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New York’s state and local taxpayers are saving more than $1 billion this year thanks to public pension changes enacted a decade ago Read More

New York taxpayers have been hit with enormous increases in pension costs for state and local government employees over the past 20 years. From less than $1 billion in 2000, combined annual employer contributions to the Empire State’s public pension funds escalated to nearly $10 billion by 2010, peaking at nearly $17 billion in 2015. Contributions have leveled off at roughly $16 billion in recent years—but under lenient government accounting standards, even that figure conceals the full long-term cost of generous, locked-in pension benefits for generations of retired government employees.  Read More

New Yorkers should be on high alert in the wake of a new study issued last month concerning the ambitious climate law signed by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in July 2019 that mandates goals and timetables for the state’s transition from fossil fuels to r Read More

James E. Hanley has joined the Empire Center for Public Policy as a senior policy analyst, focusing on energy and environmental policy. Read More

The December 6 meeting of the Climate Action Council made one thing clear – the Council has no intention of figuring out how much the state’s headlong rush to renewable energy will cost New York utility customers.  Read More

New York's share of the nation's income millionaire households continued to fall in 2019 Read More

A new Empire Center report reveals that the New York Medicaid program now covers more individuals above the poverty line than below it. The government-financed health plan has traditionally focused on the indigent and disabled. Buts its rolls have recently surged to 7.2 million—more than one-third of the state’s population— despite a decline in New York’s poverty rate.  Read More

A new Empire Center report reveals that the New York Medicaid program now covers more individuals above the poverty line than below it. Read More