McMahon pointed out that the number of local governments a county has doesn't matter. "It's the cost of the government services that drive up taxes," he said. "If you get rid of these special districts, you would still have to supply the services." Read More
Critics have challenged Cuomo’s math. U.S. Census data shows that New York has about 3,450 local governments, and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli puts the total at about 3,800. Cuomo is including thousands of special taxing districts, such as ones for lighting and sewer services, that aren’t governments, critics said. Read More
Cities and taxpayers have to decide what’s the best way to utilize tax dollars, said Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center. “I think generally speaking … in a perfect world, overtime is the result of extraordinary circumstances or poor management,” he said. “It’s about right-sizing government.” Read More
The Empire Center for Public Policy has been in a legal battle for years with several public pension systems after lower courts ruled starting in 2011 that the names of pensioners do not need to be made public. Read More
"The point of the FOIL and the transparency movement in general is not to be punitive to the municipalities, but to make this data which should be open to the public, open to the public without being a burden," said Tim Hoefer, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative think tank that runs SeeThroughNY.net. That website offers a searchable database of public salaries as provided by the state retirement system. Read More
Curious how much the government worker next door makes? For information that is lacking in the state’s websites—namely, public salaries—nonprofit groups, such as the Albany-based Empire Center for Public Policy, compile the info into searchable online databases. Their website,SeeThroughNY allows users to search public employee salaries, pensions, contracts and other info for various levels of government. Read More
In total, the state's multiple levels of government burn through more than $190 billion a year from their own revenue sources, mainly taxes. Another $60 billion comes the federal government - which has its own claim on our wallets. But where does it all go? Thanks to the digital revolution, anyone with access to the Internet can begin to find some answers to that question. Read More
Local supervisors and one fiscal watchdog say Cuomo is chasing the wrong property tax cost drivers. They blame state mandates such as the Taylor Law, which gives public employee unions additional leverage when negotiating expired contracts, for driving up local taxes. At the same time, they complain, he is taking aim at special districts that, even if eliminated, would still cost taxpayers because they provide specific services for a locality’s residents. Read More