Empire Page Examines Independent Budget Office Concept

ALBANY, NY (10/13/2008)(readMedia)-- Everyone agrees New York is facing a huge shortfall in tax revenue and must revise the state budget, but how big a deficit, and what the fiscal impact of various measures will be is up for debate.

Unlike Congress, NYC and other jurisdictions, the State Legislature doesn’t have an independent budget office to call on for an impartial evaluation of the budget and proposed legislation.

To help the public assess the potential benefits to New York of creating an IBO, the Empire Page interviewed Douglas Turetsky, chief of staff and communications director of the NYC IBO.

Turetsky explains the origins and workings of the IBO and points out some key elements that have helped New York City avoid the kind of crises that spurred voters to approve the concept in the late 1980s.

“The New York City Council does not have to spend tens of thousands of dollars analyzing the mayor’s budget each year because it has a reliable impartial agency that does that for them,” pointed out Peter G. Pollak, publisher and editor of the Empire Page.

“The New York State Legislature has no such body and as a result each party has to maintain its own staff to try to analyze the state’s finances. New Yorkers need to ask themselves if this arrangement is either prudent or effective?”

The Improving New York section of the Empire Page is devoted to exploring solutions to New York’s problems. In previous interviews, the Empire Page learned about New York’s shared services program from the Secretary of State Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez, Government Law Director Patricia Salkin and Technical Assistance Project administrator Paul Moore.

The Empire Page is published by PoliticalNewsToday.com, LLC, which seeks to provide information and opinion on the key issues of the day through websites that aggregate content and provide useful features for people active in government and politics. The partnership consists of Peter G. Pollak, who is the majority shareholder and actively manages the company, Schwartz-Heslin Group and Wynantskill Capital.