Reports and Fact Sheets Archive

Key Sources on Penn Station Redevelopment Plan Reinvent Albany has compiled a list of key sources on the Penn Station Redevelopment Plan. We will continue to update.

Watchdog Report Uncovers $1.2B Tax Break for Vornado in Opaque Penn Station Financing Scheme Reinvent Albany published a detailed analysis of NYS’s secretive plan to pay for Penn Station upgrades.

Double Jeopardy: MTA Capital Plan Imperiled by Congestion Plan Delay Two years in, the MTA has only 7% of the funds budgeted, or $4B out of $55B total.

Opening New York 2022: Rating 70 State Agency Transparency Plans What NYS agencies told the Governor they are doing to improve FOIL, Open Data, Open Meetings, and other basic transparency measures

MTA Needs Congestion Pricing Money Now, Not in 2023 2020-2024 MTA Capital Plan Funding Coming in at Slowest Pace of Last 3 Plans: MTA Has Just $2B of the $55B Budgeted

Legislative FOIL: A Tale of Two Houses Covers legislative FOIL and the two houses' respective approaches, including recommendations on options for reform.

Investing in the MTA is Investing in America Analysis of MTA payments outside NYS shows it spent $8B across the country, in 47 of the 50 states from 2011-2018. This in turns created as many as 100,000 jobs. Congress must now step up to fund $3.9B in emergency aid for the MTA.

Analysis Shows Huge Challenge for MTA to Spend $55B 2020-24 Capital Plan Analysis shows the biggest constraint is the MTA’s ability to spend, not find capital funding. Recommends honest and detailed implementation plan, as well as detailed, itemized lists of projects and changes to prior plans.

Where is the 2020-2024 MTA Capital Plan? Review of past MTA capital plan processes shows 2019 is one of most secretive since capital plans began in 1982, diverging from transparency norms.

Who is the MTA Board? An analysis of the 2019 MTA Board finds that only 36% of voting board members live in NYC, versus 89% of riders. When additionally compared by age, income, and ethnicity, MTA board members are not like transit riders. Review of financial disclosures also finds conflicts of interest for board members.

Less Than 1 in 4 Campaign Donations to 19 NYS Senate Democratic Leaders Are From People in Their Districts An analysis of donations to NYS Democratic Leaders shows few donations from their constituents

Only 16% of Campaign Donations to Assembly Leadership Are From People in Their Districts An analysis of campaign contributions to Assembly leaders finds few are from constituents

Open MTA – 50 Actions NY Can Take to Renew Public Trust in the MTA A comprehensive report that makes specific recommendations for improving the MTA’s transparency, governance, oversight and ethics. (2019)

Steps Forward for MTA FOIL and Open Data 18 specific actions the MTA can take to improve transparency now. (2019)

Estimating the Costs of a Public Financing System in NYS The cost of a public financing system in NYS is $60 million annually

FOIL that Works: MTA 2018 An in-depth look at FOIL at the MTA shows a fragmented process and offers best practices for online FOIL and police incident reports (2018)

Costs to Public for Business Subsidy Deals Varies Wildly Analysis of Governor Cuomo's economic development deals show the cost per job varies greatly from project to project

NYS Courts Deny FOILers Attorneys’ Fees in Nearly 1 in 4 Lawsuits Even When Records Provided and Agencies Had No Reason to Withhold

NYS Lobbying Transparency Undermined by Antiquated Technology & Irregular Reporting Lobbying transparency in NYS could be improved by modernizing JCOPE's database

Open New York “Tools” Recommendations for specific tools that enable state agencies to quickly create web-based information resources to be included in OpenNY.gov (2011)

State Email Retention Policy New York State should match the Federal Government's email retention policy and save emails for 7 years and the emails of executive staff permanently (2014)

Listening to FOIL 2: NYC DOITT FOIL Requests 2015 An examination of the FOIL logs of one New York City agency (DoITT) tells us what data sets are high-value and should be open data (2015)

Modest Burden, Modest Value: Extending FOIL to NYS Legislature January 2016 January 13, 2016 analysis recommending NYS legislature subject itself completely to Freedom of Information Law as do 23 other state legislatures. Report notes NYC Council already subjected to FOIL and in 2014 got only approximately 70 FOIL requests compared to more than 50,000 received by mayoral agencies. Includes chart of 23 state legislatures and commonly FOILed topics.

State Integrity Investigation 2015 Corruption Risk Survey In 2015, NY State received a D- grade from the State Integrity Investigation based on the questions in this spreadsheet. https://publicintegrity.org/accountability/new-york-gets-d-grade-in-2015-state-integrity-investigation/