NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two New York state unions have accepted a plan to save the state $440 million over two years while avoiding layoffs, partly by enticing 7,000 state workers to retire, Governor David Paterson said on Friday. About 4,500 employees will be offered $20,000 payments to retire early, the Democrat said in a statement. The Civil ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The rebuilding of the World Trade Center site needs to get back on track, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said on Friday, saying that at least two World Trade Center towers should be built without further delay. The reconstruction of the site has faced repeated delays and recently hit another impasse with the economic downturn ...

ALBANY—As public support for a millionaire's tax continues to be demonstrated in the polls, I asked one of its principal proponents, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, if he himself would wind up paying more in taxes if it—or other similar plans—were implemented. "I might be affected by the lower end, rather than the higher end," Silver said ...

ALBANY—As the State Senate debated -- and just voted to approve -- the nomination of Jonathan Lippman as chief judge of the Court of Appeals, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was giving a slideshow presentation about the state's worsening deficit. Silver said he was "very proud that a longtime friend of mine has risen in his chosen field to be, conceivably ...