Press Releases

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

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s payroll jumped $663 million, or 9 percent, last year as overtime spending ticked up to a new record and subsidiaries dished out $261 million in retroactive pay, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More

"This year’s budget process was an avoidable trainwreck. New York is the only state that begins its fiscal year on April 1, earlier than anyone else. This has contributed to Albany’s new, old tradition of missing deadlines, then hurriedly voting on bills before lawmakers can fully review them. Moving the fiscal year start would make the budget process more transparent and give lawmakers time to better perform their duty as the state’s board of directors." Read More

New York’s two teacher pension systems last year had 25 retirees eligible to collect pensions of more than $300,000, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More

A total of 189 out of 685 school districts outside New York City last year had median classroom teacher pay over $100,000, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website, up from 156 five years earlier. Read More