Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed cap on property taxes is justified in light of New York State’s exceptionally heavy property tax burden, according to a report released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
Press Releases
Mandate relief priorities to help local governments and school districts cope with failing revenues and a proposed tax cap were outlined today in state Senate testimony by E.J. McMahon, senior fellow at the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
New York’s Legislature should avoid adding any tax increases to the proposed 2011-12 state budget, E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy testified today before the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees. Read More
The New York City Council’s pork-barrel member-item spending for fiscal 2011 has been posted on SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. The $54.4 million in discretionary member items represent projects City Council members sponsored for the 2010-11 fiscal year. Read More
The Empire Center for Public Policy today announced that it is appealing a recent court ruling that would block public release of the names of more than 44,000 retired police officers collecting benefits from the New York City Police Pension Fund. Read More
Taxpayer-funded employer contributions to public pensions in New York State will rise by billions of dollars in the next few years, threatening to divert scarce resources from other essential public services in the midst of a fiscal crisis, according to a report issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
A searchable online database of earnings for 402,896 employees of New York State school districts outside New York City was posted today at www.SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
New York’s public-sector employees have been promised $205 billion in post-retirement health benefits that the state and its local governments have set aside no money to pay for, according to a report released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
A searchable database of pension benefits for 203,474 retired New York City government employees was posted today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
The Empire Center has sued two City of New York pension funds--and the New York City Council--for failure to release public records as required by the state Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). The lawsuits involve three separate Article 78 proceedings... Read More
Updated school labor contracts for 77 teacher unions and 112 school superintendents were posted today on www.SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada (D-Bronx), spent $880,201 on his legislative office operations and staff in the most recent six-month period reported by the Legislature—nearly $273,000 more than former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Brunswick) spent during a comparable period in 2008. Read More