Reports

Why a single-payer health plan would be wrong for New York Read More

The decision by the nation’s largest solar panel provider to locate a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Buffalo, and to create other jobs in Western New York, could be a needed shot in the arm for a city and a region that’s been declining economically for many years. But there are significant risks and unanswered questions associated with the state government’s willingness to commit the bulk of its “Buffalo Billion” resources to the massive SolarCity factory on the site of the former RiverBend steel plant. Read More

Residents of the small Western New York village of Sloan had the highest effective property tax rate in New York, paying $64.46 per $1,000 of home value during 2014, according to the newest edition of Benchmarking NY, the Empire Center’s annual examination of local property taxes. Read More

The full extent of the continuing rise in school spending since the recession was not inevitable or unavoidable. Read More

NY must do more to encourage its Medicaid patients to take ownership of their own health. Read More

Upstate New York's population began to decline at a faster rate between mid-2014 and 2015, according to updated Census Bureau estimates. Read More

The poverty-fighting effectiveness of the state and federal Earned Income Tax Credit in New York is the focus of “Making Work Pay,” a new Issue Brief from the Empire Center for Public Policy. In light of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s push for a $15-an-hour statewide minimum wage, the briefing paper explains how the EITC already serves to boost low wages to levels well above the poverty line. Read More

New York's leading export remains people. Read More

State regulators should have foreseen the failure of NY's Obamacare co-op. Read More

Local government is a labor-intensive business, and employee compensation is the single biggest element of most municipal budgets. The 2014-15 edition of What They Make, the Empire Center’s annual report on public payrolls, allows New York taxpayers to compare this key element of local government costs around the state. Read More

Governor Andrew Cuomo wants New York to be become the first state in the nation to mandate a minimum wage of $15 an hour—more than double the federal minimum. Read More

A proposal to mandate the use of biodiesel in home heating oil in New York would raise consumer costs while reducing overall energy efficiency and consuming more fossil fuels. Read More