The New York City Employee Retirement System (NYCERS) must provide the Empire Center with names and amounts of pensions paid to retired New York City uniformed employees, such as corrections officers, a Kings County Supreme Court judge ruled today.
“If taxpayers are responsible for funding pensions, then the taxpayers deserve to see what they are,” said Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center. “The Empire Center will continue to take on and win these fights as long as people are trying to hide this type of data from the public.”
The Empire Center sued to obtain the data last year after the system refused to properly follow the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) and instead moved to conceal the pensions from the public.
Hoefer pointed to the recent New York Daily News stories about disability pension abuse as proof of the importance of letting New Yorkers examine the public pension rolls.
The ruling marks the fourth consecutive court win for the Empire Center in two years, which was victorious in Freedom of Information Law cases involving the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), the NYC Fire Department Pension Fund and the New York City and New York State Teachers’ Retirement Systems.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies to make New York a better place to live, work and do business.
You may also like
NYC Employee Pension Payments Cross $6 billion; 70 Members Collect $200k+
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
23 MTA Workers Receive $200K in Overtime as Total Payroll Surpasses $8 Billion
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
Teacher Pensions Added to SeeThroughNY Include 26 Over $300k
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
Educators Receiving $200k+ Doubles in Five Years
The number of school district employees receiving a total compensation of more than $200,000 have more than doubled since 2019, according to posted today at , the Empire Center’s transparency website. The public educator pay data are based on Fiscal Ye Read More
NYC Fire Pensions Hit New High
New York City firefighters and fire officers retiring last year after full careers were entitled to , up 11 percent from the prior year, according to new data added to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Read More
$5.5 Billion NYCERS Pension Payments Include $70 Million in Back Pay
The pension plan covering most New York city government agencies, including the City’s subway system, had 47 members with pension payments of at least $200,00 last year, 11 more than in 2021, according to Read More
Six-figure NYSLRS pensions quadruple in ten years
The number of New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) retirees eligible for six-figure pensions quadrupled over the last seven years. Read More
Average Pay Spiked at Port Authority in 2021
Average pay for Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) employees increased nearly 10 percent last year, to $123,000. Read More