The Cuomo administration's recently released summary of contact tracing data was a tantalizing disappointment. Information that could have clarified the risks of different activities during the coronavirus pandemic was Read More
Month: July 2020
Mayor de Blasio began his tenure by rewarding New York City’s worst-performing schools with added funding. He’s now set to end it by punishing the city’s best. Read More
This year New York saw, among other things, the beginnings of the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression as the coronavirus pandemic and related shutdowns clobbered state tax revenues. The Empire Center worked through the year to help make se Read More
A pending change to New York's Medicaid program known as the pharmacy "carve-out" is drawing opposition from a range of interests, including insurers, AIDS clinics and the health-care labor union 1199 SEIU. Read More
New York could be on the way to its first population decline in any decade since the 1970s, according to from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Empire State's July 1, 2020 population of 19,336,776 was down 126,355, or 0.65 percent, from the estimated l Read More
School districts outside New York City paid a record-high number of employees $100,000 or more during the 2019-20 school year as schools were physically closed for the final three months, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
New York State's tax receipts in November were a whopping $800 million above Governor Cuomo's projections for the month—further evidence that the current-year budget gap is probably much smaller than Cuomo has been claiming. Meanwhile, however, Read More
Despite the crushing impact of pandemic restrictions on small businesses throughout New York, the state Labor Department announced late today that it will move forward with a big minimum wage increase scheduled for the end of the month. Read More