 | |
| Formation | 2005 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Manhattan Institute for Policy Research |
| Type | Nonprofit public policy research |
| Headquarters | Albany, New York |
President | E.J. McMahon [1] |
Budget | Revenue: $1,038,917 Expenses: $731,440 (FYE September 2015) [2] |
| Website | www |
The Empire Center for Public Policy is a fiscally conservative think tank and government watchdog group based in Albany, New York. [3] [4]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
Metro-North Railroad, trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Metro-North serves the New York Metropolitan Area, running service between New York City and its northern suburbs in New York and Connecticut, including Port Jervis, Spring Valley, Poughkeepsie, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, White Plains, Southeast and Wassaic in New York and Stamford, New Canaan, Danbury, Bridgeport, Waterbury, and New Haven in Connecticut. Metro-North also provides local rail service within the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx.
The New York City Transit Authority is a public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. Part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the busiest and largest transit system in North America, the NYCTA has a daily ridership of 8 million trips.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in North America, serving 12 counties in Downstate New York, along with two counties in southwestern Connecticut under contract to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, carrying over 11 million passengers on an average weekday systemwide, and over 850,000 vehicles on its seven toll bridges and two tunnels per weekday.
Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full range of payments and benefits, including basic pay, non-salary payments, bonuses and allowances. Some countries have moved faster than others in addressing equal pay.
Many both in and outside Japan share an image of the Japanese work environment that is based on a "simultaneous recruiting of new graduates" and "lifetime-employment" model used by large companies as well as a reputation of long work-hours and strong devotion to one's company. This environment is said to reflect economic conditions beginning in the 1920s, when major corporations competing in the international marketplace began to accrue the same prestige that had traditionally been ascribed to the daimyō–retainer relationship of feudal Japan or government service in the Meiji Restoration.
The 2005 New York City transit strike, held from December 20 through 22, 2005, was the third strike ever by the Transport Workers Union Local 100 against New York City's Transit Authority and involved between 32,000 and 34,000 strikers.
Sick leave is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sick leave is intended for health-related purposes. Sick leave can include a mental health day and taking time away from work to go to a scheduled doctor's appointment. Some policies also allow paid sick time to be used to care for sick family members, or to address health and safety needs related to domestic violence or sexual assault. Menstrual leave is another type of time off work for a health-related reason, but it is not always paid.
The Main Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It begins as a two-track line at Long Island City station in Long Island City, Queens, and runs along the middle of Long Island about 95 miles (153 km) to Greenport station in Greenport, Suffolk County. At Harold Interlocking approximately one mile east of Long Island City, the tracks from the East River Tunnels and 63rd Street Tunnel into Manhattan intersect with the Main Line, which most trains use rather than continuing to Long Island City station.
In New York City, a planned congestion pricing scheme will charge vehicles traveling into or within the central business district of Manhattan. First proposed in 2007, this disincentivizing fee to cut down on traffic congestion and pollution was approved and included in the 2019 New York State budget by the New York State Legislature. As of 2023, congestion pricing is scheduled to be implemented in early 2024. When the congestion charge goes into effect, tolls will be collected electronically and will vary depending on the time of day, type of vehicle, and whether a vehicle has an E-ZPass toll transponder.
The Public Employees Federation (PEF) is an American union representing 50,000 professional, scientific, and technical public employees in the state of New York. The union is one of the largest local white-collar unions in the United States and is New York's second-largest state-employee union. PEF also represents employees who work in private-sector jobs and local government agencies. The union publishes The Communicator, an online newsletter for members, 10 times annually.
The 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, also known as the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, is legislation proposed by Republican Governor Scott Walker and passed by the Wisconsin Legislature to address a projected $3.6 billion budget deficit. The legislation primarily affects the following areas: collective bargaining, compensation, retirement, health insurance, and sick leave of public sector employees. In response, unions and other groups organized protests inside and around the state capitol. The bill was passed into law and became effective as of June 29, 2011. Public employees exempt from the changes to the collective bargaining law include firefighters and most law enforcement workers. The bill was ruled to be constitutional by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in July 2014, after three years of litigation.
Wage theft is the failing to pay wages or provide employee benefits owed to an employee by contract or law. It can be conducted by employers in various ways, among them failing to pay overtime; violating minimum-wage laws; the misclassification of employees as independent contractors; illegal deductions in pay; forcing employees to work "off the clock", not paying annual leave or holiday entitlements, or simply not paying an employee at all.
Andy Byford is a British transport executive who has held several management-level positions in transport authorities around the world, such as the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), Transport for London (TfL) and Sydney's then RailCorp.
Patrick Joseph Foye is an American lawyer who served as Chairman and CEO of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Prior to this role, he served as President of the MTA and Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
In 2017, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) due to ongoing reliability and crowding problems with mass transit in New York City. This order applied particularly to the New York City Subway, which was the most severely affected by dilapidated infrastructure, causing overcrowding and delays. With many parts of the system approaching or exceeding 100 years of age, general deterioration could be seen in many subway stations. By 2017, only 65% of weekday trains reached their destinations on time, the lowest rate since a transit crisis in the 1970s. To a lesser extent, New York City buses operated by the MTA were also affected. Both the subway and the buses are run by the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), a subsidiary of the MTA. A separate crisis at Penn Station affected the routes of the three railroad agencies that provided service into the station. Media outlets deemed these crises "the summer of hell".
The Office of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Inspector General (OIG) is the Office of Inspector General specific to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) that is responsible for conducting monitoring and oversight of MTA activities, programs, and employees.
The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City was confirmed on March 1, 2020, though later research showed that the novel coronavirus had been circulating in New York City since January, with cases of community transmission confirmed as early as February. By March 29, over 30,000 cases were confirmed, and New York City had become the worst-affected area in the United States. There were over 2,000 deaths by April 6; at that stage, the city had more confirmed coronavirus cases than China, the UK, or Iran. Bodies of the deceased were picked up from their homes by the US Army, National Guard, and Air National Guard.
Sarah Elizabeth Feinberg is an American civic employee who previously served as the Interim President of the New York City Transit Authority from 2020 to 2021, and a former Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. She was nominated for the role of MTA Chairperson but was ultimately not selected for the position. Her background is mostly in communications.
Carolyn Pokorny is a career federal prosecutor, currently serving as First Assistant United States Attorney at the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Previously she served as the Inspector General for the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority at the Office of the MTA Inspector General. She is the first woman to hold that position.
The following is a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.
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