New York’s recently enacted state budget for 2007-08 includes more than $219 million in appropriations for the state Legislature. At that rate, the New York State Legislature now costs more than $1 million per member — making it one of the best-paid and most expensive legislative bodies in the nation. Read More
E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, was interviewed by Oswego public radio station WRVO on the subject of Gov. Spitzer's executive order paving the way for powerful public employee unions to organize home-based, government- Read More
Gov. Spitzer has signed an executive order that will allow two of New York's most powerful public employee unions to organize groups of government-subsidized in-home day-care workers. E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center, dissected the cost Read More
New York's total average tax burden has reached the highest level on record for the Empire State, according to an analysis of Tax Foundation data by the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for Public Policy. The shows the combined federal, state Read More
On the heels of a 14 per cent hike in medical- malpractice rates, Gov. Spitzer has directed his insurance superintendent to form a task force to "confront the fundamental drivers" of high medical-malpractice costs. Read More
FY 2005, in millions New York ranks third of all states Read More
Instead of permanently cutting tax rates, New York state is borrowing a gimmick retailers use to avoid cutting prices: the mail-in rebate. The Department of Taxation and Finance is inviting homeowners to apply for a property tax discount. Read More
The Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign is running a new radio ad boasting, among other things, that the former mayor "turned a $2.3 billion deficit into a multibillion-dollar surplus and cut or eliminated 23 taxes" during his years in City Hall. Read More