The state spent $25 million for a shopping mall in Staten Island and $100,000 for a skateboard park in the city of Albany. They were two of the more than 500 pet projects funded with a secret slush fund, according to the Empire Center. The watchdog group said it's like the Oprah syndrome where everyone got a car on the show. Read More
Staten Island Congressman Dan Donovan, whose borough gets free ferry service to Manhattan, isn't particularly enthusiastic about this new Amtrak proposal to build a rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River. Read More
The state Teachers Retirement System has officially announced it will lower the pension tab for the state’s nearly 700 school districts amid criticism that the fund has an expected rate of return that is too lofty. Read More
E.J. McMahon joined Liz Benjamin on Capital Tonight to discuss the state's uneven job growth. Read More
Before area taxpayers and their counterparts statewide get too excited over the looming lower property tax hike for next year, they need to be mindful of the other side of the coin. Read More
Bravos to the Empire Center for Public Policy, an independent nonprofit think tank that posts salaries for state employees at SeeThroughNY.net and which recently reached a settlement with the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Read More
A recent report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli showed that New York had reached its highest-ever employment level — topping 9 million jobs in 2014 — after adding 538,000 jobs since 2009. Job growth, however, was not evenly distributed across the Empire State. Read More
The pork may be returning to the state budget. State lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo quietly have stashed away $1.2 billion for pet projects, and they are starting to spend it: about $187 million for 588 projects across New York, a report from the Empire Center, a watchdog group in Albany found. Read More