Empire Center for Public Policy

Sen. James Skoufis, D-Newburgh, had $134,858 in staff and member office expenses during his first three months in the Senate, the most among newly elected members of that house, according to data posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. From

BY E.J. McMAHON The billions of dollars funneled from New York’s treasury to movie and TV producers had no statistically significant impact on the industry’s employment in the Empire State through 2017, according to a new multi-state study of such tax incentives.

Corrections Department employees qualified for average pensions of nearly $70,000, the highest average benefit for any agency grouping among the 7,990 New York City Employee Retirement System (NYCERS) members collecting their first full year’s worth of pension benefits in 2018,

The budget crisis in New York’s Medicaid program stems from the failure of a key cost-control measure adopted during Governor Andrew Cuomo’s first term, according to a new report from the Empire Center for Public Policy. In 2011, Cuomo and the Legislature

BY E.J. McMAHON In what could rank among the least surprising federal court rulings of this or any year, a U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan has rejected New York’s constitutional challenge to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap

A town police chief in Rockland County was New York State’s highest-paid municipal employee outside New York City during the state’s 2019 fiscal year, according to the latest edition of “What They Make,” the Empire Center’s annual report summarizing total local government

In a major Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) case, a state Supreme Court justice in Manhattan today ruled that the names of retired New York City police officers receiving public pensions must be released to the Empire Center for Public Policy. Over

State lawmakers spent $7.8 million on postage for campaign-style mailings to constituents in the six-month run-up to last year’s elections, according to data added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. Senators spent $4.2 million and Assembly members spent $3.5 million

BY EJ MCMAHON The impending enactment of a permanent property tax levy cap in New York is a truly historic moment. Since its founding in 2005, the Empire Center has identified a broad cap on property tax levies as a

The Empire Center for Public Policy this week filed Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) appeals with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) after six of its seven subsidiaries failed to release public payroll records. The appeals come after the Empire Center