E.J. McMahon, president of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy think tank, said, "Only in Nassau would a cap with a supposed limitations produce payouts of $500,000. Almost any place else in the country, this would leave people flabbergasted and shaking their heads." Read More
The full extent of the continuing rise in school spending since the recession was not inevitable or unavoidable. Read More
Better late than never, Governor Andrew Cuomo has exercised a pocket veto of legislation that would have allowed unions representing police and other civil service employees to insist on collective bargaining of disciplinary procedures. The bill was passed at the end of session in June, but wasn't even sent to Cuomo's desk by the Senate until December. That effectively re-started the clock for gubernatorial consideration, making this a measure the governor could kill by not signing it within 30-day period, which just ended. Read More
One in seven of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's 71,837 employees took home more than $100,000 last year, according to the Empire Center. "A lot of people make a lot of money at the MTA," said Tim Hoefer, executive director of the think tank that routinely posts public payroll records online. Read More
The seven unions that staff the Long Island Rail Road may delay their threatened strike from July ’til September. Though it’s gracious of the unions to pretend to care about ruining Long Island’s tourist season, there’s no justification for any strike. Gov. Cuomo shouldn’t bow to election-season extortion: Standing firm could help him with voters in New York and nationwide. Read More
The Long Island Rail Road workers threatening to go on strike this year make livings that most New Yorkers can only envy. The average LIRR employee made $83,794 in 2013 — 62% higher than the city’s median household income — and more than a quarter of them boasted incomes north of $100,000, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
Mayor Bill de Blasio's 9-year contract agreement with the United Federation of Teachers, including a pair of 4 percent base-salary increases retroactive to the fall of 2008, will cost so much that he wants to defer some of the expense all the way out to the end of the decade. Read More
The United Federation of Teachers would receive a 10 percent pay hike over seven years and retroactive raises of 4 percent for 2009 and 2010 under what Mayor Bill de Blasio Thursday hailed as a "landmark" deal with the union. Read More