The number of school district employees outside New York City paid more than $100,000 has jumped from 32,914 in 2008-09 to 48,703 in 2013-14, according to a report from the Empire Center for Public Policy, representing a 48 percent increase over the last five years. Read More
The number of upstate school district employees earning six-figure salaries has climbed in the past five years by 48 percent, according to data released Thursday by an Albany think tank. Read More
Thirteen of the 50 highest-paid educators in New York state last year, outside of New York City, were school administrators in the Lower Hudson Valley, according to a new database published Thursday by the Empire Center. Read More
Empire Center for Public Policy, an independent nonprofit organization based in Albany, issued a press release Thursday outlining the latest school salary data compiled by SeeThroughNY.net, which is a government transparency project sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
"If you spend on those things," added Empire Center for Public Policy's E.J. McMahon Monday, "you have to keep spending more, and raise taxes again year after year after year — to support the tech, to get the curriculum to use it, to train teachers on how to use it." Read More
About 1.2 million people left New York to other states between 2000 and 2009, the Empire Center for New York State Policy found a report in 2011. Immigration is the main reason New York has added population. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, said the bond act — with its spend-now-or-kiss-it-goodbye philosophy — could lead to wasteful spending. Some of the investment, McMahon fears, could be used on technology that becomes obsolete before the bonds are paid off. "You are pressing money on districts to buy stuff they may not need," he said. "It's free money for items that could be a low priority. It's bound to be inefficient, and uses up the state's scarce capital borrowing capacity." Read More
Yes, the CitiBikes are now union bikes — but CitiBike workers shouldn’t expect MTA-style pay and benefits anytime soon. The union can’t fleece the bike riders like it can fleece Gov. Cuomo’s taxpayers. Read More