The Empire Center for Public Policy has asked the state’s highest court to review an appellate decision that would hide public information from public view. The Center’s efforts have been bolstered by an amicus brief filed on behalf of the state’s leading newspapers. Read More
Press Releases
New Yorkers can now search for the names, titles, base salaries and total wages of 394,443 individuals who were employed by the New York City government during 2010 at SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
One of New York State's most respected public policy experts has joined the staff of the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
A searchable online database of earnings for 373,971 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
The Empire Center for Public Policy says it will ask the state’s highest court to review an appellate decision that would, for the first time in New York’s history, restrict public access to the identities of public pension recipients. Read More
New York’s State Legislature spent $105 million during the six-month period ending last March, according to the latest legislative expenditure data posted at SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. SeeThroughNY includes expenditures dating back to October 1, 2006, in what has become the most extensive searchable database of its kind available to New Yorkers on the Internet. Read More
The names, pension benefit rates and retirement dates of more than 16,000 New York City Fire Department retirees were added to SeeThroughNY today, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
The Empire Center for Public Policy today posted updated municipal salaries on the newly revamped SeeThroughNY.net, the Center’s transparency website. The data include the names and earnings of the 168,748 people who worked for New York’s city, county, town and village governments in 2010-11. Read More
Thirteen percent of newly retired members of the state Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS) in 2010 qualified for a pension of more than $100,000, according to data posted at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Most of the 125 new PFRS retirees with six-figure pensions worked for agencies on Long Island and in the lower Hudson Valley, including the Port Authority of NY & NJ, continuing a trend that has developed in the past decade. Read More
The list of highest-paid MTA employees was topped by Jay Walder, the agency’s chairman and CEO, whose base salary in 2010 was $350,000, followed by seven other high-ranking MTA executives who earned between $241,341 and $285,331. Read More
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — the shared responsibility of elected officials in two states, with no direct accountability to taxpayers — is among the most generous of the region’s large public-sector employers, as reflected in payroll records posted today at www.SeethroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. The new data include names, titles, locations, base pay and total pay received for those employees. Read More
More than 1,200 retired New York State school teachers and administrators are entitled to annual pensions of more than $100,000, according to pension data posted today on www.SeeThroughNY.net, the government transparency website. The database from the New York State Teachers Retirement System (NYSTRS) includes name, benefit rate, retirement date and last known employer when available, for 136,644 people collecting pensions in 2010. Read More