Dear Commons Community,

In the past few days, we have heard that several states are realizing higher than expected revenue, mostly from income taxes.  California – $6 billion; New Jersey – $900 million;  Pennsylvania – 400 million.  Here in New York, there has already been much discussion about a surplus in New York City of somewhere between $2-3 billion.   What is going on in New York State?  I have a feeling just as many NYS agencies are being asked to make major cuts in spending, after the smoke clears, lo and behold, there will be an announcement of a revenue and/or budget surplus?   I am not saying that NYS will have resolved all of its fiscal problems but with the call for layoffs of upwards of 4,000 New York City school teachers because of New York State reductions in funding, it would be nice earlier than later to know if the revenue side of the ledger has changed so as not to be playing politics with their livelihoods.

Tony