The legislation has long been debated by Gottfried, who projects it will save the state $45 billion a year, and the conservative-leaning Empire Center for Public Policy's Bill Hammond, who said implementation will be prohibitively expensive and poses many logistical challenges, beginning with securing a waiver from the federal government. Read More
The Empire Center has filed a petition in state Supreme Court that claims the city acted “unlawfully” in failing to provide an accounting of pensions of former NYPD cops. Read More
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic development programs have been the subject of two federal corruption trials that ended with convictions for two of Cuomo’s former associates. But some say problems with the $9 billion programs go beyond corruption and that the structure of the programs is flawed. Read More
The battle over public-sector union dues in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision heated up on Wednesday as the Cuomo Administration and outside groups offered up differing opinions on the importance of membership cards. Read More
Pensions for government retirees have been public information in New York since forever, but for nearly a decade, the Empire Center for Public Policy has been trying to collect and publish names and dollar figures on its SeeThroughNY.net website — only to be stymied by the pension funds. Read More
Since taking office in 2011, Gov. Cuomo has doled out more than $10 billion in public funding and tax breaks in the name of economic development — costly giveaways that have resulted in a series of broken promises and boondoggles. Read More
The Illinois state worker behind a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that public workers cannot be forced to pay union dues said Thursday morning that the unions will be forced to do a better job selling themselves. Read More
“The unions had said the loss of agency fees would diminish their political power,” the Empire Center’s Ken Girardin explained. “Reducing their power would put them on a level playing field” with government officials while negotiating, perhaps yielding less-lucrative contracts. Read More