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As prices of Long Island Rail Road fares go up, so do the yearly paychecks of its employees. The number of LIRR employees who made more than $200,000 increased by about 40 percent from 2016 t0 2017, according to payroll data found on the Empire Center for Public Policy's transparency website, SeeThroughNY.net. Read More

A squad of LIRR foremen are among the MTA’s top earners — raking in nearly $300,000 a year in overtime alone while the sweaty masses suffer through service hell. The time-sheet stuffers helped bring the agency’s overtime bill to a jaw-dropping $1.2 billion in 2017 — a 20-percent increase over the previous year, according to watchdog group The Empire Center. Read More

Overtime spending by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) last year reached a record $1.2 billion, a 20 percent increase over the 2016 level, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More

This report provides an overview of the current landscape of union representation, finances, lobbying and political activity in New York State. It concludes with recommendations designed to strengthen the rights of government workers and the oversight of union nances that are ultimately derived from taxpayer-funded salaries. Read More

This summer, the Empire Center for Public Policy celebrated nine� Read More

The 48,346-employee payroll of New York City’s fiscally stressed Health and Hospitals Corporation swelled to $2.9 billion last year, a 16 percent jump from $2.5 billion in 2014, according to data added today to SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More

As commuters suffer through constant delays caused by aging infrastructure, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority shelled out $971 million in OT last year — a 4% bump from the prior year and the highest amount since at least 2014, according to the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More

Eight employees of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) were paid more than $200,000 in overtime last year, part of a general surge in MTA overtime in 2016, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More

“The only way the state could support the capital plan would be to borrow money, and it can’t borrow because it’s too close to its debit limit – but the MTA is not,” said E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More

Overtime spending by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority rose 11 percent in 2015, making it possible for hundreds of employees to double their pay, according to payroll records added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More

So, how is Governor Andrew Cuomo paying for that $100 billion infrastructure "development initiative" that, as he put in his State of the State message yesterday, "would make Governor Rockefeller jealous"? The answer: for the most part, he actually isn't. Read More

Here's a last look back at the Empire Center's web traffic highlights for the year just ended. Read More