Ken Girardin, policy analyst for the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, said New York's public sector unions collect an estimated $860 million in dues and fees from members each year. Of that, about $112 million pay "agency fees," or the payments in lieu of dues from non-members that the ruling now says are no longer mandatory. Read More
New York public-sector unions could lose 200,000 or more members in the wake of Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling on collective bargaining, though a law the state adopted in March could blunt the impact by making it harder for people to opt out of union representation. Read More
As the state legislative session comes to a close, we often focus on the things the Legislature should be doing. Read More
Her tax plan is “completely unrealistic and excessive,” Mr. McMahon said, adding that it is “based on the assumption that businesses and individuals alike are simply oblivious to higher tax rates.” Read More
Teachers in the Lawrence school system are calling on district officials to resolve a contract-negotiation impasse that is about to enter its eighth year. Read More
The city's generous payroll and benefits system continues to draw fire for exorbitant overtime and often unchecked disability pensions. Read More
Conditions are right for a "death spiral" for healthcare insurance. Bill Hammond, the Empire Center's director of healthcare policy, explains the spiral is the result of insurance pools seeing, "healthy people leave, the rates go up, the premiums go up, more healthy people leave and it becomes a vicious cycle.” Read More
Central New York's biggest Obamacare insurer expects consumers to drop health coverage in droves in 2019 when a federal mandate requiring individuals to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty is repealed. Read More