NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York’s millionaires will pay higher taxes while 4.4 million middle-class and upper-income New Yorkers will get tax cuts, under a reform plan the governor and legislature unveiled on Tuesday.

The new top income tax rate for those who earn more than $2 million will rise to 8.82 percent. Without the agreement, this rate would have fallen to 6.85 percent from the current top rate of 8.97 percent because a surcharge expires this year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City, weighing how best to invest some of its $109 billion pension money in hedge funds, should hire so-called emerging managers, said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

Emerging managers include women- and minority-owned hedge funds, which are fairly new and thus typically manage less money than older, more established rivals.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Despite a budget crunch, New York City might have to increase funding for programs to help AIDS patients as its cost-cutting efforts have floundered and the state or federal governments could slice spending, a new report said on Tuesday.

New York City has one of the nation’s largest populations of people living with AIDS — 66,398 patients in 2009, the most recent data available.

NEW YORK, Nov 18 (Reuters) – New York City’s agencies
spent almost $1 billion more than expected this fiscal year,
partly due to overtime for police and firefighters, a problem
that will trigger more cuts in expenses, a mayoral aide said
on Friday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who already has ordered nearly a
dozen rounds of budget cuts since 2007, forecast that the city
will collect only an extra $81 million from now until next
year’s budget ends on July 1, 2013.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A prominent lawyer tapped by New York City Comptroller John Liu to review questions about Liu’s fund-raising abruptly quit the probe on Thursday, a potential setback to the comptroller’s ambitions to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Liu, a Democrat, was widely considered a top contender to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the 2013 election until Wednesday, when federal prosecutors charged one of his campaign donors with wire fraud and conspiracy for evading campaign finance rules.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City tax revenue exceeded its forecasts by $239 million through the end of September, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, bucking the downbeat trends seen in many U.S. states and cities.

The sources, who requested anonymity, offered a caution, however: about $180 million of the extra cash came from property taxes, which vary month to month.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York state’s budget cuts are taking a financial toll on poor schools that is more than three times the hit felt by the wealthiest districts, a non-profit education group said in report on Tuesday.

The cuts are costing poor schools $843 per pupil, compared with a hit of $269 in the wealthiest districts, the Alliance for Quality Education said in its report, as it blamed Governor Andrew Cuomo for the unequal impact.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Budget cuts cost New York’s poor schools $843 per pupil, over three times the $269 hit taken by the wealthiest districts, a report said on Tuesday, blasting the governor for the unequal results.

Like many states, New York uses complicated formulas to dole out school aid around the state.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York state’s current budget has a $350 million hole while next year’s gap has widened and the likelihood of a weak bonus season on Wall Street may further shave revenue, the state Budget Division said in a statement on Monday.

Saying tax collections resemble a bouncing ball, Governor Andrew Cuomo told WCNY radio in Albany that “there’s no doubt but that the trajectory of the bouncing ball has been down.”

NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) – A total of 28 signal workers
for one Metropolitan Transportation Authority railroad unit
received about $1.2 million combined in overtime and rest pay
last year, according to an audit released on Wednesday by
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The audit cited “a strong sense of entitlement” among
these workers, with DiNapoli noting they also inflated their
pensions by $5.5 million as a result of the overtime pay.