With New Yorkers preparing to vote on school budget propositions next Tuesday, the Empire Center today released an Internet-based tool allowing taxpayers to compute and compare total school district, municipal and county tax burdens in thousands of communities across the state. Read More
Press Releases
Upstate school districts are showing more fiscal restraint than their downstate counterparts in proposed 2011-12 school budgets, according to an analysis issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
The New York City Police Pension Fund had no legal basis for refusing last year to release the names of retired police officers in response to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request from the Empire Center, according to an appellate brief filed by the Center this week. Read More
New Yorkers today can search the complete 2010 state government payroll on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. The database includes, names, titles, base pay rates and total pay received by the 273,983 people who worked in the state’s executive, legislative or judicial branches at any point last year. Read More
“Proactive disclosure” of public information on the Internet is the next logical step in the evolution of government transparency, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy, which today released model legislation to make it a reality. Read More
New York’s State Legislature spent $114 million during the six-month period ending last September, according to the latest legislative expenditure data posted at SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. SeeThroughNY now includes four full years of legislative expenditures, in what has become the most extensive searchable database of its kind available to New Yorkers on the Internet. Read More
The cost of financing long-term care (LTC) through Medicaid is on track to become “a crippling burden” for New York State unless steps are taken to reform the program, a report issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy warns. Read More
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
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