The Empire Center for Public Policy will ask the state’s highest court to hear an appeal of a court ruling today that would allow New York State’s public pension funds to keep secret the names of pension recipients, the Center’s director, Timothy Hoefer, today announced. Read More
Calibrated to the state Senate’s estimate of $135.2 billion in all funds spending under the enacted New York State budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year, the Empire Center’s “Spend-O-Meter” spins at the following rates... Read More
The potential economic gains from natural gas exploration in the Marcellus Shale region in upstate New York are highlighted in a new study documenting the impact of hydrofracking on jobs and income growth in Pennsylvania, where nearly 5,000 wells have been hydrofractured since 2002. Read More
Western New York property owners pay the state’s highest median effective tax rate, according to newly released data from the Empire Center. The internet-based tool—BenchmarkingNY’s Property Taxes by Location—allows taxpayers to compute and compare total school district, municipal and county tax burdens in thousands of communities across the state. Read More
Average per-pupil spending under proposed 2013-14 school budgets will rise at the fastest rate in five years, according to an analysis issued today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
What conditions are preventing upstate communities from experiencing a new wave of economic growth? That question will be addressed by Carl J. Schramm, an internationally recognized leader in the study of entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth, as keynote speaker at an Empire Center policy forum in Albany this Wednesday (June 5). The Empire Center forum, which starts with registration at 9 a.m. at the Albany Institute of History and Art, will examine the economic decline of the upstate region and prospects for its revival, including the possible gains from natural gas exploration. Read More
A searchable database of the complete Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) payroll for 2008–including name, titles, base pay rates and total pay received by 78,393 employees–is now available at www.SeeThroughNY.net, the government transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More