Tim Hoefer

President & CEO

Tim Hoefer is president and CEO of the Empire Center for Public Policy. He joined the Center in March 2008, and previously served as the Center’s director of operations and communications manager.

Hoefer’s work focuses on transparency, government reform and accountability. He has written several papers on those subjects, testified before local and statewide panels and authored various op-eds. His numerous interviews have been featured in print, radio and broadcast media throughout the state. Since its launch in July 2008, Hoefer has been the principal on the Center’s government transparency project, SeeThroughNY.net.

Before joining the Center, Hoefer worked in communications and public affairs with the New York State Senate and Assembly. He also has worked as a consultant for, and on, political campaigns, at the local, state and federal level.

Born and raised in Saratoga, he is a native New Yorker. Hoefer has a bachelor’s degree in government & politics from George Mason University and earned his master’s degree in public policy from New England College.

Latest Work

Governor Cuomo today marked Sunshine Week by launching Open New York, a really cool portal for finding government data online -- without having to file a Freedom of Information Law request. The site launched with 267 data sets populating it. That's a respectable number, but a fraction of what could eventually be on the site. Read More

Just two school districts -- out of nearly 700 in New York -- will be limited to the new zero-tax hike contingency budget provision of the state's new property tax cap law next year. Read More

Nineteen school districts that attempted to override the tax cap in last month's school budget votes will present revised budgets to voters tomorrow. Nine of those districts are resubmitting budgets below the cap, seven have budgets at the cap and three districts will try again to override the cap. Read More

Forty-nine school districts* were seeking to override the state's new property tax cap in yesterday's school budget votes. Of those, our review of regional media coverage suggests 30 districts* passed an override, while 19 districts voted their budgets down. Seven of the proposed overrides failed to collect even 50 percent of the vote. Read More

The Charlotte Valley School District in Delaware County had a tough employment situation on their hands until just last week. Former building principal Edgar Whaley had been a focus of controversy — going back at least a year. But that’s all settled now, thanks to a secret, lucrative contract settlement passed by the school’s board of education late last week. Read More

Empire Center Logo Enjoying our work? Sign up for email alerts on our latest news and research.
Together, we can make New York a better place to live and work!