“You do have to take this capital plan with a grain of salt,” said EJ McMahon, with the fiscally conservative Empire Center. McMahon predicted the projects, “. . . will happen in a different way and on a different schedule than the governor may have implied.” Read More
Four dozen marine engineers and oilers for the Staten Island Ferry and city fireboats saw their ships come in last year — hauling in enough overtime to double their pay, city records show. The city Department of Transportation employed 37 ferry workers who netted more than $2.5 million in OT, according to an Empire Center analysis. Read More
New York City's fiscal year 2015 payroll has been added to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More
It will be déjà vu all over again Monday for a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge, as lawyers for the city and a municipal pension fund argue that basic data about correction officer retirement payouts should be secret. The session before Justice Peter Sweeney will be the latest legal stonewalling in cases that stretch back almost six years to the day that the Empire Center, a taxpayer watchdog, filed a Freedom of Information Law request for the names of public pensioners and their annual payments. Read More
New York City firefighters and fire officers who retired during the 2015 fiscal year were eligible for average pensions of $113,341 pension, a nine percent increase over the previous year, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center's transparency website. Read More
One in four Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) employees was paid more than $100,000 during 2014, according to payroll data added today to SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Read More
Seizing on the hardships of young firefighters and cops who have received skimpy disability pensions after being forced into retirement by line-of-duty injuries, unions representing the Bravest and Finest are pushing to roll back hard-won pension reforms. Read More
Now we know why the unions fought so hard to keep it a secret: The Empire Center for Public Policy reports that FDNY pensions averaged $100,000 for new retirees these past seven years. Read More