Numbers belatedly released by the Cuomo administration last week pushed New York's COVID-19 mortality rate in nursing homes from 35th to 13th highest in the U.S., an Empire Center analysis shows. Read More
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In a victory for open government, the Empire Center today won a court ruling requiring the prompt release of full coronavirus death tolls in New York nursing homes. Read More
In a letter to governors two days after President Biden's inauguration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that the pandemic-related federal public health emergency "will likely remain in place for the entirety of 2021." Read More
Governor Cuomo’s Executive Budget for fiscal year 2022 authorizes an enormous increase in state-supported debt, all in the form of non-voter-approved backdoor borrowing—and all of it pointedly excluded from the state's statutory debt cap. Read More
After a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed suspicions of under-reporting the official record of COVID-19 nursing home deaths, counsel for the Empire Center submitted a letter to the Albany County Supreme Court renewing its urgent Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request. Read More
The most shocking thing about state Attorney General Letitia James’ report on the coronavirus pandemic in New York nursing homes is what it did not contain: a definitive count of how many thousands of residents have died of COVID. Apparently, not even the highest-ranking legal official in the state was able to pry that elusive number out of the Cuomo administration’s clutches. Read More
New York spends more per student on education than any state or country. According to the most recent national and international spending estimates, New York would retain that status even after cutting state funding to schools by 20 percent. Read More
The attorney general’s report confirms that the Health Department is grossly underreporting COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, leaving thousands uncounted, as the Empire Center and other critics have warned for months. Read More