The city’s elevator repair bills are going through the roof. Each of the 3,330 elevators in the city’s housing projects goes out of service an average of once a month, officials said. Elevator failures and shutdowns for maintenance — along with huge raises for elevator mechanics — have caused costs to skyrocket. Read More
The Empire Center for Public Policy is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit initiated by New York City firefighter unions in an attempt to block the release of pension recipients’ names alongside individual pension benefit amounts. Read More
Payroll data released Thursday by the Empire Center think tank show public school custodians were the highest-paid municipal employees for fiscal year 2014, earning an average of $109,467 a year. That's well above police officers, who got an average of $78,220. Read More
“This is an unsustainable model that gets more expensive year after year,” said Empire Center Executive Director Tim Hoefer. Read More
New York City’s public school custodians were paid an average of $109,467 in fiscal 2014, making them the city’s highest-paid group of municipal employees last year, according to newly released payroll data posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More
Empire Center President E.J. McMahon joined John Gambling to talk about Mayor de Blasio's plan to roll back Bloomberg-era savings on student transportation. Read More
E.J. McMahon joined John Gambling to discuss New York City's decision to pay an extra $42 million to school bus drivers. Read More
Massive but partially hidden funding shortfalls are a feature, not a bug, of New York City's public pension system and its counterparts across the country. Read More