Tim Hoefer

It's a simple concept: governments collect tax dollars from citizens, then spends those tax dollars on services for them. Citizens have a right to know how those tax dollars are spent. Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw gets it. Read More

Eighty-five percent of the websites for New York’s 500 largest counties, municipalities and school districts failed to earn a passing grade in the Empire Center’s first annual SeeThroughNY Website Report Card Read More

A recent online survey asked, "should employees have the right to decide, without force or penalty, whether to join or leave a labor union?" Nearly 83 percent of New York respondents said yes, they should. Read More

The property tax cap for New York counties, towns and villages with fiscal years starting January 1, 2015 will start at 1.56 percent, slightly lower than last year's starting rate of 1.66 percent. The cap in each locality will vary based on the amount of applicable allowable exclusions for growth in local property values. Localities also will be able to exclude the amount by which the change in pension contributions exceeds two percentage points Read More

After seven months of foot-dragging, New York's economic development agency finally got around to answering the Empire Center's request for details of state spending on an advertising campaign promoting the Start-Up NY tax-free zone program. The total price tag for the campaign over the past year has been nearly $35 million, most of it spent on TV commercials outside and inside New York State, according to the summary we received. Read More

Twenty-four school districts sought to override the state’s property tax levy cap in yesterday’s school budget votes. Nine districts, or 38 percent of those attempting, failed to garner the 60 percent supermajority vote needed to pass an override. The vast majority of school districts held their proposed tax levies below the statewide average of about 2.1 percent, including allowances for voter-approved capital spending, property taxes generated by new construction, and other factors. On a per-pupil basis, as detailed in the Empire Center’s annual School Budget Spotlight, the average proposed tax levy hike came to 2.6 percent. Spending growth in proposed budgets was 3.2 percent per pupil, one and a half times the inflation rate. Read More

Governor Cuomo’s method of unveiling economic development “awards” is certainly a triumph of branding, hype and stagecraft, complete with special guest emcee Maria Bartiromo. Read More

Over at SeeThroughNY, our team works really hard to post fresh data quickly and accurately — when it’s available, that is. Read More