empire State.Let's rephrase that: they could all be tax-exempt "art" in the Empire State.New York's highest court ... More >>

Andrew Cuomo: New Yorkers Will No Longer Need Fingers To Get Food Stamps

Good news for the nutritionally challenged: you'll soon no longer need fingers to get food stamps.Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today that the wheels are in motion to do away with a policy that requires food stamp recipients to submit their fingerprints to the government. The policy is considered ... More >>

New York Socialists: Barack Obama Is Not a Socialist

In the capricious, confusing, volatile world of contemporary American politics, at least one thing can be counted on these days: for better or for worse, a lot of people still think Barack Obama is a socialist. So you might wonder what socialists think about Obama. If the official reaction to Ob ... More >>

The Big Words in President Obama's Deficit Reduction Plan

​The White House just sent out a Fact Sheet titled "Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future - The President's Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction." Here's a word cloud showing the repetitive language shown through out.

Brooklyn Department of Finance to Be Replaced By a Mall

​The city announced a plan today to transform part of the Brooklyn Municipal Building in downtown Brooklyn into 49,000 feet of retail space. Which part? The Department of Finance, which is relocating somewhere else to make room for the new mall. The developer is United American Land, and they ... More >>

The Debt Ceiling: A Guide

​In order to come to a resolution on a new debt ceiling, Congress has been working around the clock. "Around the clock" for Congress means they are just taking a shorter vacation, but still, coming to an agreement on this issue has become paramount in lawmakers' eyes. Obama thinks that if the ... More >>

Dan Garodnick Q&A: The Senate Bill That Would Bail Out Landlords and Gut Court Ruling on Stuy Town Rents

David ShankboneIn 2009, a landmark state appeals court ruling found that the owners of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village had illegally deregulated 4,400 apartments while enjoying special tax breaks from the city. Its impact wasn't quite clear; no one was sure what the legal rents of those apartme ... More >>

PLAN ON IT

A political rally you can dance to

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont (By Way of Brooklyn) Lets It Rip

​Those looking for the passion missing from the Democratic and White House response to the demands of the GOP/Wall Street/Murdoch media coalition, should tune in to the one man rebel band now playing in Washington named Bernie Sanders. The 69-year-old independent senator from Vermont let loose ... More >>

NYC Smokers Being Snuffed Out: Tax Hike and $13 Packs No Fun

​It's been six weeks since New York's state government raised the cigarette tax to $4.35 a pack (more in NYC), and guess what? Cigarette sales have fallen by 35 percent. And the tax hike has translated to only $6 million more in revenue since last month. The reason? New York smokers are broke! Or ... More >>

Gay Rights Boost in California: Law College Can Legally Deny Anti-Gay Christian Group

The Supreme Court ruled today that California's publicly financed Hastings College of Law has the right to deny recognizing a Christian students group that discriminated against homosexual students. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the University of California was within its rights not to re ... More >>

It Lives: Paterson's Soda Tax Is Now a Modified Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax

voxefxtm/Flickr​In March, Governor Paterson announced plans to ditch his soda tax, thanks to $1.3 billion of federal stimulus money. But the soda tax is apparently still alive and well, and living under an assumed name: it's now called the modified sugar-sweetened beverage tax.

What's Happening This Week: Tipsy Trivia Night; Organic Wine Dinner

As many of you know, our weekly dining and drinking newsletter features all the coolest epicurean events in the city. Sign up for it here! Hungover Happy Hour Trivia Night Housing Works Used Book Café April 12, 7 p.m. Bring your friends or make new ones at this trivia night for a great cause. Ther ... More >>

Did Coke and Pepsi Get the Governor to Go Soft on Soda?

The Governor hears out Coke & Pepsi.​Gov. David Paterson is not known for his moral character, but could he have let Big Soda sway him on the soda tax debate? Despite campaigning aggressively in favor of a penny-per-ounce tax on the price of soda and other sugary drinks, Paterson recently met ... More >>

Paterson's State of the State: Upbeat, Lots of Programs. (Plus: Tax Incentives!)

Governor Paterson gave his annual State of the State speech, and although there were some of the grim zingers to which we've grown accustomed to hearing from him -- "The days of running New York like a payday loan operation must come to an end" is our favorite -- he mostly boosted the state ("New Y ... More >>

D.A.: H&H Bagel King Collected Taxes from Workers, Didn't Give to Govt.

Poor Helmer Toro, owner of the legendary H&H Bagels, can't seem to stay out of trouble. In summer 2008 we noted some of his legal and financial woes, including a $2.335 million property lien brought against him by the IRS. Toro had previously been accused of shunting some of his tax liability to a q ... More >>

IBO Report: Atlantic Yards to Cost City Big, Rain Cash on Ratner

​This just hasn't been a good week for Bruce Ratner, the Nets owner who'd rather be the Nets' landlord. First, he unveils a new vision of his much-derided Atlantic Yards arena plan — now with more metal mesh! — and gets slammed by Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff for cr ... More >>

Mets Legend Jerry Koosman Turns Tax Truther, Gets 6 Months for Evasion

​The Mets are having such a bad year, their rotten luck has trickled down to ex-Mets as well. In July Lenny Dykstra declared bankruptcy, and now Jerry Koosman, hero of the 1969 Miracle Mets, has been sentenced to six months in prison for tax evasion. Koosman failed to pay taxes for three year ... More >>

NYC Film, TV Tax Credit Back on the Table

The city is going to press Albany this week to reinstate the film tax break that made New York such a popular location shoot in recent years. When the money ran out this year, so did producers; NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker said in February that "television companies that made 19 pilots for programs l ... More >>

New York Papers on the Budget: "Christmas," a "Decade of Pain"

Tax-and-spend Democratic rule is great! says the Daily News, which reckons that the President's recently-announced budget is "Christmas in February for New York." They say aid to "low-income, working families afford child care will effectively double," and so will food stamps, and block grants to ... More >>

Poll: Tax Half-Millionaires, Quarter-Millionaires, and Millionaires

Ah, the wisdom of the people: a Quinnipiac poll shows 79 percent of New York state residents approve of increasing taxes on millionaires. In fact, they approve of tax hikes on people making half a mil, and even a quarter mil, though by slimmer margins. The Albany Times-Union headlines this news "vo ... More >>

CNN Dude Living on Food Stamps

(art courtesy of cnn.com)CNN's Sean Callebs is spending a month living on food stamps in an interesting fusion of recession coverage, foodie blog, and CNN kookiness (if you've ever watched American Morning, you'll know what I mean). In Louisiana, where Callebs lives and works, one out of every six ... More >>

What Cooked the World's Economy?

It wasn't your overdue mortgage.

MTA Plan: Corporate Tax, Bridge Tolls, "Automatic" But Lower Fare Hikes

Yanks Stadium Hearing Liveblog (Part 2)

Atlantic Yards Gets Tax Break, Or Not

Lede of the Week

Daily Flog: Birth of a notion opens in St. Paul; oil price plummets, along with GOP veep's rep; everybody's Google-eyed

Message Control: Pre-Budget Talks, Governor Casts Himself as No-Dealer

Black Gold Vs. Corporate Gold

Eliot Spitzer's Crack Tax

Wait, it's not what you think

West Side Stories, cont'd

P.S. 64: A Tax Break! A Dorm! A Homeless Shelter?

Where The Welfare Queens Went

Like Manna From Havens

From Security to Risk in One Easy Bush Plan

President trades American promise for a Wall Street gamble

Upon Further Review: The Cheney-Edwards Judges Fumbled

Drain the Treasury, Pour in the Votes

Desperate Bush touts phony "middle-class" tax cut

Say What?

A Billion Here, A Billion There

New York City heads for a stadium overdose. Guess who will be paying.

Make Robots Not War

Some Scientists Refuse to Get Paid for Killer Ideas

Pataki's Prattle

Job-Jingo Governor Proposes 'State-Killing' Budget

Read My Lips

Pataki's No-Tax Vow Is Salt to City's Wounds

One for You, 19 for Me

April 15 May Be the Least Popular Day on the Calendar. Ready?

An Orgy of Abstinence

Federal Funding Pushes No-Sex Education Into the Mainstream

No Bad Deed Goes Punished

Why Has a Convicted Brooklyn Landlord Been Let Off Easy?

Bush Pats Corporations, Pads Rich Pockets

Oops, Says Prez. Let's Keep That AIDS Office

Modem Patriots

Silicon Alley Chokes on Proposed European Tax