The Empire Center has updated the state government payroll section on SeeThroughNY.net, its government transparency website, to include payroll for 2013, the fiscally conservative group announced today. The database on SeeThroughNY.net includes the names, titles, base salary rates and total pay of more than 287,000 state workers in the executive, legislative or judicial branches at any time during the 2013 calendar year. Read More
While strikes and other job actions have become rare events, municipal and school officials say the Taylor Law--in combination with other public labor statutes--now unduly favors unions at taxpayer expense. The Empire Center explored whether Taylor Law reforms are needed at a policy forum. Read More
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has agreed to a seven-year contract that will give MTA cops base pay increases totaling 18 percent, including a 7.5 percent retroactive boost effective immediately, the Daily News reports. Union members also scored a boost in their longevity pay, which will rise to a maximum of $9,800, in exchange for agreeing to curb overtime, stretch-out the schedule of annual pay hikes for newly hired officers and make new recruits pay 2 percent of their salaries toward health insurance. Read More
It seems like everyone who counts in Albany could get a pay bump before the year's out. Read More
E.J. McMahon debated former state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky last night on The lead up to this debate includes Governor Cuomo's proposed modifications to the pension system in New York (including his proposal for an optional defined-contribution Read More
On Saturday, the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) got the terms of its new $47.5 million contract with the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents 3,000 bus drivers in Queens and Staten Island. Read More
New York will (one presumes) have a new mayor come January 2014. One question for that mayor will be whether he or she chooses the past or the present. Read More
An in today's New York Daily News shows that what used to be considered a morally heartless and politically unworkable idea -- cutting public-sector salaries and benefits to a manageable level -- is now becoming mainstream thinking. Read More