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To help New Yorkers compare certain basic fiscal measures for local governments, the Empire Center has calculated effective property tax rates and per-capita values for the spending, debt and tax levels throughout the state. Read More

After remaining for months on the fate of the proposed two-year moratorium on crypto-mining, Governor Kathy Hochul has now the bill into law, as her admi Read More

In the first episode of the Empire Center's podcast, we discuss the mission of the podcast. What is a Message of Necessity — and what’s ours? The team covers some of the biggest news stories from the last couple of weeks, and Empire Center CEO Ti Read More

A pandemic-related study recently published by the state University at Albany's School of Public Health is marred by factual errors, inconsistencies and methodological issues that raise doubts about its findings – and questions about the process by which it was reviewed. Read More

Christakis remarked on the website that graduate students, now moving to unionize at the school, are not ordinary worker. Read More

If a government agency loses $11 billion, do New York’s legislators make a sound? That’s the question in Albany after Comptroller Tom DiNapoli issued his investigation into what was likely the most expensive administrative mishap in state hist Read More

Overtime payouts to New York City government employees rose by more than one-third last year. The City paid out a total of $2.44 billion dollars in overtime in Fiscal Year 2022, a 36 percent increase from the prior year’s total of $1.8 billion. Read More

An audit report shines some overdue light on New York’s handling of unemployment insurance claims it paid out during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Read More