In a landmark case revolving around key provisions of New York’s Freedom of Information Law, the Empire Center is asking the state’s highest court to review lower-court rulings that would enable the New York City Police Pension Fund — and, potentially, the state’s other public pension systems, as well — to keep secret the names of retired employees receiving taxpayer-guaranteed pension benefits.
The motion filed with the state Court of Appeals by the Empire Center, which has posted searchable databases of salary and pension data on its SeeThroughNY transparency website, has been supported in an amicus brief by the state’s leading media organizations, including The New York Times, the New York Post, the Daily News, Newsday, Hearst Corp., the Albany Times Union and Gannett Co.
Tim Hoefer, director of the Empire Center, discussed the case with Liz Benjamin on YNN’s “Capital Tonight” on Thursday. View the interview here.
You may also like
NY Taxpayers Face Bitter Truth from Sweeter Pensions
Governor Hochul and state lawmakers this year approved a costly giveaway for public employee unions that retroactively hiked pension benefits. Now the bill is arriving. Read More
DiNapoli bolsters pension fund stability—and cuts tax-funded costs
DiNapoli announced today that he's approved a recommendation by the State Retirement System Actuary to reduce, from 6.8 percent to 5.9 percent, the assumed rate of return (RoR) on investments by the $268 billion Common Retirement Fund, which underwrites the New York State and Local Employee Retirement System (NYSLERS) and Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS), of which the comptroller is the sole trustee. Read More
Another Hochul To-Do: Timely Financial Reporting
The state will spend a record $212 billion in the current 2022 Fiscal Year, under the budget its elected leaders adopted in April. Read More
The Gov’s pension
There are several (dozens? hundreds?) of unanswered questions as the fallout from Andrew Cuomo's resignation earlier today continues. Among those are questions related to his pension, some of which can be answered, sort of.
Read More
MTA: Overtime down, take our word for it
Every year for over a decade, the Empire Center has submitted Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the payrolls of MTA corporate subsidiaries. And in almost every one o Read More
NYSTRS bill to drop again
The New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS) will reduce its pension contribution rates for a third consecutive year in 2017-18, even though the pension fund's investment returns came in well below its target rate in fiscal 2016. Read More
The new (old) normal of NY pensions
The Empire State's largest public pension plan still has not fully recovered from the financial crisis and Great Recession of 2008-09, a new report from the state comptroller's office confirms. Read More
DiNapoli’s “slight gains” in context
New York's largest public pension fund earned 2 percent in its first fiscal quarter—which isn't necessarily good or bad news for taxpayers. Read More