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An Easy Fix for Disability Fraud, It Can Save Billions
By Steve Levy
Raise your hand if you were surprised that an individual making $100,000 in disability payments was caught participating in a powerlifting contest.
The rise in disability fraud has become one of the greatest scams in this nation’s history. So, why are so many people cheating the system?
Because we let them.
A Dozen Ways to make New York More Affordable
Albany will betray taxpayers by undoing Tier 6 reforms
By Steve Levy
Our Center for Cost Effective Government just published a white paper on why political donations from municipal unions to officials who negotiate with those unions should be illegal in the public sector, as it is in the private sector.
What to Do about Tariffs
By Steve Levy
The Supreme Court striking down President Trump‘s across-the-board tariffs was no surprise to us. We wrote months ago that his actions were not supported by law.
The Constitution is clear: Tariffs fall under the purview of Congress
Steve Levy: How New York’s extremist green policies have caused electric rates to soar
A new report issued by our Center for Cost Effective Government confirms that progressive policies implemented by New York’s Legislature designed to tackle climate change have caused energy rates in the state to skyrocket, with few environmental benefits.
In fact, these policies increased electric bills by roughly 50 percent in the six years since their implementation.
Read Here
2024-2025 Year in Review
The Exorbitant Cost of Extreme Green Energy Policies
Negotiate on Obamacare Subsidies to Get GOP Healthcare Plan Adopted
By Steve Levy
The present federal government shutdown was, to many, obviously prompted by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s need to show he’s willing to fight Donald Trump so he could mitigate a potential primary from AOC.
Yet, the Democrats have couched the shutdown they initiated around extending Obamacare subsidies enacted during COVID. They have concocted the story that Republicans in the One Big Beautiful Bill had eliminated Obamacare subsidies. To the contrary: Republicans retained the original pre-pandemic subsidies, but simply allowed the temporary additional COVID subsidies to expire as originally intended.
Tax breaks not meant for companies cutting jobs
by Steve Levy
September 4, 2025
Industrial Development Agencies (IDA) were never intended to give tax breaks to companies threatening to leave.
A company based in Suffolk County threatened to downsize and move to another state unless the IDA agreed to give them $17 million in tax breaks. The IDA caved and granted the tax reduction.
The IDA should have denied this request.
IDAs are very controversial in that they provide tax breaks to some companies and not to others. When one company gets a break it means other companies and residents must make up for that revenue that does not come into the government coffers. We make exceptions, and justifiably so, in certain limited circumstances where we’re looking to incentivize a big company that will provide a large number of good paying jobs that are sustainable. It’s how we successfully utilized the IDA to bring in Computer Associates and its 2000 jobs in the 1980s. It’s the way I was able to lure Canon to establish its Northern Hemisphere headquarters in Melville, bringing thousands of jobs and spurring the local economy.
And just this past month, Suffolk’s IDA justifiably granted tax breaks for two existing pharmaceutical companies in Hauppauge that have planned to expand their operations and the number of jobs in their companies. The two companies, Gemini Pharmaceutical and Commerce Drive, LLC, will add another 75 jobs to their operations.
But we must be very careful that we don’t fall into the trap of giving tax breaks to companies that threaten to leave to cheaper pastures. Every company out there is feeling financial strain in competitive markets. Of course they’re over-taxed and over-regulated and the answer is to lower taxes for everyone and every business.
If one business is allowed to get tax breaks by simply threatening to leave, what would stop every other business from doing the same and thereby destroying our tax base.
Maybe they will eventually leave. Sometimes that’s what happens in the market, especially in our overtaxed area such as Long Island. But we can’t be granting these special privileges to a handful of companies at the expense of others where no new jobs are being created.
Steve Levy is Executive Director of the Center for Cost Effective Government, a fiscally conservative think tank. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” Costeffectivegov@gmail.com