State lawmakers have given a real boost to government transparency and the public's right to know by voting to speed up the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) process. Read More
Latest
With only hours to go in the state legislative session, are Senate Republicans angling to drill new loopholes in the state's property tax cap? Read More
The Yonkers school district will be the first to get a special added state aid handout from a $100 million "Upstate Distressed Schools Fund" announced over the weekend by Governor Andrew Cuomo. But it's not as if public schools in the City of Gracious Living have been shortchanged. Read More
New York City Fire Department (FDNY) pensions have averaged more than $100,000 for new retirees for the past seven years, according to data previously withheld by the pension fund and obtained by the Empire Center after a lengthy court battle. Read More
The state Assembly has not released expenditure reports, including per diems paid to lawmakers, for more than a year, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
Don't look now, but given current inflation trends, next year's school property tax cap may be ... zero! That's the message of a statement released last week by the Educational Conference Board (ECB), a coalition of groups representing public school administrators, school boards and—last but hardly least—the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) labor union. The ECB's "warning" was meant as an inside-the-Albany-bubble scare tactic, but for most New Yorkers, it's good news: further confirmation that the tax cap is working exactly as intended. Read More
New York City’s pension costs will reach nearly $8.8 billion in the coming 2016 fiscal year — more than double the 2006 level and nearly eight times the 2001 amount. Yet now, with a week to go in the state legislative session, Albany is poised to drive those costs even higher. Read More
On the surface, today's newly released state Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers for 2014 amount to an unalloyed good-news story for New York State. Preliminary data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis show the state's real GDP grew slightly faster than the national average in 2014, rebounding from a weak 2013. However, a closer look at the data reveals stagnation last year in New York's manufacturing sector, offset by a heavy reliance on finance and other industries located mainly in New York City. However, the new data also reflect a continuing decline in New York's manufacturing sector, offset by a heavy reliance on finance and other sectors located mainly in New York City. Read More