The Empire Center for Public Policy today filed a lawsuit to force the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to disclose payroll records for MTA police officers that it withheld in violation of the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).
The Empire Center in January requested the MTA’s payroll to make it publicly searchable on the Center’s government transparency website, SeeThroughNY.net. The MTA provided some pay records, but said it was withholding the names, titles and pay amounts for “certain MTA Police Officers.” The MTA argued disclosure of this information could “endanger the life or safety” of the individuals, an exception to FOIL disclosure allowed only in rare circumstances.
The Empire Center has been engaged in litigation since 2010 to prevent the New York City Police Pension Fund from withholding the names of pension recipients on the same basis.
“This is yet another example of a government agency trying to hide behind the Freedom of Information Law instead of following it,” said Tim Hoefer, president and CEO of the Empire Center. “The idea that the public shouldn’t be allowed to know how many police officers there are or how much they are paid is outrageous.”
Even without the missing data, the uniformed and civilian employees at the MTA’s police agency were the Authority’s highest-paid group of workers last year with total pay averaging $127,540.
The Empire Center has litigated several cases in recent years to protect the public’s right to know how government agencies spend money. The MTA paid the Empire Center’s legal costs to settle a 2015 lawsuit after repeatedly failing to respond to FOIL requests in a timely manner, as the law requires.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.
The pension plan covering most New York City government agencies, including the City’s subway system, had 70 members with pension payments of at least $200,000 last year, almost quadrupling 2019’s tally of 19, according to new , the Read More
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s payroll surpassed $8 billion in 2024 – a 2.6 percent increase since 2023, according to , the Empire Center’s government transparency website.
Overtime, as measured using payroll records, totaled $ Read More
Spending by state lawmakers on office personnel and administrative costs varies widely, with some paying out nearly twice as much as others on their office operations, according to the most recent reported, posted to SeeThroughNY.net.
Read More
Albany steered over $226 million in grant awards to 581 local projects between June 2024 and April 2025 through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), according to the Empire Center recently received und Read More
New York’s two teacher pension systems last year had 26 retirees eligible to collect pensions of more than $300,000, according to , the Empire Center’s government transparency website.
Data reported from Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of Read More
School districts presenting budgets to voters on Tuesday, May 20, plan to spend an average of $35,012 per student, up 4.6 percent from the current school year, according to new state data.
Data collected by the state Education Departme Read More
New York’s of state and local government union contracts has been updated with the latest collective bargaining agreements for local teachers, police, firefighters, libraries, and public authorities.
Among the on SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center Read More
As Governor Hochul and legislative leaders belatedly released details of their agreement on a state budget for fiscal year 2026, the Empire Center released a statement from its Senior Fellow for Health Policy, Bill Hammond: Read More