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
Press Releases
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
The names and salaries of 186,223 people who worked for New York’s county, city, town and village governments in 2009-10 today were posted in a searchable database at SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
New Yorkers can now search for the names, titles, base salaries and total wages of 409,878 individuals who were employed by the New York City government during 2009 at SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
New York City and other government entities should begin to “proactively” disclose payrolls, expenditure information and other public records on the Internet, according to testimony before the City Council today by Tim Hoefer, operations director of the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
A searchable database of pension allowances for 342,543 retired New York state and local government employees was posted today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
A searchable database of the complete Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) payroll for 2009 – including names, titles, base pay rates and total pay received by 74,708 individuals – shows an increase of 2.4 percent in the average total pay of MTA employees last year. Read More
Updated school labor contracts for 71 teacher unions and 62 school superintendents were posted today on www.SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
More than 1,000 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 new database from the New York State Teachers Retirement System (NYSTRS) includes name, benefit rate, retirement date and last known employer when available, for 134,796 people collecting pensions in 2009. Read More
Property taxes per pupil would rise by nearly twice the rate of inflation under proposed school districts budgets that will go to voters around New York State in two weeks, according to an analysis issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
The state Legislature has the power to impose a temporary freeze on the collectively bargained wages and “step” increments of public employees in New York to help deal with a severe fiscal crisis, according to a legal opinion released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More