Category: Media Coverage

The legislature has until April 1st to pass the Governor's budget. One of the most contentious issues remains the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Read More

So you have to wonder: Is now the time to be looking at rebates on tolls – rebates that will average just $97 a motorist – when the state still has no plan in place to fully pay for the $3.98 billion replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge in the lower Hudson Valley? Read More

The Cuomo administration is tapping two discretionary funds to steer nearly $47 million to an outlet mall on Staten Island, a multi-pronged subsidy that increased after the developers contributed $85,000 to the governor's campaign. Read More

The new ruling stems from the Albany-based Empire Center’s Freedom of Information Law request in 2014 seeking the names of people receiving pensions through the New York City Employees’ Retirement System. Read More

What held up the $365 million Belleayre Resort isn’t a want of money. Crossroads says it has spent $21 million simply getting this far. The problem is New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act, or Seqra. Read More

Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, argued that municipalities already have every incentive to streamline services and that little would be gained by "throwing more money at them" to do so. He also contended that unfunded state mandates are more to blame for high property taxes than the fact that New York has about 1,600 towns, villages, cities and counties. Read More

Gov. Cuomo is the state’s top officer but he’s far from being the government’s highest paid employee, according to a new report. Data released Friday by the Empire Center for Public Policy showed that 1,797 state employees earned more in 2015 than the $179,000 salary Cuomo earned as governor. Read More

The Empire Center says updated online data shows the 2015 payroll for New York state employees was $15.51 billion, up 1.8 percent from the year before. Read More