Average pension benefits for newly retired public educators most of the Empire State hit a new record high in 2019-20, according to data posted today at SeeThroughNY.net for New York State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS), which covers public education professionals outside New York City. Read More
The Empire Center’s online New York State budget database has been updated to reflect all the key numbers from Governor Cuomo’s proposed Executive Budget for fiscal year 2022. Read More
In a victory for open government, the Empire Center today won a court ruling requiring the prompt release of full coronavirus death tolls in New York nursing homes. Read More
After a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed suspicions of under-reporting the official record of COVID-19 nursing home deaths, counsel for the Empire Center submitted a letter to the Albany County Supreme Court renewing its urgent Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request. Read More
The attorney general’s report confirms that the Health Department is grossly underreporting COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, leaving thousands uncounted, as the Empire Center and other critics have warned for months. Read More
The Cuomo administration is refusing to release a full count of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes for another two months, until March 22. Read More
School districts outside New York City paid a record-high number of employees $100,000 or more during the 2019-20 school year as schools were physically closed for the final three months, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
Two New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) plumbers each collected over $200,000 in overtime during New York City’s 2020 fiscal year ending June 30, according to payroll data added today to SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
"Readers will recall that the Empire Center is the think tank that spent months trying to pry Covid data out of Mr. Cuomo’s government, which offered a series of unbelievable excuses for its refusal to disclose...five months after it sued the government, and one week after a state court ruled that the Cuomo administration had violated the law and ordered it to come clean—Team Cuomo finally started coughing up some of the records." -Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2021SIGN UP TO STAY UP TO DATE ON THIS AND THOSE OTHER ISSUES THAT IMPACT NEW YORKERS.