Tag: NY Public Payroll Watch

Local government is a labor-intensive business, and employee compensation is the single biggest element of most municipal budgets. The 2011-12 edition of What They Make, the Empire Center’s annual report on public payrolls, allows New York taxpayers to compare this key element of local government costs around the state. Read More

The price tag for the Legislature's promise of an early retirement incentive for teachers isn't publicly known, but a similar bill would cost school districts $200 million in added pension payments next year. Read More

A court decision upholding a three-year, 11.5 percent pay raise for New York City transit workers should make local governments elsewhere nervous. State Supreme Court Justice O. Peter Sherwood has upheld an arbitration panel award to the Transport Read More

Nearly 29,000 Syracuse-area residents have lost their jobs and the inflation rate is flat so you'd think that might give school board members pause. Yet, the 10 school districts in the area that settled contracts in the year or so si Read More

The Utica school board ratified a new teachers contract in September 2008--even though school business officials could not tell them how much it will cost future taxpayers. Now, the district says it has calculated the cost, but it refuses to make it Read More

Governor David Paterson wants state employees to defer four percent raises and five days of salary until they retire or quit their jobs. Haven't we seen this movie before? What makes Paterson think the outcome will be any different than when publi Read More

Providing health insurance to retired Utica teachers will cost taxpayers $189 million over the next 30 years, an amount the school board president calls "scary." When it ratified a teachers contract in September 2008, the school board did not know Read More

When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says Governor Paterson's proposed budget will force him to lay off nearly 12,000 city employees, he appears to ignore his role of negotiating 4 percent employees raises during a recession. Expect similar Read More