Reports

Voters will cast ballots on proposed budgets for school districts across New York State. The spending plans would collectively raise New York State’s highest in the nation per-pupil expenditure by 4.3 percent, and per-pupil school tax levies by 3. Read More

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act) dramatically increases the state’s risk of a severe blackout event by 2040. Read More

New York State residents pay some of the highest local taxes in the nation. Read More

Proponents of “single payer” health care are pushing New Yorkers to take a multi-billion-dollar leap of faith. Read More

Despite the pandemic's costly and painful disruptions, most hospitals in New York and elsewhere ended their 2020 fiscal years in the black after receiving billions in relief from Washington, an analysis of their financial filings shows. Among repo Read More

New York taxpayers have been hit with enormous increases in pension costs for state and local government employees over the past 20 years. From less than $1 billion in 2000, combined annual employer contributions to the Empire State’s public pension funds escalated to nearly $10 billion by 2010, peaking at nearly $17 billion in 2015. Contributions have leveled off at roughly $16 billion in recent years—but under lenient government accounting standards, even that figure conceals the full long-term cost of generous, locked-in pension benefits for generations of retired government employees.  Read More

A new Empire Center report reveals that the New York Medicaid program now covers more individuals above the poverty line than below it. Read More

Governor Hochul is promising to reform the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) in the wake of negative publicity arising from its role in the controversy over former Governor Cuomo’s book deal for “American Crisis.” It’s the latest incident to put JCOPE under the spotlight in its ten-year history. Read More

A climate law adopted by the State Legislature in 2019 requires that New York transition to alternative energy sources on an aggressive timeline. Read More

This paper describes seven core objectives and offers specific policy recommendations toward their accomplishment. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, rather a good place to start work towards an Altered State with a growing economy, a more efficient public sector and new opportunities for an engaged and informed citizenry. Read More

For most New Yorkers, employer-sponsored health benefits exist only while they are on the job. When they retire, the benefits end. Not so for public employees.  Read More

County and Municipal Payrolls in New York Local government is a labor-intensive business, and employee compensation is the single biggest element of most municipal budgets. The 2021 edition of What Read More