Tag: New York City

New Yorkers are used to seeing the leaders of various municipal employees unions get hot and bothered about relatively trivial issues. It's who they are; it's what they do. Being anything but shrinking violets, these outspoken union bosses like the attention their outrage generates. And being seen as standing up in defense of their supposedly put-upon members always helps when they run for re-election. But even understanding that phenomenon, we're at a loss to understand the righteous indignation of several fire unions over a ruling that the New York City Fire Pension Fund must make public the name and pension amounts received by retirees. Read More

After five years of lawsuits and appeals, a Brooklyn judge has definitively upheld the right to know who’s drawing public pensions and how much they’re being paid. Read More

In a ruling that favored the Empire Center's position, a state Supreme Court justice in Brooklyn today ordered the New York City Fire Pension Fund to release the names as well as pension amounts of its retirees. Read More

It’s both ironic and fitting that Victor Gotbaum, longtime leader of New York City’s largest municipal-workers union, died on the 40th anniversary of the fiscal crisis. Read More

In many respects, New York City looks economically and fiscally as strong as it’s ever been. But it’s still worth recalling that, 40 years ago this week, things were very different. Read More

Adjournments and stipulations churned mechanically as acting Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Peter Sweeney plowed through his 87-case calendar Monday — until a preposterous lawsuit caught his attention. Read More

New York City's welfare caseloads are expanding again—a deliberate and predictable outcome of Mayor Bill De Blasio's policies, as Manhattan Institute's Steve Eide points out in his new "Poverty and Progress in New York" report. Read More

City workers who qualify for pensions are also eligible for lifetime health insurance coverage — a retirement benefit that has almost disappeared in the private sector. The estimated value of retiree health benefits promised to current and future city government pensioners is now roughly $90 billion, tipping the city’s overall financial balance sheet well into the red. Read More