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   New York has been knocked off its perch as the state with the highest state and local taxes, according to a report released today.

New Jersey taxpayers now bear the heaviest burden – 11.8 cents for every dollar earned, a [...]

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Pollster John Zogby has come up with a new definition of “retail politics:” parsing how people may vote by where they shop.

Barack Obama does the best among Filene’s shoppers, with a 59 percent to 24 percent advantage over John McCain, [...]

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 Gov. David Paterson plans to meet privately with legislative leaders next Thursday in New York City to talk about his plan to cap property taxes.

It will be the first time that new Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos will [...]

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Reflecting the weak economy, business-tax collections for the first quarter of the year were $453 million less than anticipated, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said today. Yet overall revenue was up, largely because of reimbursements from [...]

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  One thing hasn’t changed from the Spitzer to the Paterson administrations: the official marching orders for agency public-information officers are to be “helpful” and “transparent.’’

That was the message PR head Risa Heller delivered at a meeting of the agency flacks this week.

Such [...]

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  Mayor Clinton Young and state Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith will be
the big draws Sunday at a fundraiser honoring Devereaux Cannick as the new
chairman of the Mount Vernon Democratic party.
When the invitation was first posted on the party website, [...]

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Feeling pessimistic about your economic prospects, and those for the state? If so, you have plenty of company, according to a poll released today.

“It may sound like a broken record, but it’s true,’’ said Douglas Lonnstrom of the Siena [...]

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While some New York City business leaders are already moaning about the impending end (Dec. 31, 2009) of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s eight-year reign at City Hall, he won’t be missed by many Assembly Democrats, who found him [...]

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The love-fest between new Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Gov. David Paterson apparently survived their first closed-door meeting.    The two leaders, joking about Paterson’s “seniority’’ over Skelos (Paterson became governor March 17, Skelos took over as majority leader June 24) [...]

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   Former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno gave mixed signals today about whether he intends to resign from his seat before his term is up at the end of the year.

“I’m going to exit – the sooner the better,’’ Bruno said [...]