The number of teachers and other educational professionals paid more than $100,000 by school districts outside New York City climbed to 49,834 last year, according to payroll data added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More
Local government is a labor-intensive business, and employee compensation is the single biggest element of most municipal budgets. The 2014-15 edition of What They Make, the Empire Center’s annual report on public payrolls, allows New York taxpayers to compare this key element of local government costs around the state. Read More
As the cold weather moves in, more and more New York residents move out. They used to call them snowbirds, but each year tens of thousands now stay long after the snow flies. There are two big reasons, weather and taxes, and one government watchdog group says its costing New York State. Read More
As part of his ongoing push for a statewide $15 minimum wage, Governor Andrew Cuomo repeatedly has denounced what he calls “the mother of all corporate loopholes.” In Buffalo this week, he amped up his rhetoric, reportedly charging that “business is stealing from taxpayers of this state.” Cuomo wasn’t referring to any of the notable business tax giveaways he has personally promoted, such as the $420 million a year the state doles out to wealthy film and TV producers, or the state's $750 million speculative investment in billionaire Elon Musk’s solar panel factory in Buffalo, or the 100 percent tax exemptions that will flow to the handpicked corporate occupants of START-UP NY zones. Read More
A report released last week by the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy said Cuomo’s plan would cost the state up to 588,800 jobs, including up to 273,800 in the city. Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo quietly created the new pot back in 2013 by inserting it into a budget bill. State lawmakers approved it. Each year since then the pot has grown, so that now Cuomo and legislative leaders have given themselves the authority to borrow up to $1.1 billion for yet-to-be-named projects. Read More
All the checks dilute the intent of trying to lower people’s tax bills, said E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center, a fiscally conservative think tank in Albany. Read More
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour could cost the state nearly 200,000 jobs, a new report by The Empire Center argues. Researchers also said that number could be on the conservative end. Read More