NEWS: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers are nearing a budget agreement that would increase corporate and income taxes by $4.3 billion a year and would make top earners in New York City pay the highest combined local tax rate in the country.

wsj.com/articles/new-y… Legislators were briefed on a plan under which income-tax rates would rise to 9.65% from 8.82% for single filers reporting more than $1 million of income and joint filers reporting more than $2 million, according to people familiar with the deal.

wsj.com/articles/new-y…

EXCLUSIVE: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top advisers successfully pushed state health officials to strip a July report of data showing that more nursing-home residents had died of Covid-19 than the administration had acknowledged.

wsj.com/articles/cuomo… Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn asked the Cuomo administration in February for information about nursing-home deaths, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Federal prosecutors expressed interest in the July DOH report, people familiar with the matter said

wsj.com/articles/cuomo…

The first member of the Capitol press corps to be called on for a question in @NYGovCuomo's briefing (Cuomo aides choose) is @morganfmckay, who asks:
+ How does this new attribution of deaths to nursing homes affect policy?
+ Do you have confidence in DOH?
+ What about immunity? Cuomo said he has not seen bills repealing immunity protections for health care providers, which were enacted in April as part of the state budget.

wsj.com/articles/new-y…

In Worst-Hit Covid State, New York’s Cuomo Called All the Shots

As part of the @WSJ’s COVID Storm series, I spent months with @joe_palazzolo & @jacobgershman looking at how @NYGovCuomo managed the early days of the pandemic.

Here’s what we found —>

wsj.com/articles/cuomo… Cuomo and his small team took command of the Health Dept and overrode local govs that wanted to go beyond the state’s social distancing restrictions. That delayed the New York City shutdown and slowed the reaction time as the virus spread in nursing homes.
wsj.com/articles/cuomo…

Happy Monday

@NYGovCuomo just announced New York State has developed its own line of hand sanitizer.

It’s being produced by prison inmates. NY’s is 75%. Cuomo says we’re making 100,000 gallons per week. Andrew Cuomo says there is a “floral bouquet” scent to the NYS hand sanitizer. He says this is much cheaper than other hand sanitizers on the market.

And if there’s price gouging, Cuomo WILL release this onto eBay and Amazon.

I don’t know if he’s joking or not.