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Testimony of Edmund J. McMahon  Founding Senior Fellow, Empire Center for Public Policy Read More

Average daily office occupancy in New York City has bounced back from 2020-21 lows, but by most accounts remains well below pre-pandemic norms. Read More

A “skinny” version of the massive “Build Back Better” legislation proposed last year by President Biden is slated to arrive on his desk shortly. Read More

New York was a net loser of income tax filers to other states even in the five years leading up to the pandemic disruption of 2020 Read More

New York taxpayers have been hit with enormous increases in pension costs for state and local government employees over the past 20 years. From less than $1 billion in 2000, combined annual employer contributions to the Empire State’s public pension funds escalated to nearly $10 billion by 2010, peaking at nearly $17 billion in 2015. Contributions have leveled off at roughly $16 billion in recent years—but under lenient government accounting standards, even that figure conceals the full long-term cost of generous, locked-in pension benefits for generations of retired government employees.  Read More

New York's share of the nation's income millionaire households continued to fall in 2019 Read More

This paper describes seven core objectives and offers specific policy recommendations toward their accomplishment. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, rather a good place to start work towards an Altered State with a growing economy, a more efficient public sector and new opportunities for an engaged and informed citizenry. Read More

Remote work and a more mobile professional class will increase the speed and scope of New York's ongoing out migration. Read More

Today was the (rescheduled) deadline for filing 2020 federal income tax returns, which makes this New York's third annual SALT-Free Income Tax Day. By midnight tonight, most Empire State residents will have been remind Read More

New York has been trailing most states in the race to recover from the economically devastating coronavirus pandemic, recent employment data have shown. Read More

Looking ahead to an uncertain post-pandemic recovery, New York’s newly enacted state budget for fiscal year 2022 raises spending by staggering amounts that—barring an unlikely rapid return to peak 2019 economic activity in New York City—can't possibly be sustained for more than a few years. The budget is a mid-2020s fiscal disaster in the making: an incomplete bridge over a deepening river of red ink. Read More

Tax proposals embraced by Democrats represent a sizable increase in a top rate that already stands at an all-time record high. Read More