Tag: Transparency

Colonie's 106 town police officers were the highest-paid group of local government employees in the Capital Region last year, averaging $94,810, according to the Empire Center’s 2015 “What They Make” report. Read More

A Wayne County doctor was the highest-paid local government employee in the Finger Lakes region last year, according to the Empire Center’s 2015 “What They Make” report. Dr. Harlan Kosson, who county records indicate is paid $130 per hour for psychiatric services, was paid a total of $266,110. Read More

Long Island police officers dominated the list of highest-paid local government employees outside New York City in 2014, according to the Empire Center’s 2015 “What They Make” report. Thirty-one of the 50 highest-paid local government employees were police officers on Long Island, including 24 Nassau County police officers. Read More

Governor Andrew Cuomo has a chance to make good on a promise to New York taxpayers by signing two bills that would help make information more accessible for public consumption. Read More

It will be déjà vu all over again Monday for a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge, as lawyers for the city and a municipal pension fund argue that basic data about correction officer retirement payouts should be secret. The session before Justice Peter Sweeney will be the latest legal stonewalling in cases that stretch back almost six years to the day that the Empire Center, a taxpayer watchdog, filed a Freedom of Information Law request for the names of public pensioners and their annual payments. Read More

Local government is a labor-intensive business, and employee compensation is the single biggest element of most municipal budgets. The 2014-15 edition of What They Make, the Empire Center’s annual report on public payrolls, allows New York taxpayers to compare this key element of local government costs around the state. Read More