Press Releases

Nearly three-quarters (307) of the 416 firefighters and fire officers who retired from the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) during 2017 are eligible to collect pensions of at least $100,000, according to data posted today to SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More

The feasibility of a full state takeover of the remaining local share of Medicaid costs in New York is explored in a new report released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More

The Empire Center today sent a letter to state and local government employers across New York, pointing out their new obligations to non-union government employees under last week’s U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Janus v. AFSCME. Read More

It’s tempting to dismiss this as political posturing. Unfortunately, the governor’s rhetoric hints that his assault on the public’s right to know might not end there. Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME will have an especially dramatic impact in New York, home to the most highly unionized public sector in the country. Read More

The Cuomo administration has approved 2,740 capital grants for more than $1 billion in executive and legislative pork-barrel projects. Read More

The Empire Center has issued a 50th anniversary update of its seminal 2007 report on New York’s landmark Taylor Law, which governs labor relations in state and local government. Read More

Payroll data for 74,660 public authority employees, totaling $4.4 billion, have been added to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More

Despite a concentration of world-famous hospitals in Manhattan, New York’s overall hospital industry ranks at or near the bottom on a range of performance benchmarks measuring quality, efficiency, financial health and equality of access, an Empire Center study has found. Read More

The Empire Center has posted sortable online databases of per-pupil spending and tax levy increases proposed in 2018-19 school budgets that will go to the voters next Tuesday, May 15. Read More

Nearly half of the 669 school districts seeking voter approval for budgets on Tuesday, May 15 are presenting spending plans that would increase property taxes as high as the 2011 property tax cap law allows, according to an analysis released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More

Benchmarking NY uses data from the state comptroller’s office to calculate effective tax rates–combined county, municipal and school taxes as a percent of market value–for thousands of localities across the state during 2017, excluding only New York City and Nassau County. Read More