Gov. Cuomo heads to Cuba Monday on a trade mission that critics charge is aimed more at generating headlines than creating economic opportunities for New York. Read More
Category: Media Coverage
After five years of lawsuits and appeals, a Brooklyn judge has definitively upheld the right to know who’s drawing public pensions and how much they’re being paid. Read More
The names of former New York City firefighters and the public pensions they are receiving must be released under the state Freedom of Information Law to a group that is building a database of public employee pensioners, a judge ruled. Read More
“This is the most gratuitous, indefensible giveaway in the state tax code, bar none,” said E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a budget watchdog group. Read More
A trove of purloined emails detailing how Sony Pictures Entertainment executives poured money into Gov. Andrew Cuomo's campaign coffers after the state acted on a $26 million payout to the company has reignited criticism of New York's Film Tax Credit Program. Read More
Municipalities are not required by law to maintain websites. They come with a cost, they need to be maintained and they require a certain amount of in-house computer savvy to keep current. Nevertheless, good websites should be part of every municipal package because their value to taxpayers is well worth the effort. Several area municipalities took that seriously after receiving a failing grade last November when the Empire Center for Public Policy released a SeeThroughNY Website Report Card on municipal websites. The center examined 500 websites for contact information, spending date, labor contracts and public meeting records, and the ease of locating those items, and graded them accordingly. Read More
As they compete for up to $500 million being offered by state officials in an economic development contest, several upstate business leaders are planning to hire private consultants to help them craft their bids. Read More
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli today submitted legislation that would allow state and local governments to save for retiree health insurance costs through a separate pool, saying state and local governments each face a unfunded liability of a whopping $68 billion. Read More