This new report from Unshackle Upstate, a coalition of business groups and trade associations, is recommended reading for New Yorkers concerned about the growing burden of state and local taxes.

Here’s the summary:

In New York … public employees have less incentive to face economic reality.  Two laws unique to our state—the Taylor Law and the Triborough Amendment—guarantee public employees that their pay and benefits will increase without interruption, even iftheir contracts have expired. Since there’s no cost to employees for working without a contract—except the chance at a better deal—there’s little incentive to negotiate.In addition, they are protected by an unwritten law of state politics.    

The issue of public employee compensation is a third rail, deadly to elected officials who dare touch it. That remains true even though the state is facing a financial crisis,and employee compensation represents well over two-thirds of all government spending.   This report examines the disparities and suggests simple changes that would reduce the double standard—by fixing the Taylor Law to bring New York in line with other states, and providing retirement benefits to new employees that more closely match the private sector.

Some of the material in the report is based on the Empire Center report, “Taylor Made: The Costs and Consequences of New York’s Public-Sector Labor Laws.”

To review the names and salaries of more than 1.3 million individuals working for state governments, counties, municipalities, school districts and public authorities in New York, go to our transparency website, SeeThroughNY.

Prior to the financial crisis, New York’s public sector had grown to record levels, as shown in this September 2006 Empire Center Research Bulletin, which also compared public-sector pay to private sector averages on a region-by-region basis in New York.