“It can be a kind of gamesmanship where one side or another sees an advantage in delay or hurrying things up,” said Bill Hammond, director of health policy for the Empire Center. Cuomo often signals to legislative leaders which bills he’d sign and when he’d like to have bills called up to his desk. “There are also under-the breath-signals: ‘If you send me that, I’m not going to sign it,’” said E.J. MacMahon, research director of the Empire Center. Read More
The revelations come as several agencies, including federal and Queens prosecutors, continue to investigate potential overtime abuse among LIRR workers. The concerns of fraud stem from an April report by the Empire Center for Public Policy that revealed alarmingly high overtime rates among some workers. The MTA paid $418 million in overtime in 2018, up 16% from the previous year. Read More
A policy seminar titled Medicaid Migraine, held Wednesday by the fiscal watchdog group the Empire Center as part of the Gov. Hugh L. Carey Policy Forum, addressed the rapidly increasing health care costs in New York that led to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget office delaying a $1.7 billion payment to providers last year. Read More
“Postponing more payment would only make a bad situation worse,” said Bill Hammond, director of health policy at the fiscally conservative Empire Center think tank. “On a per capita basis, New York’s Medicaid program is already the costliest in the country. Last year, the state-funded portion of the program ran 8 percent over budget, and officials don’t seem to have a good handle on how they can slow things down.” Read More
In separate new reports, the Empire Center and the Citizens Budget Commission both warn that New York is “losing control” over the costs of the program to provide health care for the poor. Absent corrective action, the problems will mushroom, pushing the state deficit for the next four years to an alarming $22 billion (and even higher if the economy goes south). Read More
“They completely overshot their limit and kept that quiet. They didn’t acknowledge they were in trouble, and instead quietly delayed the payment … they’re running a deficit. By delaying payments, in the long run it will make things worse,” said Bill Hammond of the fiscally conservative Empire Center, who recommends the state return to practices pre-2016, Read More
Bill Hammond with the fiscal watchdog group the Empire Center said that’s an irresponsible practice. “I think everybody would admit it’s a gimmick,” Hammond said. “You don’t have enough money in your checking account to pay your bills and so you just tell the people who are expecting money, ‘You have to hang on for a few days until my checkbook replenishes.’ ” Read More
A variety of factors can influence sales tax receipts, including tourism trends, weather related events, the price of gasoline and fuel oil and whether consumers are spending on furniture and cars, said E.J. McMahon, research director for the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany think tank. Read More