Media Coverage : Empire Center for Public Policy

New York’s reckless new budget gets even worse April 09, 2018 | New York Post Editorial

Last week we slammed the new state budget as an exercise in financial recklessness. But the bad news is still rolling in. [Read_more]

NYS budget recap: broken process, broken promises April 05, 2018 | The Post-Standard Editorial

Over the weekend, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York's Legislatureagreed on a $168.3 billion budget for the 2019 fiscal year. Before Albany moves on to the next thing - which could be nothing in an election year - let's revisit what it just did and what it means. [Read_more]

NY lawmakers’ disgraceful gift to public-sector unions April 04, 2018 | New York Post Editorial

Count New York’s government-employee unions among the biggest winners of this year’s budget battle — with taxpayers as the big losers.

In the dead of night, the Legislature adopted language that aims to protect public unions’ political power from a likely US Supreme Court ruling. [Read_more]

State’s pork barrel fund needs oversight April 04, 2018 | The Daily Gazette Editorial

The Empire Center, a government watchdog group in Albany, calls it the “biggest, murkiest, pork-barrel slush fund Albany (and perhaps any state capital) has ever seen.”

The allocation is slipped into the state budget without any explanation from legislative leaders and the governor. [Read_more]

To understand the NY’s pork projects, you have to meet SAM April 04, 2018 | Buffalo News

State residents who pay close attention to how Albany operates should be familiar by now with the names of the elected officials who decide how their money gets spent. But if they really want to understand, they should get to know SAM. [Read_more]

State budget lets unions deny some services to workers who don’t pay dues April 03, 2018 | New York Post

Hey, Big Labor, Albany’s got your back.

A provision tucked into the state budget gives public-employee unions the right to deny many services, such as free legal help, to covered employees who opt not to join or pay dues. [Read_more]

The ethics reforms that New York government needs April 01, 2018 | New York Post Editorial

New York lawmakers are desperate for a pay hike. Fair enough — but only if it’s paired with major ethics reform. [Read_more]

Why it costs so much to build anything in New York City April 01, 2018 | City & State

This winter, New York has had two major construction scandals. In March, Related, the giant real estate firm building out much of the Hudson Yards office and apartment site on Manhattan’s West Side, sued construction unions, alleging that they inflated costs by more than $100 million, including fooling Related into paying up to $70 an hour for someone who fetches coffee. [Read_more]

New Yorkers lament the crowds, but it’s better to be wanted April 01, 2018 | Crain's New York Business

Two numbers released by the Census Bureau in the past month say almost everything there is to say about New York’s relationship to the rest of the world: It is that shining city on the hill. [Read_more]

196 LIRR Employees Made More Than $200K Last Year; 12 Top $300K March 28, 2018 | Patch

As prices of Long Island Rail Road fares go up, so do the yearly paychecks of its employees.

The number of LIRR employees who made more than $200,000 increased by about 40 percent from 2016 t0 2017, according to payroll data found on the Empire Center for Public Policy's transparency website, SeeThroughNY.net. [Read_more]

The Port Authority’s overpaid police are a genuine menace March 28, 2018 | New York Post Editorial

As pay packages for Port Authority cops continue to soar, the case for scrapping the PAPD grows stronger by the day.

As the Empire Center reported Tuesday, the insanity brought the average pay for the PA’s 8,169 employees to nearly six figures — $99,654 — in 2017, up 1.7 percent over 2016’s astronomical levels. [Read_more]

Behind the MTA’s overtime troubles March 04, 2018 | New York Post Editorial

Overtime costs soared at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last year to a record $1.2 billion, a 20 percent rise over 2016, according to the Empire Center’s SeeThroughNY project. [Read_more]

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