New York State’s “Indigent Care Pool” doles out more than $1 billion a year in grants to hospitals, ostensibly to reimburse them for providing free care to the poor and uninsured. But most of the time, how much money a hospital receives bears no relation to how much charity care it delivers. Read More
A billion-dollar state program to reimburse hospital charity care is having a reverse Robin Hood effect, shortchanging hospitals that serve poorer patients to the benefit of those that serve more affluent populations, according to a new analysis by Empire Center health policy director Bill Hammond. Read More
New York's loss of residents to other states is a long-established and troubling trend. But the impact of out-migration on the Empire State's economy, and on personal income in particular, is another, more complicated story. Unfortunately, the annual release of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data on interstate taxpayer migration continues to inspire some wrongheaded conclusions on this score. Read More
A Ramapo town police officer who collected nearly $442,000 was New York State’s highest paid local government employee outside New York City during the 12 months ending March 31, according to the 2017 edition of “What They Make,” the Empire Center annual analysis of local government pay. Read More
Local government is a labor-intensive business, and employee compensation is the single biggest element of most municipal budgets. The 2016-17 edition of What They Make, the Empire Center’s annual report on public payrolls, allows New York taxpayers to compare this key element of local government costs around the state. Read More
A historic decline in the uninsured population continued in 2016, both nationwide and in New York, albeit at a slower rate that signals a plateauing trend, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau. Read More
New York State has long been home to a large share of the nation’s wealthiest households. But since the Great Recession ended, the Empire State has fallen behind when it comes to gaining additional income millionaires Read More
In the original version of a news release yesterday summarizing the latest state legislative expenditure data posted at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center reported that the Assembly had “prematurely” begun paying salaries to three members chosen in the 2016 general election to fill seats vacated before those elections, after having similarly begun payments to members elected to already vacated seats in the 2014 general election. Read More