The Empire Center filed a pair of lawsuits this week charging the state Health Department with improperly withholding public records in violation of the Freedom of Information Law. Read More
Press Releases
A new analysis of New York’s Medicaid program reveals a ballooning disparity between its rising enrollment and the state’s declining poverty rates. As many as 3 million New Yorkers appear to be receiving state-sponsored health coverage from Medicaid or the Essential Plan despite having incomes above the eligibility limits, according to the just-published report from the Empire Center. Read More
The New York State Education Department has released data showing outcomes from New York’s 2024 state assessment tests, taken by students in grades 3 to 8 last spring. This is the third year in a row that state education officials have failed to release the data until well into the next school year. Read More
The payroll of The Research Foundation for The State University of New York grew more than twice as quickly as SUNY’s own payroll over the past five years, according to new data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
The Board of Directors of the Empire Center for Public Policy today announced the appointment of Zilvinas Silenas as President and CEO. Zilvinas (also goes by “Z”) will succeed Tim Hoefer, who joined the Empire Center in 2008 and has led the o Read More
The number of retirees eligible for $200,000 or more in pensions from the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) reached 78 in the 2024 fiscal year, according to, the Empire Ce Read More
New York City firefighters and fire officers retiring last year after full careers were entitled to average annual pension benefits of $151,676, up six percent from the prior year, according to new data added Read More
Pension payments to the 52,417 retired police officers in the New York City Police Pension Fund (PPF) climbed to $3.17 billion during the fiscal year 2023, according to new data posted today at Read More
Massachusetts for decades has posted better student outcomes than New York at a considerably lower per-pupil cost. In a new Empire Center report, a former member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education takes the first major step toward understanding this disparity by identifying key differences between the two states’ public education systems. Read More
Seven Port Authority of New York and New Jersey employees last year collected more than $200,000 each in overtime as total overtime surged, according to 2023 payroll data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. The five-year increase in overtime far exceeds the Port Authority's payroll savings from phasing out bridge and tunnel toll collectors over the same period. Read More
Three in five New Yorkers (60 percent) say the state is on the wrong track, up from 55 percent earlier this year, according to the latest Empire Index poll of registered voters by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
School districts presenting budgets to voters next Tuesday plan to spend an average of $33,404 per student, up 4.4 percent from the current school year, according to new state data. Read More