Another month has brought another poor jobs growth report for upstate New York. Today’s Labor Department release shows statewide private employment in February was up 1.6 percent over the same month a year earlier, trailing the national rate of 1.9 percent — a slightly smaller margin than in previous months. Read More
Why are New York's property taxes so high? Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo claims it is "because we have 10,500 local governments." That would be pretty alarming -- if it were true. In fact, according to the Census Bureau, New York has 3,453 local governments, a little less than one-third the governor's number. Relative to population, that's not especially large by national standards. Read More
For national Sunshine Week, the Empire Center for Public Policy did its part to help make New York a brighter place. Every day a new effort was highlighted. Read More
Cuomo has, indeed, slapped a cap on local property-tax levies — a real accomplishment. But his budget wouldn’t actually “cut” them. Instead, it would shift a little more of the local tax burden to the state tax base — in the long run promoting more growth in local spending and taxes. Read More
Over at SeeThroughNY, our team works really hard to post fresh data quickly and accurately — when it’s available, that is. Read More
New York’s State Senate spent almost $45 million during the six-month period ending last September, according to the latest data available at SeeThroughNY, where the Empire Center for Public Policy maintains public records dating back to 2007. Read More
In a landmark case brought by the Empire Center with the support of major news media and good government watchdog organizations, the public’s right to know the identities of public pension recipients in New York will be at stake in arguments heard next week by the state’s highest court. Read More
“Why are property taxes so high? Because we have 10,500 local governments,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday, repeating (yet again) his favorite mantra. Cuomo clearly wants to imply that he’s referring to 10,500 autonomous entities, falling over one another in a virtual orgy of bureaucratic excess. Read More