Category: Media Coverage

The Empire Center of New York and Pioneer Institute of Massachusetts also made similar, NETS-based calculations for their states and likewise found job gains or losses due to relocation were only a tiny part of the state's job picture. Moreover, their reports showed that most establishment and job relocations came from neighboring states. This makes sense given the cost of moving physical and human capital to a new location, and it should serve a cautionary note about chasing distant corporations. Read More

The Empire Center’s E. J. McMahon said the higher salaries that suburban cops get compared to New York City officers factors into the higher pensions. But he noted that is offset somewhat by a $12,000 supplemental pension that city cops get on top of their regular pension, which is about 50 percent of final salary. Read More

The biometric time clocks have been a source of tension since the MTA in May announced its plan to roll them out. The initiative followed an April financial report from the Empire Center for Public Policy that revealed alarmingly high overtime rates among some MTA employees, including former LIRR chief measurement officer Thomas Caputo, who made $344,147 in overtime on top of his base salary of $117,499. Read More

Long ago the Empire Center for Public Policy asked the NYPD Pension Fund for the names of retirees and how much each is paid, to add the data to its indispensable database on how New York taxpayer dollars are spent. Read More

In 2015, the state capped the local Medicaid share, saving local governments more than $3 billion per year. "Even with the freeze, Medicaid remains one of the largest expenses faced by local governments in New York—and one they have little or no means to control," wrote Bill Hammond, director of health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy, which is fiscally conservative.  Read More

The MTA’s heightened focus on overtime follows an April financial report from the Empire Center for Public Policy that revealed alarmingly high overtime rates among some MTA employees, including former LIRR chief measurement officer Thomas Caputo, who made $344,147 in overtime on top of his base salary of $117,499. Read More

Another hurdle is whether the new program can live up to the idea of universal health care, said Bill Hammond, a health-care analyst at the Empire Center, a conservative-leaning New York think tank. New Yorkers already had universal access, he said; the problem is how it is used. Health officials are rightly “trying to fix the delivery system,” said Mr. Hammond; meanwhile, the mayor, “made it sound like they’re fixing the coverage system.” Read More

The Empire Center’s Bill Hammond says Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget office quietly postponed a $1.7 billion dollar Medicaid payment in late March by three business days and made the payment instead in early April. That’s significant because the state’s fiscal year ended March 31 and a new one began April 1. If the payment were made in March, the state would have been over a statutory cap that limits growth of Medicaid spending to 3% last year. Read More