Tim Hoefer joined Liz Benjamin to discuss Gov. Cuomo's veto of legislation that would have strengthened the Freedom of Information Law. Read More
Month: March 2015
Whoever said crime doesn’t pay hasn’t been to Albany. Disgraced Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver hopes to soon join an exclusive club of 18 crooked ex-pols who pull down millions in taxpayer-funded pensions. The former lawmakers, who were censured, indicted or convicted, have collectively glommed more than $3.8 million since fiscal year 2010, Empire Center for Public Policy figures show. Read More
New York's leading export remains people. Read More
The rapid rise and costly fall of Health Republic Insurance of New York, the largest nonprofit health insurance “co-op” established under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, is a cautionary tale. Read More
State regulators should have foreseen the failure of NY's Obamacare co-op. Read More
The collapse of Health Republic Insurance of New York, a non-profit insurance co-op established under Obamacare, can be blamed largely on “an apparent breakdown in state oversight,” concludes a report released today by the Empire Center. The report says the state Department of Financial Services (DFS) should loosen its regulatory control of insurance premiums and refocus on the financial soundness of insurance companies. Read More
Budget deficits papered over with borrowed money and fiscal gimmicks. Unaffordable union contracts. Pension contributions “amortized” into the future. Retiree health benefits promised but unfunded. Corruption probes and whiffs of scandal. Accountability blurred, responsibility shirked, and hard decisions avoided again and again. That litany could describe any number of old, declining American cities—including a few that, like Detroit, actually went broke. But the same dysfunction exists in affluent corners of New York’s archetypal suburb: Long Island Read More
The Empire Center for Public Policy has produced a new online video series in which a dozen New York State employers explain how their hiring patterns would be affected by a proposed $15-an-hour minimum wage. Read More