NEWS - DECEMBER 2002

• Study: Pharmaceutical industry helps New York's economy, health care; policies should encourage its growth, not punish its success (December 23, 2002)
• Study: High taxes, debt, and job-creation costs lessen New York's competitiveness; technology strengthens it (December 23, 2002)
• Insurer's Web site offers information on update hospitals' performance records (December 23, 2002)
• Institute analysis: New York's 'tax gap' still big, but shrinking; separate study shows state's 'tax effort' still nation's highest (December 19, 2002)
• Poll: New Yorkers prefer cutting government to raising taxes (December 18, 2002)
• Senate votes to extend current power-plant siting law (December 18, 2002)
• Report: Health-care spending has increased much faster than aid to schools, higher education (December 13, 2002)
• Report: New York's higher-education system is a bargain for taxpayers (December 10, 2002)
• Report: State debt is too high to permit more borrowing to address budget gap (December 6, 2002)
• Report: Local taxes in New York are state's top competitive disadvantage, and more state aid won't help (December 3, 2002)
• Echoing Council, NLRB voices "serious concerns" about law that helps unions organize (December 2, 2002)
• Council: To ease health costs, New York should pursue '10 percent solution' (December 2, 2002)
• Survey: Nearly half of states are reducing spending in response to budget challenges (December 2, 2002)