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Empire Center for Public Policy

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Empire Center for Public Policy
Formation2005
FounderManhattan Institute for Policy Research
TypeNonprofit public policy research
HeadquartersAlbany, New York
President
Zilvinas Silenas[1]
Budget
Revenue: $1,038,917
Expenses: $731,440
(FYE September 2015)[2]
Websitewww.empirecenter.org

The Empire Center for Public Policy is a fiscally conservative think tank and government watchdog group based in Albany, New York.[3][4]

History

[edit]

The Empire Center was founded in 2005 as a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. In 2013, the Empire Center was spun off from the Manhattan Institute, becoming an independent nonprofit organization.[5] The Center's stated mission is to "Make New York a better place to live and work by promoting public policy reforms grounded in free-market principles, personal responsibility, and the ideals of effective and accountable government."[6] The Empire Center is a member of the State Policy Network.[7]

Policy areas

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State budget

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Empire engages in policy regarding New York state's spending and budget. Empire releases data regarding salaries and pensions of state employees and its impact on the state's budget. In 2018 Empire issued a report showing that over 3,500 state employees are paid more than Governor Cuomo's salary of $179,000.[8] An Empire report disclosed that over 3,800 former state employees were paid annual pensions of more than $100,000 in 2016-2017, up 18% from the previous year.[9] A 2016 Empire report highlighted excessive spending in education, such as 32 New York City educators who receive more than $200,000 a year in pay, including one employee who received a salary over $200,000 while also receiving a pension over $200,000 per year.[10]

Healthcare

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Empire's healthcare policy department regularly issues commentary, reports, and studies regarding healthcare reform and the state's healthcare budget.[11][12] The state has seen Medicaid costs surging, contributing to a several billion dollar budget deficit.[13][14][15] In 2017 Empire issued a report on possible misdirection of the state's Indigent Care Pool, with private hospitals serving primarily non-indigent patients receiving substantial grants from the pool over hospitals serving primarily indigent patients.[16]

Transparency

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Empire operates the website SeeThroughNY.net, a searchable database of employee payroll information for all public employees in the state, as well as pension, school and municipal union contracts, tax rates, and pork-barrel projects in the state.[17][18][19] The website includes information comparing property tax rates, taxes paid, and share of public debt per resident across the state.[20][21] Empire also tracks trends of population growth and loss in the state, including where former New York residents move to when they leave the state.[22][23][24]

Empire sued the New York City Police Pension Fund for refusing to disclose names of former employees receiving pensions as required by the Freedom of Information Law. The court ruled that the names must be disclosed except for undercover police officers. The court found the disclosure of pensioners names helps to greater accountability and reduces pensioners double dipping, retiring to draw a pension while also working and receiving a full salary.[25][26] The Pension Fund was also required to pay Empire's legal fees.[27]

MTA overtime controversy

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Through Empire's transparency efforts, overtime abuse in the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) was uncovered.[28] Empire discovered that MTA's payroll grew by $418 million in 2018, a large portion of which was from a $119 million increase in overtime.[29] $145 million alone was spent on overtime from the Subway Action Plan. Additionally, 256 employees earned more than $250,000 in 2018, up from only 150 employees the year before.[28] It was discovered that employees were falsifying time records, some even reporting more hours than is physically possible to work.[30] One employee reported 74 hours of overtime alone per week and was paid over $450,000 for the year.[31] Some Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) employees were using handwritten time records instead of electronic systems, which are easier to track and prevent abuse.[32][33] MTA had no reliable system for verifying hours worked.[33] In order to control the excessive overtime, the MTA briefly deployed police officers to take attendance and oversee overtime of LIRR employees, which was met with outrage from union officials but defended by Governor Cuomo.[30][34] The controversy resulted in a federal probe[35] and MTA Inspector General Barry Kluger stepping down from his post.[36]                                                         

References

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  1. ^ https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/empire-center-board-names-zilvinas-silenas-president-ceo/
  2. ^ "Empire Center for Public Policy" (PDF). Foundation Center. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  3. ^ Castillo, Alfonso (July 17, 2015). "Average LIRR employee's earnings in 2014 rose 27 percent to $106,000, report finds". Newsday. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  4. ^ Hammond, Bill (August 5, 2015). "Cuomo learns to stop worrying, and love the slush". New York Daily News. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  5. ^ Reisman, Nick (October 4, 2013). "Think Tank Empire Center Spinning Off From Manhattan Institute". State of Politics. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  6. ^ "About the Center : Empire Center for Public Policy". www.empirecenter.org. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  7. ^ "Empire Center for Public Policy". State Policy Network. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  8. ^ Blain, Glenn. "Gov. Cuomo earned mere $179G salary last year — with 3,500 state workers taking home bigger pay". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  9. ^ Blain, Glenn. "Six-figure 'taxpayer-supported' pensions for retired New York government workers up 18%". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  10. ^ Chapman, Ben. "Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña is collecting $200G in pension payments while taking a salary for leading NYC schools". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  11. ^ "Empire Center Advanced Search- Healthcare". empirecenter.org.
  12. ^ i_beebe (2020-01-19). "The 2020 Health Power 100; 51-100". CSNY. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  13. ^ Reporter, JOE MAHONEY CNHI State. "New York faces deep budget hole". Press-Republican. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  14. ^ Vielkind, Jimmy. "As New York Faces Big Medicaid Cost Overruns, Cuomo Stays Mum". WSJ. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  15. ^ "Capital Region think tank proposes $3B in Medicaid savings". NEWS10 ABC. 2020-02-21. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  16. ^ Blain, Glenn. "Hospital care program made to help uninsured distributed unfairly, report shows". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  17. ^ "Nine Years of SeeThroughNY : Empire Center for Public Policy". www.empirecenter.org. 5 September 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  18. ^ "SeeThroughNY: More than 1,300 state workers made more than the governor last year". lohud.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  19. ^ "Seethroughny.net updates hundreds of municipal and school district contracts". NEWS10 ABC. 2019-12-19. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  20. ^ "The Empire Center for Public Policy makes 2018 New York Benchmark data available". NEWS10 ABC. 2019-11-21. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  21. ^ McKenna, Chris. "Region's homeowners among hardest hit by taxes in state". recordonline.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  22. ^ "Which Florida counties have the most recent Onondaga County transplants? (maps)". syracuse. 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
  23. ^ Team, Joseph Spector, USA Today Network New York State. "I Leave NY: 1.4M left for other states since 2010. Here's where they went". The Evening Tribune. Retrieved 2020-01-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ "Goodbye, New York, California and Illinois. Hello … Where?". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
  25. ^ "Judge: Release names of NYPD officers getting pensions". Newsday. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  26. ^ Editorials. "Showing and telling, finally: An expanding pension database shines vital light on public spending". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  27. ^ Ross, Barbara. "City must pay Albany nonprofit group's legal fees from its suit over withheld undercover cop information". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  28. ^ a b Guse, Clayton. "MTA subway fixes lead to soaring OT costs, agency moves to cut fat". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  29. ^ Guse, Clayton. "MTA chairman says agency will look into surging OT payouts". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  30. ^ a b Guse, Clayton. "Cuomo defends MTA's use of police in OT fraud crackdown". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  31. ^ Dwyer, Jim; Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (2019-05-17). "$461,646 in Pay for One Worker: M.T.A. Overtime Scrutinized by Prosecutors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  32. ^ Dwyer, Jim; Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (2019-05-17). "$461,646 in Pay for One Worker: M.T.A. Overtime Scrutinized by Prosecutors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  33. ^ a b Williams, Nirvani (21 October 2019). "MTA Report: $1.4 Billion In Overtime Paid Out Via Honor System". www.wshu.org. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  34. ^ Berger, Paul. "As MTA Scrutinizes Worker Overtime, Union Raises Specter of Transit Strike". WSJ. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  35. ^ Dwyer, Jim; Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (2019-05-17). "$461,646 in Pay for One Worker: M.T.A. Overtime Scrutinized by Prosecutors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  36. ^ Slattery, Denis. "MTA Inspector General stepping down amid ongoing probes into alleged overtime abuses". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
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