Ken Girardin

Special Advisor

Ken Girardin is a special advisor to the Empire Center, following several years of work guiding the organization’s research agenda and communications strategy. He joined the Manhattan Institute as a fellow in March 2025.

Ken’s work for the Empire Center included The Micron Test, which compared how New York treats large new business operations with those already here, and Green Guardrails, a critical analysis of New York’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

He previously worked with E.J. McMahon to produce the first independent analysis of New York’s property tax cap, which demonstrated the cap’s effectiveness and boosted efforts to extend the cap and ultimately make it permanent. He also authored The Janus Stakes, a quantitative analysis of the influence New York’s public-sector unions have over public policy in the Empire State.

Ken has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in materials engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. He was previously an aide in the New York State Legislature.

Latest Work

Governor Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders have reached a deal allowing striking workers to collect unemployment insurance benefits after three weeks, a big gift to private-sector labor unions that would further discourage companies from hiring and investing here. Read More

A dispute over the construction contract for a stretch of proposed state-funded public walking and biking trail in Central New York shows how far Governor Andrew Cuomo will go to steer state contracts to construction unions—and how much that’s costing taxpayers. Read More

A proposed rule under consideration by the U.S. Department of Labor would have the unexpected benefit of letting more New York public employees see how their union dues are spent—and negating a major union’s recent move to escape federal oversight. Read More

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s regulatory attack on National Grid’s Long Island gas moratorium threatens to have broader negative financial effects on all of the state’s investor-owned utilities—with implications for the overall business climate as well. Read More