Tables summarizing the latest Census Bureau population estimates for towns, cities and villages in New York State have been posted in the Data section of the Empire Center’s website. Read More
Press Releases
The number of government retirees allowed to collect both a paycheck and public pension has grown by 9 percent, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Of the 933 active “double-dippers,” eight are eligible to take home more than $300,000, and at least 30 can take home more than $200,000. Read More
Over half of the 668 school districts seeking voter approval for budgets on Tuesday, May 21 are presenting spending plans to 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
A new guidebook from the Empire Center for Public Policy will help public employers talk to their workers about how they’re affected by the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, the Center announced today. Read More
Residents of the Western New York village of Sloan had the highest effective property tax rate in New York (outside New York City and Nassau), according to Benchmarking NY, the Empire Center’s annual rundown of local property tax burdens. Read More
The Empire Center for Public Policy will honor the late former Governor Hugh L. Carey with a policy forum series devoted to issues in New York State government. Read More
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) employees were paid an average of $100,302 last year, according to data released today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More
Overtime payments jumped nearly 16 percent last year at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), fueling agency-wide average pay hikes of 6 percent, according to newly posted payroll records at SeeThroughNY.net. The increase in MTA payroll costs for 2018 alone was $418 million—$82 million more than the authority expects to raise annually from its latest round of fare, ticket and toll hikes. Read More
The Empire Center for Public Policy this week filed Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) appeals with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) after six of its seven subsidiaries failed to release public payroll records. Read More
The Empire Center has updated its online Spend-O-Meter to reflect the record size of New York’s newly enacted $175.5 billion budget for fiscal 2020. Read More
The impending enactment of a permanent property tax levy cap in New York is a truly historic moment. Since its founding in 2005, the Empire Center has identified a broad cap on property tax levies as a top policy priority. Read More
Complete copies of 220 local government and school district labor union contracts were added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More