The Empire Center’s Explore Your State Budget app has been updated to reflect the state’s mid-year financial report for fiscal 2014.
This online database of New York state budget information, which is accessible through the Center’s SeeThroughNY website, includes actual results, estimates and projections for major spending and tax categories from 2012 until fiscal 2017. Additionally, the tool contains annual disbursements dating back to 1984 and tax receipts since 1976.
“Our state budget app gives New York taxpayers a handy tool for tracking how the state raises and spends their money,” said E.J. McMahon, the Empire Center’s president. “It will be useful to anyone who wants to analyze budget trends and choices in the run-up to the next Executive Budget presentation in January.”
Historical spending and tax data are presented both in nominal and inflation-adjusted terms. In addition, data can be downloaded and saved in spreadsheet form.
Here is a small sampling of important budget trends revealed by the Explore Your State Budget database:
• As of fiscal 2014, the state’s Medicaid caseload stands at 5.2 million – up nearly 600,000 recipients, or 13 percent, in the past two years. The financial plan projects that another 1 million recipients will be added to the Medicaid caseloads by fiscal 2017.
• State aid to K-12 public schools has risen by $1.6 billion, or 8 percent, in the past two years, and under current law is projected to rise another $2.8 billion, or 13 percent, over the next three years.
• New York’s total state tax collections have risen $11.7 billion, or 20 percent, since hitting a post-recession low in fiscal 2010. This includes a $7.7 billion increase in the state’s largest revenue source, the personal income tax, which in fiscal 2014 is expected to raise nearly twice as much as it did in 2003.
The direct web address for Explore Your State Budget is http://seethroughny.net/nysbudget/#.
Learn more about the Empire Center and its efforts to make New York a better
place to live and work by visiting www.empirecenter.org.
You may also like
What They Make 2026: North Country
Lewis County employees held nine of the North Country's ten highest-paid local government positions in fiscal year 2025-26, most of them physicians and medical staff, . Jeffery Hellinger, a Lewis County employee, was the highest paid, at $265,978.
Read More
What They Make 2026: Mohawk Valley
Eight local government employees in the Mohawk Valley had gross pensionable earnings of more than $200,000 in fiscal year 2025-26, . Four were county elected officials and three were Oneida County correction officers. The highest paid was Christina Pea Read More
What They Make 2026: Southern Tier
Mary Nobilski, a Steuben County employee, was the Southern Tier's highest-paid local government employee in fiscal year 2025-26, at $309,582, . She was the only local employee in the region paid more than Governor Hochul's $250,000 salary.
Stat Read More
What They Make 2026: Central New York
Syracuse police officers held all ten of the highest-paid local government positions in Central New York during fiscal year 2025-26, . John Tassini was the highest paid, at $282,861.
Statewide, the 179,222 employees of New York's counties, citi Read More
What They Make 2026: Finger Lakes
Rochester police officers held eight of the ten highest-paid local government positions in the Finger Lakes region during fiscal year 2025-26, . Robert Hill was the region's highest-paid employee, at $314,040.
Statewide, the 179,222 employees o Read More
What They Make 2026: Western New York
Erie County deputy sheriff Simon Biegasiewicz was Western New York's highest-paid local government employee in fiscal year 2025-26, at $305,077, followed by Buffalo firefighter Daniel Bossi at $300,488, . They were the only two local employees in the r Read More
What They Make 2026: Capital Region
An Albany police officer, Willie Flack, was the Capital Region's highest-paid local government employee in fiscal year 2025-26, at $279,370, . Police officers in Albany, Schenectady and Troy and the Town of Colonie held six of the region's ten highest- Read More
What They Make 2026: Mid-Hudson
Town of Ramapo police officers held four of the five highest-paid local government positions in the Mid-Hudson region during fiscal year 2025-26, led by Daniel Hyman at $421,338, the second-highest local government pay in the state, .
Statewide Read More