Category: Press Releases

Governor Cuomo has projected that maintaining a 2 percent cap on annual growth in state expenditures could lead to a budget surplus of up to $2.9 billion by fiscal year 2017. The key question, in his words, is “how do you use this period of growth to actually increase the economic competitiveness of the state of New York?” Based on our analysis of New York’s state and local tax structure, that question could be answered by addressing the following five initial tax policy priorities, which would not only make New York more business-friendly, but would reduce the high tax burden on all New York residents Read More

New York's State Legislature spent over $102 million during the six-month period ending last March, according to the latest legislative expenditure data posted at SeeThroughNY. The expenditure information, which goes back to 2007, can be sorted by reporting period, expenditure type, and member name. Users can also isolate spending for individual units of the Legislature's central staff. Read More

Earnings for the 384,186 school employees has been updated at SeeThroughNY. Read More

The Empire Center for Public Policy, which originated in 2005 as a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, has been re-launched as a fully independent, non-profit think tank, the Center’s president, E.J. McMahon, today announced. Read More

The state’s highest court yesterday agreed to hear the Empire Center’s appeal of lower court rulings that would keep secret the names of pension recipients. Read More

New York State can save money on special education by shifting to a new funding system and can improve parental satisfaction with special education programs by offering a universal voucher for disabled students, according to a report issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More

Even if the Legislature doesn't add to Governor George Pataki's budget proposal, the state spending increase during his final term will be the largest since Mario Cuomo's second term in the late 1980s, according to the Empire Center's overview of the 2006-07 Executive Budget. After adjusting for a shift of aid payments between the current fiscal year and the coming year, the Empire Center report estimates the governor's proposed state funds spending increase for fiscal 2006-07 comes to just over 7 percent, or two and a half times the projected inflation rate. Assuming this figure holds, the total State Funds budget increase since fiscal 2002-03 will be 28 percent, or double the inflation rate, the report says. Read More

Besieged by the related problems of soaring Medicaid and private health-insurance costs, a growing number of states are enacting innovative programs to curb expenses, improve services and expand access to affordable health care. Some of the nation’s leading health policy experts will gather at an Empire Center policy forum in Albany on Sept. 26 to share insights and ideas that might offer models for New York State. Read More