All together, these and a few other adjustments results in total spending increasing by $4.7 billion for this year, according to the Empire Center. [Read_more]
In recent memory, New York’s budget negotiations typically end with the good, the bad, and the big ugly. Is it time to change the way the state budget is negotiated? We recapped this morning’s event on the topic with EJ McMahon, Founder and Research Director of the Empire Center, and former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. [Read_more]
The heightened scrutiny of overtime at the MTA follows the release of a report by the Empire Center for Public Policy that revealed an unusually high rate of overtime collected by some employees, especially those at the Long Island Rail Road. [Read_more]
Nine of the top 10 overtime earners at the MTA worked for the LIRR, documents obtained by the conservative think tank Empire Center for Public Policy show. [Read_more]
"The Capital District has some of the more extreme (population changes) in the state," said E.J. McMahon, research director at the Empire Center for Public Policy, who has analyzed the figures. "Saratoga County is one of just two counties in upstate that is growing from in-migration of people." [Read_more]
E.J. McMahon, the research director for the Empire Center for Public Policy, told the Post that "much more needs to be done to improve the basic climate for economic growth."
"It's just not dynamic enough to hold more of its people," McMahon said. [Read_more]
Wednesday, MTA Chairman Pat Foye said the agency has OK’d a plan for outside consultants to do a 60-day analysis of its payroll systems. The review won’t focus specifically on overtime, but it comes just weeks after the Empire Center reported soaring levels of OT at the LIRR. [Read_more]
E.J. McMahon, research director of the Albany-based Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank, said contractual employee raises from collective bargaining agreements and civil service laws likely played a major role in rising costs. The agreements "produce steady increases over time, based mainly on seniority and oblivious to local economic or fiscal pressures," McMahon said. [Read_more]
The data was highlighted this week by the Empire Center, a fiscally conservative think tank that has long pointed to the state’s high education costs, which is a major burden for homeowners. “The education spending gap between New York and the rest of the U.S. has grown considerably wider overall,” noted E.J. McMahon, the Empire Center’s founder and research director. [Read_more]
Kluger’s departure comes as overtime abuse at the MTA and the LIRR are now the subject of a federal probe. The IG’s office launched its own investigation into the agency’s overtime practices earlier this month at Foye’s urging, following a report by the Empire Center for Public Policy that revealed skyrocketing pay rates among some MTA employees. [Read_more]
Further, revenue for New York’s hospitals overall increased by $14 billion from 2012 to 2016, according to a report by Albany-based conservative think tank Empire Center. [Read_more]
The Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon reported this week that the DOE’s schools now spend $25,199 per student, easily the highest among the nation’s 100 largest systems and more than twice the national average. This, when more than half the city’s kids don’t make the grade in math or reading. [Read_more]
