The Empire Center’s policy experts issued the following reactions to the fiscal 2025 budget: “This year’s budget process was an avoidable trainwreck. New York is the only state that begins its fiscal year on April 1, earlier than anyone else. This has contributed to Albany’s new, old tradition of missing deadlines then hurriedly voting on bills before lawmakers can fully review them. Moving the fiscal year start would make the budget process more transparent and give lawmakers time to better perform their duty as the state’s board of directors. As to the budget itself, New York is spending mo ..read more

In this episode of Messages of Necessity, Kyle Davis, Director of Public Affairs at the Empire Center, has a conversation with the organization’s new Executive Director, Zilvinas Silenas (also known as Z). Together, they delve into Silenas’s background and expertise, exploring how his unique experiences will propel the Empire Center and the Empire State forward to new heights. Listen & Subscribe Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. The post Episode 34: Introducing Z appeared first on Empire Center for Public ..read more

Some advice for elected officials: if you’re going to repeat talking points from public employee unions, fact-check them first. Writing in the Daily News, State Senator Robert Jackson and Rochester Mayor Malik Evans deployed a statistic they said supports retroactively sweetening public employee pensions by weakening the 2012 pension reforms known as “Tier 6.” “Since 2021,” they wrote, “a staggering 16,858 employees have departed from state and public employment, leaving behind a void that imperils our safety, our education, and our collective well-being.” What makes that stat strange? For one ..read more

New York’s home health workforce has continued its pattern of extraordinary growth, increasing by 62,000 jobs or 12 percent in a single year, according to newly released data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The state was home to 566,000 home health and personal care aides as of May 2023, up from 504,000 the year before, according BLS’s Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, an annual survey posted this week. That equates to 159 aides per 1,000 residents over 65, the highest rate in the U.S.   The one-year increase of 62,000 was more than double the number in any oth ..read more

In this episode of “Messages of Necessity,” Cam Macdonald and Ken Girardin dive into the contentious debate surrounding New York’s public pensions. Unraveling myths and confronting harsh realities, they analyze the union’s arguments for retroactively sweetening pensions and explore the implications of such actions, including the potential burden on taxpayers. Listen & Subscribe Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. The post Episode 33: Pension Problems appeared first on Empire Center for Public Policy ..read more

New York’s economy barely grew in 2023, trailing far behind stronger growth rates in the national economy and almost all other states, according to preliminary real gross domestic product (GDP) estimates by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. Real GDP in the Empire State rose just 0.7 percent last year, less than one-third the U.S. growth rate of 2.5 percent, the BEA said. Among all states, only Delaware (-1.2 percent) and Wisconsin (0.2 percent) had smaller GDP increases. Including the BEA’s preliminary 2023 figures, New York has trailed U.S. Real GDP growth in four of the last six years ..read more

Four years after a devastating pandemic, the state has made no major investment to repair or improve its public health defenses. While funding for Medicaid has soared over the past four years, the non-Medicaid fraction of the Health Department’s budget has dropped back to its pre-pandemic level of $5.9 billion. Governor Hochul has proposed boosting that amount to $6.6 billion in 2025. But that would still be 8 percent less than 2020 after adjusting for inflation. Strikingly, on-budget funding for the department’s highest-profile public health operation, the Wadsworth Center for Laboratories an ..read more

New York’s two teacher pension systems last year had 25 retirees eligible to collect pensions of more than $300,000, according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. The largest pension went to Leticia Calderon, a 2010 New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) retiree who collected $520,398. Among the other $300,000+ pensioners, 17 retired from NYC DOE, four retired from Long Island school districts, two retired from CUNY and one retired from a Westchester County district. The data show 7,259 retirees, primarily from school districts, w ..read more

New York’s public employee unions are arguing, without evidence, that state lawmakers need to retroactively sweeten the pensions of workers who have been on the job for more than a decade. In fact, state and federal data show why state lawmakers shouldn’t. The change the unions are seeking (to the way pensions are calculated) would slam New York taxpayers with more than $4 billion in new debt, instantly translating into hundreds of millions of dollars in added annual pension costs. If granted, it also wouldn’t be the last: the unions have signaled they want to roll back most of the pension ref ..read more

While much of the health-care industry is attacking Governor Hochul’s Medicaid budget, at least one organization is rallying to her side: Somos Community Care, a politically active medical group in the Bronx that recently received an unusual $29 million grant from the Health Department. Under the banner of “NY Communities for Care,” Somos is encouraging public support for Hochul and her health-care policies through internet advertising and a website. The website credits Hochul’s budget for proposing to eliminate insurance copayments for insulin, expanding paid leave for expectant mothers and s ..read more