Tag: Transparency

The state budget will fund other projects that members of the Legislature undoubtedly will tout at some point. The Empire Center, a fiscally conservative Albany think tank, highlighted on Friday a $385 million increase to the State and Municipal Facilities Program, a pot of general capital project funding that is derided by critics as being opaque and overly broad in terms of the types of projects can be funded. "When you say what's the local impact? My answer is I have no idea," the Empire Center's E.J. McMahon said. "It's not programmed. It's capital pork." Read More

The new state budget will fund a 35 percent expansion of a murky $1.1 billion pork-barrel slush fund controlled by Governor Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers. Read More

In 2014, the Empire Center created guidelines for what information local governments and school districts should make available on their websites—and found that most of the state's 500 largest municipalities and districts were not meeting that standard. Read More

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s employee overtime spending rose by $84 million, or 11 percent, last year, according to a report by The Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany based think tank. Read More

Overtime spending by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority rose 11 percent in 2015, making it possible for hundreds of employees to double their pay, according to payroll records added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. Read More

Tim Hoefer talks about the need for transparency in public policy, especially as it relates to pork spending in the NYS budget. Read More

A bill devised by Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, sets new standards for the disclosure of state budget discretionary funds and how they will be spent. Read More

A recent report from the Empire Center shows the average New York state teacher who retired after working 30 years for the state's public schools collected an average of $67,476 per year in pension income, which is not subject to state income tax or federal payroll tax. These pension recipients are also eligible for Social Security and often have free or low- cost health insurance. Read More