The only proven route to long-term and lasting property-tax relief in New York is property-tax limitation - such as capping the annual growth in school-tax levies, Empire Center for Public Policy Director E.J. McMahon said in testimony today before state Assembly lawmakers. Read More
Press Releases
A comprehensive strategy for addressing New York State’s fiscal crisis, including a 30-point plan to save the state up to $30 billion over three years, was released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
The often opaque world of school finances has become more transparent with a new tool that allows New Yorkers to analyze how their school districts spend money and to compare them to nearly 700 other districts around the state. Read More
New York State’s continuing loss of residents to other states — the nation’s biggest “domestic migration” outflow since the start of the decade — is the focus of a new research report from the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
Payroll records for 121,961 custodians, bus drivers, aides, secretaries and other non-professional public school employees were posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
Up to 37 percent of New Yorkers currently lacking health insurance would be encouraged to purchase their own coverage if the price was reduced through reform of state insurance regulations, according to a new study issued today by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
The names and salaries of more than 179,000 people who worked for New York’s county, city, town and village governments in 2008-09 were posted today in a searchable database at SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
An updated staff payroll for the New York State Senate and Assembly was posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center's government transparency site for taxpayers. The payroll is fully searchable by name and title, and reflects the latest changes made in the Senate staff payroll. Read More
Payroll files for 384 Public Authorities have been posted on www.SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency web site for taxpayers.The new data includes names, titles, base pay rates and total pay received for most of the 44,320 public authority employees added today. Read More
Updated school labor contracts for 77 teacher unions and 86 school superintendents were posted today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency web site. Read More
The Empire Center today marked the first anniversary of its government transparency web site, SeeThroughNY.net, with the posting of $148.3 million in legislative pork barrel member items for 2009-10. The online database, which also includes $148.1 million in member items for 2008-09, is searchable by legislator, locality and recipient. Read More
A searchable database of the complete Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) payroll for 2008–including name, titles, base pay rates and total pay received by 78,393 employees–is now available at www.SeeThroughNY.net, the government transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More