Why a single-payer health plan would be wrong for New York Read More
Category: Reports
The decision by the nation’s largest solar panel provider to locate a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Buffalo, and to create other jobs in Western New York, could be a needed shot in the arm for a city and a region that’s been declining economically for many years. But there are significant risks and unanswered questions associated with the state government’s willingness to commit the bulk of its “Buffalo Billion” resources to the massive SolarCity factory on the site of the former RiverBend steel plant. Read More
Residents of the small Western New York village of Sloan had the highest effective property tax rate in New York, paying $64.46 per $1,000 of home value during 2014, according to the newest edition of Benchmarking NY, the Empire Center’s annual examination of local property taxes. Read More
The full extent of the continuing rise in school spending since the recession was not inevitable or unavoidable. Read More
NY must do more to encourage its Medicaid patients to take ownership of their own health. Read More
Upstate New York's population began to decline at a faster rate between mid-2014 and 2015, according to updated Census Bureau estimates. Read More
The poverty-fighting effectiveness of the state and federal Earned Income Tax Credit in New York is the focus of “Making Work Pay,” a new Issue Brief from the Empire Center for Public Policy. In light of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s push for a $15-an-hour statewide minimum wage, the briefing paper explains how the EITC already serves to boost low wages to levels well above the poverty line. Read More
New York's leading export remains people. Read More