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. 

McMahon said the nonpartisan, Albany-based Empire Center will “stay focused on presenting ideas to make New York a better place to live, work and do business.”

“At the same time,” he added, “we will highlight obstacles to greater growth and prosperity in the Empire State, including high taxes, excessive spending and debt, unfunded liabilities, and costly public-sector collective bargaining mandates.”

Based in Albany, the Empire Center played a key role in developing and promoting New York’s local property tax cap, which was enacted in 2011. The Center has also called public attention to the $250 billion in unfunded retiree health care promises made by state and local governments in New York; documented and explained the causes of New York’s public pension funding crisis; and critically analyzed recent state tax increases. Some key recommendations in the Center’s January 2010 “Blueprint for a Better Budget” were reflected in subsequent state spending plans.

The Empire Center sponsors www.SeeThroughNY.net, the nation’s leading independent state and local government transparency website, which features searchable online databases of salaries, pensions, union contracts, government tax and other information.

Lawrence Mone, president of the Manhattan Institute, said the Institute’s spinoff of the Empire Center was “a tribute to the Center’s solid work and growing effectiveness.”

“The Institute is proud to have nurtured and built the Empire Center to the point where it can stand on its own as an organization focused on policy research and education in New York State,” Mone said. “The Manhattan Institute will continue to work closely with the Empire Center while strongly encouraging private-sector support for the Center’s activities.”

McMahon will also remain affiliated with the Manhattan Institute as a senior fellow with the Center for State and Local Leadership, Mone said.

The Internal Revenue Service has determined that the Empire Center is exempt from federal income tax under section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code, meaning contributions to the Empire Center are deductible to the full extent provided by law.

www.empirecenter.org