Nearly a month after passing the state budget, the state Legislature finally got around to disclosing important details of nearly $150 million in pork-barrel "member item" allocations last week. Read More
Tag: Government Reform
Retirees' benefits are the fastest-growing part of overall health-coverage costs for New York state and local government. They're already nearly 40 percent of the state's employee-health budget, and they'll consume more than a third of the roughly $3.5 billion New York City will spend on health benefits this year. Read More
When Nelson Rockefeller was born 100 years ago today, New York state was America's economic powerhouse - with its best years still ahead. Read More
New Yorkers will get a clearer view than ever of how their state and local tax dollars are being spent, thanks to a new transparency website launched today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. The website – � Read More
“The Empire Center has created a model for active taxpayer involvement in promoting fiscal transparency. Websites like SeeThroughNY are the future of good-government efforts at the national, state and local level. Improved fiscal transparency w Read More
LAST week's state Senate approval of Gov. Paterson's proposed cap on school property taxes seems to have induced a nervous breakdown in the powerful statewide teachers' union. Read More
New York's huge budget deficit—$15.4 billion in the next 15 months—will force difficult choices in terms of government services and tax policies for years to come. To engage intelligently in that debate, New Yorkers need far more information than we now receive from Albany. Read More
Delivered to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee Read More