Press Releases

A Cayuga County employee was the highest-paid municipal government worker in Central New York during the state’s 2019 fiscal year, according to the latest edition of “What They Make,” the Empire Center’s annual report summarizing total local government pay. Read More

Employees of the troubled New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) pulled down $96 million in overtime payments in fiscal 2019, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More

Six-figure pensions are becoming the norm among retirees from New York’s largest downstate suburban police departments, according to data posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More

Payroll data for 73,884 public authority employees, totaling almost $4.5 billion, have been added to SeeThroughNY. Read More

Tables summarizing the latest Census Bureau population estimates for towns, cities and villages in New York State have been posted in the Data section of the Empire Center’s website. Read More

The number of government retirees allowed to collect both a paycheck and public pension has grown by 9 percent, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Of the 933 active “double-dippers,” eight are eligible to take home more than $300,000, and at least 30 can take home more than $200,000. Read More

Over half of the 668 school districts seeking voter approval for budgets on Tuesday, May 21 are presenting spending plans to increase property taxes as high as the 2011 property tax cap law allows, according to an analysis released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More

A new guidebook from the Empire Center for Public Policy will help public employers talk to their workers about how they’re affected by the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, the Center announced today. Read More

Residents of the Western New York village of Sloan had the highest effective property tax rate in New York (outside New York City and Nassau), according to Benchmarking NY, the Empire Center’s annual rundown of local property tax burdens. Read More

The Empire Center for Public Policy will honor the late former Governor Hugh L. Carey with a policy forum series devoted to issues in New York State government. Read More

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) employees were paid an average of $100,302 last year, according to data released today on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More

Overtime payments jumped nearly 16 percent last year at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), fueling agency-wide average pay hikes of 6 percent, according to newly posted payroll records at SeeThroughNY.net. The increase in MTA payroll costs for 2018 alone was $418 million—$82 million more than the authority expects to raise annually from its latest round of fare, ticket and toll hikes. Read More