Reports

Local government is a labor-intensive business, and employee compensation is the single biggest element of most municipal budgets. The 2016-17 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

New York State has long been home to a large share of the nation’s wealthiest households. But since the Great Recession ended, the Empire State has fallen behind when it comes to gaining additional income millionaires Read More

The Smart Schools grant-making process has been sluggish and haphazard, reflecting the program’s overly broad standards and goals. Read More

Besides having the country's highest per-pupil PreK-12 spending, every New York school district spent more than the national average on a per-pupil basis. Read More

Nearly half of the 669 school districts seeking voter approval for budgets on Tuesday, May 16 are presenting spending plans that call for increasing property taxes as high as the 2011 property tax cap law allows, according to an analysis released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Read More

New York’s Costly Public Works Pay Mandate Read More

The population of upstate New York declined by another 23,434 people between 2015 and 2016, while the population increase downstate slowed markedly. Read More

Reform in the shape of a block grant would replace the current system of open-ended matching aid, which has been blamed for encouraging overspending and gamesmanship as some states sought to maximize their federal funding. A prime example of the phenomenon is New York, which operates one of the costliest Medicaid programs in the country. Read More

Nearly two-thirds of New York State’s tax receipts are now generated by the personal income tax, or PIT, which relies disproportionately on the highest-earning one percent of New York taxpayers. This paper presents charts and tables highlighting notable trends in state PIT data in light of proposals to extend or increase the state’s so-called “millionaire tax,” along with scheduled PIT rate reductions in tax brackets below the highest income levels. Read More

The checklist's reforms would reduce the state’s cost burdens and improve its climate for growth. Read More

The Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) began as an effort to bring market-driven efficiency to New York’s hospital industry, but has evolved into little more than a revenue source. Read More

New York lost another 191,367 residents to other states during the year ending last July 1, and its population declined for the first time in a decade. Read More