Tag: SeeThroughNY

The Cayuga County Legislature Ways and Means Committee held a pair of spirited meetings last week regarding the proposed 2015 county budget. Much of the discussion centered around spending cuts, and specifically how expense reductions would translate into jobs eliminated. The county is facing tough financial times, and in order to balance the budget and set operations on a more stable path, some tough choices must be made. With that in mind, county officials should be doing all they can to share information about the budget with the public. What we've seen so far, however, has been minimal at best. Read More

The City of Binghamton is one of the highest taxing cities in New York State. That's according to the Empire Center for Public Policy, which said the city's 2.5 percent effective tax is the most when compared to local governments outside of New York City. Read More

White Plains last year had the highest total taxes per capita among cities in New York, while Binghamton had the highest effective property-tax rate in the state, a review Monday found. Read More

New York State residents pay some of the highest local taxes in the nation. To help New Yorkers compare some of the basic fiscal measures for local governments, the Empire Center for Public Policy has calculated effective property tax rates and per-capita values for the spending, debt and tax levels of counties, cities, town and villages throughout the state, excluding only New York City. Read More

Albany and Binghamton topped the list for property taxes in the 2014 update of Benchmarking New York, the Empire Center web tool that connects users with tax, spending and debt data from local governments outside New York City. Read More

Only a week after an Empire Center for Public Policy report gave many municipal websites a failing grade, New York state unveiled a new site of its own. Read More

It didn’t seem to surprise some local officials that their municipality’s website got a failing grade on a recent report card. Read More

These lucky public servants have a pay deal that’s twice as nice. They’re in a select group of 665 city and state employees under age 65 who draws hefty government salaries at the same time they rake in public pension cash, says a watchdog group that wants more scrutiny of double-dipping. Read More