Budget

Too Conservative for Their Own Good?

November 14, 2011 Budget

Good grief! Historically, Saratoga County, NY has been among the financially tightest in New York. When we wrote about Nassau County being consistently on the high side of spending per capita among New York’s county governments, we could also see that Saratoga was on the low side. In particular, you can see a graphic view […]

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Albany County & Orange County, NY Budgets and their County Nursing Homes

October 5, 2011 Budget

Those who know me, know that for several years as the Albany County, NY Commissioner of Management & Budget, I developed and pushed very hard for a strategy to expand home and community based long-term care services and to close the Albany County Nursing Home. I thought and still think that this direction made much […]

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Postponed House Vote on Debt Ceiling

July 28, 2011 Budget

At this point, the House Republicans has postponed the vote on Boehner’s bill extending the debt ceiling and cutting the budget. Right now, the Republicans don’t have the votes to even pass their own bill. Reminds me of an incident years ago in the NYS Assembly. The parties and positions were the inverse of what […]

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Beware of political gimmicks in public finance … they metastasise

July 28, 2011 Budget

I keep thinking that this debt ceiling debacle is the result of a political gimmick whose origin is long forgotten. During decades of work in public finance, I’ve certainly seen more than my share. Somebody probably thought it was an essentially harmless but useful political symbol to buy a few votes on a budget or […]

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Visualized Budget Data for the UK

March 23, 2011 Budget

Even a cursory view suggests to me that the Guardian has been making extra efforts at using data and visualized data at that in their reporting. You’ll find them particularly at their Datablog. Here’s their story on five key data sets in the latest budget. One graphic in particular stood out for me and that […]

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