Tag: Transparency

Empire Center Executive Director Tim Hoefer sat down with Nick Reisman to discuss the 2014 edition of "What They Make," an analysis of local government payrolls. Read More

The Empire Center analyzed reports filed on line by the legislature, and found that the state Assembly paid over $650,000 to outside attorneys, while the State Senate gave a private law firm over $400,000 between October of 2013 and March of 2014. Read More

Police officers and firefighters in the city are the highest paid government employees in the six-county Mohawk Valley region, according to this year’s payroll report released by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More

The Empire Center’s Tim Hoefer says the numbers caught their eye because the legal bills were much larger than what’s been typical in the past. Read More

Newly-released records show just how much state lawmakers are spending on outside attorneys. From October 1st of 2013 to this past March, the legislature spent more than $1 million. That’s according to a new report from the Empire Center. We spoke with the center’s Executive Director, Tim Hoefer about the numbers. Read More

State legislators spent over $1 million in taxpayer funds on outside attorneys during a six-month period, newly-released records show. Read More

At least 1,800 government workers in New York each got paid more than $179,000 last year, and business owners should know how their local officials compare to that group. Read More

We’re all for police officers earning good pay. They do important, necessary and frequently dangerous work. But, good grief, when the top public-paid employee in all of Western New York is a police officer, something is out of whack. Read More