State officials met with the ultimate winner of a $1 billion Medicaid contract two weeks before the Legislature authorized bidding on the job as part of the state's 2024-25 budget, an email obtained by the Empire Cente Read More
Category: Blog
Governor Kathy Hochul made news this fall when she used her legislative veto power in a way that looked personal. That’s how Albany watchers and the target, Senator James Skoufis, Read More
A new fiscal report from the state Budget Division suggests federal funding cuts will hit New York's health-care budget less severely than officials have previously warned. A Read More
The front-running candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has said he can finance his costly campaign promises – including free buses and universal child care – by taxing only a sliver of the city's resi Read More
K-12 SOS is a pilot project of the Empire Center to inform parents, politicians, and decision-makers about the state of K-12 education in New York State. Determining why certain schools perform better than others is beyond the scope of this resea Read More
Five years after the coronavirus pandemic, the state Department of Health is pleading ignorance about one of its most hotly debated policy choices of the crisis – a directive that sent thousands of infected patients Read More
This fall, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law bills containing the state’s permission for three cities — Mount Vernon, Schenectady and White Plains — to test camera enforcement for school speed zones. Read More
A by National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) lamented the declining state of U.S. education by highlighting how scores in grade 12 math and reading have hit record lows. While Covid-19 was definitely a factor, others correctly pointed out Read More