"Thanks to Medicaid over-spending, New York's state budget gaps have blown up to their highest levels since the Great Recession," wrote E.J. McMahon, founder of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank in Albany. Read More
But Medicaid has been facing a growing deficit, one that was not so quickly acknowledged in public by the governor. It wasn't until the summer before a fiscal watchdog group, the Empire Center, found that the state last March, in the closing days of the state's fiscal year, rolled over $1.7 billion in Medicaid payments to some 80,000 providers, like hospitals, into April - and, thus, the start of a new fiscal year. Read More
When a significant number of labor groups, coupled with the hospital and insurance industries, take a stance against legislation in Albany, that would usually be enough to stop the measure in its tracks. What is unusual about the New York Health Act is that it continues to be potentially viable, having passed previously in the state Assembly, and having gained a flock of Senate co-sponsors, said William Hammond, director of health policy for the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
But E.J. McMahon, the research director at the right-leaning Empire Center for Public Policy, counters that “it is frequently misrepresented as representing some sort of minimal ‘living’ wage when it actually is used to impose union work rules, manning ratios and combined wage and benefit levels on all public jobs subject to it.” Read More
The district is faced with having to lay off 152 teachers by the end of this month in order to help close a $64.8 million budget deficit, unless another plan is devised by next week. According to an analysis by the Empire Center, the district in 2015-2016 (the last year figures were available) identified 146 teachers as “ineffective.” All or most of those teachers will be retained because of this policy, the Empire Center reports. Read More
Gov. Cuomo needs to addresses Medicaid shortfalls immediately. The problem is the rising cost of Medicaid, and according to the Empire Center, everything the governor has done to address Medicaid costs over the past few years has made things worse. Read More
Seethroughny.net is maintained by the Empire Center for Public Policy and is dedicated to providing New Yorkers a way to easily access government information. Read More
When a significant number of labor groups, coupled with the hospital and insurance industries, take a stance against legislation in Albany, that would usually be enough to stop the measure in its tracks. What is unusual about the New York Health Act is that it continues to be potentially viable, having passed previously in the state Assembly, and having gained a flock of Senate co-sponsors, said William Hammond, director of health policy for the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More