Some workers earned more than $43 per hour taking part in a post-disaster cleanup project during the summer of 2012, according to data gathered by an Albany-based think tank. A total of 156 people in the Capital Region earned about $1.4 million during the 90-day campaign to clear debris left in and along waterways by floods in the late summer of 2011, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy Inc. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a nonprofit think tank, questions what kind of businesses will get into [Start-Up NY] and how many lasting jobs it will create. "Some of them will fail and won't produce any economic benefits," McMahon said. "It's capitalism; that's how it works." Read More
For the first time ever, Nassau Comptroller George Maragos has posted all 2013 contracts online, listing the vendor name, the amount and a description of the project -- though the list of more than $700 million in contracts is not yet searchable or sortable. Maragos said the list posted on the comptroller's public Facebook page will be updated weekly as new contracts are approved and vendor claims are paid. E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank, questioned why Maragos is posting the information on Facebook rather than the county website. "A Facebook page is somewhat self-promotional for him," McMahon said. He also noted the list was not searchable or sortable. Read More
In his State of the State message last week, Gov. Cuomo once again cited the new Tappan Zee Bridge as a symbol of his ability to move forward on big, important infrastructure projects. But the governor hasn’t leveled with commuters and truckers on what they’ll be paying for this progress. Hint: a lot more than they do now. Read More
E.J. McMahon, executive director of the fiscally-conservative Empire Center, noted that statewide bond acts are often rejected by voters and he said the education bond proposed by Cuomo seems to rely on an arbitrary number and would pay for technology that will be outdated and useless before it's even paid off. “My concern is that it was pulled out of thin air and it was used to fill space in the State of the State that was thin on education stuff,” he said Sewer and infrastructure upgrades are a significant expense faced by many municipalities, including some that still directly discharge waste into the Hudson River during storms. Beaches in communities along Lake Erie are regularly closed during summer months because of sewer discharge into the water. Old pipes, decaying electrical systems and other infrastructure problems have stalled private development in many upstate cities, McMahon said. While McMahon said he didn't support the whole environmental bond, the $2 billion directed toward infrastructure is increasingly necessary, but gets little notice during an election year. “It's the non-sexy, really important thing that seems like it won't happen while we're paying for iPads and technology for schools,” he said. Read More
New labor contracts for 52 teachers’ unions and 104 school superintendents, ratified since July 1, 2013, are now available on www.SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s government transparency website, which is home to the most complete public collection of collectively-bargained school district contracts in the state. Read More
The upstate economy is in particular need of help. New York ranks 21st in the country for private-sector job growth since November 2010, but the 50 counties outside the New York City area taken alone would rank last in the nation for job growth, according to the Empire Center for New York Policy. Read More
Empire Center President E.J. McMahon spoke to WSHU radio in Long Island about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State address on Wednesday. Regarding Cuomo's proposed property tax plan, McMahon described it as a "so-called freeze." "It is not going to produce any significant or lasting saving for anybody," he added. Read More