Edmund J. McMahon, is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and its Empire Center for New York State Policy.

McMahon joined the Manhattan Institute in 2000, and founded the Institute’s Empire Center in 2005.  His research focuses on improving New York’s economic competitiveness by boosting the efficiency of public services at the state and local level. He has authored or co-authored major studies on public pension reform, collective bargaining, population migration, budget trends and tax policy in New York.  His influential “Blueprint for a Better Budget,” published in January 2010, featured a number of recommendations subsequently implemented under Governors David Paterson and Andrew Cuomo.  McMahon also was a leading advocate of an across-the-board cap on property taxes in New York.

McMahon has published numerous articles and essays in publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron's, the Public Interest, the New York Post, the New YorkDaily News, Newsday, and the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. His frequent radio and TV interviews have included appearances on CNBC, Fox News Channel and Bloomberg News, as well as on regional cable and broadcast outlets throughout New York State.

McMahon’s professional background includes more than 25 years as an Albany-based analyst and close observer of New York State government.  As chief fiscal advisor to the Assembly Republican Conference in the early 1990s, he drafted a personal income tax reform plan that would become the basis for historic tax cuts enacted under Governor George E. Pataki. Previously, as research director of the Public Policy Institute, he worked on the Institute’s counter-budget proposals and developed the template for New York’s school report cards. He also served as a deputy commissioner in the state Department of Taxation and Finance and as a vice chancellor of the State University of New York.

Earlier in his career, he was a staff writer and columnist for the AlbanyTimes Union and The Knickerbocker News.

McMahon is a graduate of Villanova University.

Send email to E.J. McMahon via info@empirecenter.org

Phone: (518) 434-3100

(High-resolution photo available here.)