Proposition 3 would allow the state to borrow $2 billion for educational technology. It is supported by Cuomo and the teacher’s union. The Empire Center, a conservative think tank, has called it a “blank check” to the state’s education bureaucracy. Read More
Five area school superintendents have made the list of the top 20 salaries in the north country for 2013-14 in a report released Thursday by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
The number of school district employees outside of New York City who are paid more than $100,000 has jumped nearly 50 percent since 2008. Yet, that’s still just half of what the highest-paid school employee in the Mohawk Valley made during the last year, according to data from the Empire Center in Albany Read More
Empire Center President E.J. McMahon spoke with Fred Dicker about the problems with Prop 3. Read More
Eighty-five percent of the websites for New York’s largest local governments and school districts are failing to provide taxpayers with basic, easy-to-find information, according to the 2014 SeeThroughNY Local Government Website Report Card, released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy and a Manhattan Institute senior fellow, and others also rightly question whether long-term bonds are appropriate for such upgrades, considering the rapid change of technology. Moreover, while the money would allow for districts to construct and/or make additions to pre-K facilities, it doesn't, of course, provide the ongoing operating costs to staff such noble initiatives. Read More
There are high-priority needs in New York State, not the least of which is repairing roads and bridges, that may be worth borrowing for. Sinking the state even deeper into debt to fund like-to-have items is a mistake. Read More
Indeed, Proposition 3 is incredibly vague, and the state has not done its due diligence. Read More