A billion dollars is big money in anyone’s book. Especially when those dollars come from you, the taxpayer. That’s how much money the US Railroad Retirement Board says might have been scammed by Long Island Rail Road retirees falsely claiming disability benefits. Read More
Last year's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., had a big impact in New York, perhaps most notably with enactment of a tough new gun control law known as the SAFE Act. But it also made it easier for retired cops to "double dip" — that is, to collect their full public pensions while working full-time as school guards, otherwise known as resource officers. Read More
Teens who spend their summer working for the village of Green Island can expect some spending cash, maybe a tan, and the beginnings of a state pension. Even if it takes an act of the Legislature. Read More
The New York Court of Appeals has accepted an appeal from the Empire Center after they were refused access to the names of retired teachers in public pension plans under the Freedom of Information Law. The lower courts agreed with the right of privacy of teacher names. Read More
New York's highest court will soon decide whether the names and benefits of retired teachers in public pension plans should be made public. Read More
The state’s highest court yesterday agreed to hear the Empire Center’s appeal of lower court rulings that would keep secret the names of pension recipients. Read More
ne out of every six police officers and firefighters retiring from state and local agencies outside New York City last year qualified for annual pensions of $100,000, according to state pension fund data posted at SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. The proportion of 2012 Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS) retirees with six-figure pensions–a total of 202 out of 1,225 individuals–was the largest ever, according to an Empire Center analysis of data stretching back to 2000. As in previous years, the proportion of Employee Retirement System (ERS) members qualifying for $100,000 was much smaller—just 80 out of a total of 17,156, or 0.5 percent. Read More
The state’s highest court will hear a case brought by a conservative think tank challenging the refusal of the state Teachers Retirement System to provide data about pensioners, the Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. The Empire Center, an offshoot of the Manhattan Institute, filed suit last year when the TRS refused its Freedom of Information Law request for the data. The Empire Center publishes public spending data on its SeeThroughNY.net website. Read More