E.J. McMahon

Founding Senior Fellow

Edmund J. McMahon was the Empire Center’s founding senior fellow.

McMahon’s writing and research has focused on improving New York’s economic competitiveness and promoting greater transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility in state and local government. He has authored or co-authored major studies on public pension reform, collective bargaining, population migration, budget trends and tax policy in New York. His influential “Blueprint for a Better Budget,” published in January 2010, featured a number of recommendations subsequently implemented under Governors David Paterson and Andrew Cuomo. McMahon also was a leading advocate of an across-the-board cap on property taxes in New York before it was enacted at Governor Cuomo’s initiative in 2011.

McMahon has published numerous articles and essays in publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron’s, the Public Interest, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, Newsday and the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. His frequent radio and TV interviews have included appearances on CNBC, Fox News Channel and Bloomberg News, as well as on regional cable and broadcast outlets throughout New York State.

McMahon’s professional background includes nearly 30 years as an Albany-based analyst and close observer of New York State government. As chief fiscal advisor to the Assembly Republican Conference in the early 1990s, he drafted a personal income tax reform plan that would become the basis for historic tax cuts enacted under Governor George E. Pataki. Previously, as research director of the Public Policy Institute, he worked on the Institute’s counter-budget proposals and developed the template for New York’s school report cards. He also served as a deputy commissioner in the state Department of Taxation and Finance and as a vice chancellor of the State University of New York.

McMahon is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, which he joined in June 2000. In January 2005, he opened the Institute’s Albany-based Empire Center project, which became an independent nonprofit think tank in 2013. He was the Empire Center’s founding president and became research director in the fall of 2016.

Earlier in his career, he was a staff writer and columnist for the Albany Times Union and The Knickerbocker News.

McMahon is a graduate of Villanova University.

Latest Work

Gov Comes Down on Taxpayers’ Side

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • New York Post
  • January 31, 2011
  • Commentary

On the eve of what could be the biggest state budget showdown ever in New York, Gov. Cuomo has taken a big step toward delivering on the single most important promise he made to taxpayers in his successful 2010 campaign. Read More

A Cure, or a Bandage?

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • The New York Times
  • February 7, 2011
  • Commentary

Reducing pension benefits for New York’s next generation of municipal workers, as Mayor Bloomberg proposed last week, would gradually move pension costs to a lower plateau in the coming decades. And despite the union caterwauling that greeted Mr. Bloomberg’s plan, city employees would continue to receive pensions far more generous than those available to private-sector workers. Read More

Court In The Middle

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • New York Post
  • February 4, 2011
  • Commentary

Gov. Cuomo is framing his state budget proposal as an effort to end Albany’s ingrained habit of unsustainable and unaffordable spending. Read More

Testimony: FY2011 New York State Budget

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • February 14, 2011
  • Testimony

Governor Cuomo’s 2011-12 Executive Budget does not call for any significant state tax increases. The thrust of my testimony today is that the Legislature should not attempt to add tax increases to this budget—and should start actively working on a more competitive and growth-oriented tax policy for the future. Read More

Easy Access, Quality Care

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • February 16, 2011
  • Reports

Beginning in 2014, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in March 2010, is expected to significantly extend health-insurance coverage in New York by increasing Medicaid enrollment and offering federal subsidies for the purchase of private health insurance. However, there is no guarantee that the newly insured will be able to access the health-care system in a timely fashion as new demand for services outstrips physician supply. Read More

Testimony: Mandate Relief

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • February 17, 2011
  • Testimony

I want to begin today by commending the state Senate for its passage last month of Governor Cuomo’s property tax cap bill. In years to come, the Jan. 31 vote may be seen as a turning point, a historic first step towards lasting relief for New York’s taxpayers. Read More

Cuomo’s Tied Down

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • New York Post
  • February 28, 2011
  • Commentary

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s broad challenge to government unions won’t be replicated in New York state anytime soon. Read More

Testimony: Property Tax Cap

New York’s local property tax levels are exceptionally high by national standards and have grown by more than double the inflation rate over the past decade, justifying the governor’s push to limit future growth. Read More