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July 2, 2009.
June’s
jobless jump jolts stocks. Employers slashed more workers last month than
many expected. How rough is it? In NYC, nearly one in four black males are
unemployed or underemployed. By Daniel Massey, crainsnewyork.com.
June 23, 2009.
New York State's Business Climate and
Fiscal Health. Alan Chartock hosted FPI's Frank Mauro and
Kenneth Adams of the Business Council of New York State. On VoxPop,
WAMC's
daily call-in talk program.
Using only local sales to calculate corporate income taxes "will
significantly erode the city's business income tax base, with no apparent
benefit," says James Parrott, deputy director of the Fiscal Policy Institute.
He adds that the measure comes with no mandates for job creation, despite
officials' lofty projections.
May 27, 2009.
Experts say boro will grow. Diverse Queens economy helped boro survive
recession: Panelists. By Jeremy Walsh, Queens Village Times. Print
versions of this story also appeared in the Astoria Times, the
Fresh Meadows Times, the
Little Neck Ledger, the Whitestone Ledger, the Flushing Times,
the Ridgewood Ledger, the Forest Hills Ledger, the Richmond
Hill Times, and the Bayside Times.
Interestingly, in New York State from 1975 to 2008, the
top personal income tax rate dropped steadily from a high of 15.375 percent in
1975 to 10 percent by 1981, 7.875 percent by 1989 and 6.85 percent by 1997,
according to a recent report by the Fiscal Policy Institute. The top rate
stayed at 6.85 percent from 1997 through 2008 with the exception of a
temporary top rate of 7.70 percent from 2003 through 2005. The Fiscal Policy
Institute points out that, were the highest state rate still in effect, the
state would have about $20 billion more in tax revenues per year.
May 19, 2009.
Civic
groups back Port Authority in WTC battle. In an open letter, they argue the
agency should halt financing at just one World Trade Center building. By Theresa
Agovino, crainsnewyork.com.
Lisa and Anthony Kimball of the Village of Montgomery bought their home
three years ago at the peak of the market. Their budget is now being
squeezed by increasing property taxes. Here's how the three most-discussed
property reform bills in the state Senate would impact their taxes.
2008
Income: $85,000
Town tax: $1,827.59
Village tax: $2,426.60
School tax: $5,396.30
Total: $9,650.49
OPTION 1
Bill numbers: S.253/A.7094
What it does: Establishes a
circuit breaker credit that covers all property taxes based on property
value. Establishes brackets where those making under $100,000 get the
largest credit, which gradually decreases so taxpayers making more than
$250,000 receive no credit.
Total relief:
2009: $0.00
2010 and beyond: $3,185.34
OPTION 2
Bill number: S.4239
What it does: Similar to
S.253/A.7094. Establishes a circuit breaker credit for all property taxes
based on property value. The bill phases in over four years to give the
state time to shift funding. Taxpayers would see less savings in the first
three years. Those making under $100,000 get the largest credit, which
gradually decreases so taxpayers making more than $250,000 receive no
credit.
Total relief:
2009: $1,400.34
2010: $1,697.84
2011: $2,292.84
2012 and beyond: $3,185.34
OPTION 3
Bill number: S.1849-C
What it does: Re-establishes the
STAR rebate checks program beginning in fall 2009 and establishes a circuit
breaker credit that covers school property taxes beginning with the 2010
calendar year tax year.
Total relief:
2009: $421.22
2010: $628.63
2011: $698.83
2012 and beyond: $769.04
Source: Calculations provided for the Times Herald-Record by Frank Mauro,
executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute
"There are 25 specific industries we track that had more jobs in the
first quarter this year than the first quarter last year," says James Parrott,
chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute.
April 22, 23, 25, and 26.
City Talk: a program of CUNY-TV hosted
by Doug Muzzio of Baruch College's School of Public Affairs. Guests: E.J.
McMahon of the Manhattan Institute and FPI's James Parrott. Cable
channel 75 in New York City. Dates:
Wednesday 4/22 (4:30 pm and 9:30 pm), Thursday 4/23 (3:30 am), Saturday
4/25 (3:30 pm), Sunday 4/26 (11:30 am).
April 21, 2009.
WAMC's Vox Pop
featured "New York State Fiscal Policy," with guests Frank
Mauro of FPI and Bob Ward of the Rockefeller Institute.
Page with link to podcast.
April 18, 2009. It's bad, but not that bad.
Viewpoints from "two noted local economists," FPI's James Parrott and Ronnie
Lowenstein of the Independent Budget Office. Crains New York Business.
April 17, 2009. SUNY:
Losing Millions in Funding. Despite cuts in state funds, college moving
ahead with $120 million plan to expand and upgrade its science facilities. By
Ken Little, Oswego County Business Magazine.
Frank Mauro, of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a supporter of the tax
increase, took issue with the IBO's findings. He said by his calculations, "at
least" 18 percent of the new tax revenue would come from out-of-staters,
nearly triple the figure estimated by the IBO.
April 1, 2009.
New York State Budget Analysis: Alan Chartock hosts FPI's Frank Mauro and
E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy. WAMC.
March 25, 2009.
Tax Us, Please. At least some wealthy New Yorkers have the right idea. An
editorial from the Syracuse Post Standard.
Some 80 well-to-do New Yorkers stepped up this week and sent an open
letter to Gov. David Paterson and state legislators, asking Albany to raise
their taxes. Instead of cutting essential services to fill a state budget gap
currently pegged at $14.3 billion, they propose "an increase in income taxes
on those who can afford it - which means us."
One of the signers, retired Albany-area entrepreneur Chet Opalka, said
at a news conference in Albany Monday that he's been pretty lucky in life and
doesn't want the state to "cut in all the wrong places." Instead, he said, "in
these times, it's important for the haves to take care of the have-nots."
This public-spirited gesture comes as legislative leaders huddle in
search of a budget agreement by the mandated deadline of April 1. A
"millionaire's tax" reportedly is an on-again, off-again proposition.
The liberal Fiscal Policy Institute notes that state tax rates on the
highest earners have been halved over the past 30 years - those earning
$30,000 now pay the same rate as those earning $30 million. The tax burden has
shifted to middle-class taxpayers, and to even more regressive local property
taxes and sales taxes.
Though some warn raising taxes on the rich would drive them away,
a recent
story in The New York Times and a
report from the Fiscal Policy Institute suggest otherwise. Douglass S.
Massey, an expert on public finance and migration at Princeton, told the Times
there is no convincing evidence such a tax boost affects mobility decisions.
The last time New York enacted a temporary tax surcharge on the wealthy,
between 2003 and 2005, the number of high-income-earners in the state grew
from 250,000 to more than 325,000, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute.
Right now, New Yorkers earning $15,000 pay 12.6% of their income to the state
and to municipalities. Those making $1.6 million or more pay half that. James
Parrott and Frank Mauro of the Fiscal Policy Institute write in the Gotham
Gazette that from 2004 to 2008 public spending grew less than 2.9%, barely the
rate of inflation. But the tax cutting spree between 1994 and 2000 "reduced the
state's tax revenues by about $10 billion a year." The Fair Share Tax Reform Act
will add three new top level brackets, at $250,000, $500,000, and $1 million. It
should go some way to correct the imbalance.
"There is increasing support for this in the Legislature," said Frank Mauro,
executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute in Latham. "There's a set of
reasons coming together, that people are articulating, and that people
understand. That's why there's increasing public support for a progressive
income tax."
And Gillibrand might be surprised to find that immigrants are by no means
only low-wage workers. Immigrants make up a significant portion of nurses,
doctors, accountants, and professors, for example, as well as construction,
restaurant, and child-care workers. A study by David D. Kallick of the Fiscal
Policy Institute showed that immigrants are responsible for nearly a quarter of
New York state's gross domestic product - they contribute 22 percent to GDP,
while making up 21 percent of the population in 2005. Gillibrand should bear
that in mind; a recession is no time to throw a wet rag over nearly a quarter of
the state economy.
Mauro argues that companies pitting cities and states against one
another to nab jobs is a less-than-desirable approach.
"Subsidy competition is unfortunate, and governments should at least
write agreements tightly enough to make sure they get what they are paying
for," he said.
January 26, 2009.
Debunking
the claim that civil servants are overcompensated in New York, and
explaining that increasing wages and benefits for average workers is critical to
solving the economic crisis (at about 25:57). Building Bridges, WBAI.
Over the last 30 years, the trend has been to pare back income tax rates
on the rich, federally and in the state. Since the mid-1970s, the state has cut
its top tax rate from 15.375 percent to 6.85 percent. The top income tax rate in
New Jersey is 8.97 percent, and in Connecticut it is 5 percent, according to
data from the Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal research group.
January 15, 2009.
Report: State shortchanging SUNY, CUNY. New York is not funding its public
university systems to keep up with rising enrollment, according to the Fiscal
Policy Institute. By Daniel Massey,
crainsnewyork.com.
January 8, 2009.
The Brian Lehrer Show:
Retail Economics. FPI's James Parrott, with
Lynn Thomasson, stock market reporter for Bloomberg News, and Leslie Price
of Racked.com, discuss the
city's retail sector: sales, jobs, layoffs. WNYC. (18:06)
January 8, 2009.
New report says more jobs at risk in city. In a report
released Thursday, the Independent Budget Office gave a grim forecast,
estimating that 243,000 jobs will be lost in the current recession. By Daniel
Massey,
Crain's New York Business.
More than 100 economists from around the state have signed a letter to
Governor Paterson, urging him to raise high-end income taxes to close the budget
gap, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute. And they say that steep cuts in
spending as proposed by Paterson will weaken the already struggling economy. It
is a view that Princeton University professor Larry Bartels discusses in his
book, "Unequal Democracy; the Political Economy of the New Gilded Age."
The Fiscal Policy Institute, a progressive public-policy group, has
compiled the evidence ... Since 1976, New York State has cut its top
income-tax rate from the previous 15.375 percent down to 6.85 percent. That
means, notes the Institute, that whether your family makes $41,000 a year or
$1 million, your tax rate is the same. "The large multi-year tax cuts enacted
between 1994 and 2005 are now reducing state revenue by over $17 billion per
year," says the Institute.
November 30, 2008.
City residents feel economy's pain. Respondents to a recent poll say the
city's economy is in poor condition and 40% fear for their jobs, while 80% say
they have already cut back on spending this year. By Matthew Sollars, Crain's
New York Business.
It's sink or swim time for New York state. So let's get our priorities
straight and face the difficult financial situation with a balanced approach
that looks at both the spending and revenue side of the budget equation.
Reckless cuts alone will only pull us deeper into the recession's undertow.
November 17, 2008.
Health care can't absorb more cuts. By James J. Barba,
president and CEO, Albany Medical Center; Steven P. Boyle, president and CEO,
St. Peter's Health Care Services; James W. Connolly, president and CEO, Ellis
Hospital; Gino J. Pazzaglini, President and CEO, Seton Health and James K. Reed,
M.D. president and CEO, Northeast Health. Albany Times Union.
November 17, 2008.
The
Cost of Cuts. An editorial from the Cornell Daily Sun, Ithaca.
"He's doing this entirely from an accounting ledger perspective - he's
not taking the economic impact of his cuts into consideration," said Frank
Mauro, a liberal economist who is executive director of the Fiscal Policy
Institute. Mauro said that Paterson should restrict his actions to the $1.5
billion deficit and use $1.039 billion from the tax stabilization reserve
fund.
Paterson appears to have bought the notion that higher personal-income
taxes cause the rich to flee. This may be the teachings of The
Fountainhead, but there's no real-world evidence for it. Were it so, New
York's wealthy would long ago have escaped to places like Georgia, where
politicians make sure that millionaires pay the same tax rate as day laborers.
As Frank Mauro, the tireless pro-union advocate of the Fiscal Policy Institute
in Albany, points out, the rich have not even fled their estates next door in
New Jersey, which has long taken an extra bite - almost 9 percent - out of the
incomes of those making over $500,000.
What does cause people to move or stay away, says Mauro, is a decline in
public services. "Our fear is that if you try and close a budget gap of the
magnitude that the governor is projecting, you will be inevitably cutting
services that are important to low- and middle-income families," he says. "We
know that expenditure cuts put more drag on the economy than high-end taxes."
October 28, 2008.
NYC city council supports new tax on carry. A majority of the city council
supports a proposal by the Working Families Party, a grassroots political group,
to include carried interest under the city's 4% unincorporated business tax. By
Christopher Witkowski, Private Equity Real Estate.
October 27, 2008. How Congress spells relief. By Erik Engquist and Mike
Sollars, Crain's New York Business.
Congressional leaders are discussing a stimulus package that could send
$50 billion in relief to state and local governments. "New York could get 10%
of that, depending on how it's done," says James Parrott of the Fiscal Policy
Institute. "If it's done through Medicaid, New York would get more."
"The financial crisis puts a dramatic failure of unregulated markets
directly in front of the public," says David Dyssegaard Kallick, senior fellow
at the Fiscal Policy Institute, based in New York. "There could hardly be a
more powerful argument for regulation than the failure of banks that are 'too
big to fail.'"
September 23, 2008.
The Backstory of the Financial Collapse. Call it Gall Street. How else to
describe an industry that applauds nearly $500 million in bonuses for executives
taking an entire economy down with them? By Tom Robbins, Village Voice.
September 22, 2008.The End
of Wall Street as We Know It.
By James Parrott, FPI's deputy director and chief economist, who writes regularly for Gotham
Gazette's Economy
section.
September 17, 2008. The Brian Lehrer Show: What Should Washington Do? FPI's James Parrott and
Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute discuss how the government should
respond to the latest fiscal crisis. WNYC. (25:31)
September 15, 2008.
New York economy will feel Wall Street's pain. Estimates that 33,000 jobs in
the New York City securities industry will be lost during the current downturn
could be revised upward. By Daniel Massey,
crainsnewyork.com.
September 5, 2008.
Businesses hold back on fuel savings. New York City companies that added
surcharges and hiked prices because of gasoline increases are not in a hurry to
roll them back now that the price of fuel has dropped. By Matthew Sollars,
crainsnewyork.com.
It is more than time for our leaders in government and private industry
to start dealing with the issues affecting our nation's workers. If they are
successful in dealing with this issues, their actions will help put this state
and nation back on a solid economic foundation.
If the sea of about 84,000 spectators at INVESCO Field at Mile High
seemed like a lot to you last night, imagine how many arenas we could fill
with a much less cheery crowd here in New York. About half a million workers
across the state were stuck on the unemployment rolls as of July, according to
a new report by the Fiscal Policy Institute.
...
The trends signal a troubling change, but not a hopeless one, FPI says.
The report urges Albany lawmakers to respond by reforming the state's
unemployment insurance system (which currently doles out about $300 per week
on average), to help families ride out the economic slump while softening the
impact of eroding wages.
... in a week filled with remembrances about a long-ago speech
and promises to come, [Martin Luther King, Jr.] would want to remind the
celebrants of Denver and St. Paul and all our communities that his life's work
concerned not only racial equality, but also economic fairness and opportunity
for all. There is so much more to overcome. The campaign trail should help
inform how we - all of us - do just that.
If New York legislators are interested in heading off a snowballing
problem, they should modernize the state employment insurance system.
A report released today by the Fiscal Policy Institute shows that 25
counties in New York State, including Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester, are
experiencing at least 20 percent increases in the number of unemployed
persons.
Nationally, the top 1 percent of taxpayers in 2006 collected just over a
fifth of all personal income in the United States, 21.1 percent. In ten
states, including New York, the top 1 percent claimed an income share over
that 21.1 percent level.
These ten states also share something else in common. All ten, the
Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy charged last
week, have tax systems that "generally ignore" the considerable deep-pocket
presence within their borders.
...
"Restoring some of the New York tax system's lost progressivity," Frank
Mauro of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a state research group, noted last week,
"should be part of the state's effort to balance its budget."
New York Governor David Paterson apparently disagrees. Paterson has no
"millionaire's tax" in his package of proposals to cut the state's $6.4
billion budget deficit. The governor seems to buy the line, wildly popular on
Wall Street, that upping tax rates on the rich will lead to a massive
statewide exodus of New York's wealthy.
That's what a former New York governor, George Pataki, claimed back in
2003 when lawmakers voted to place a temporary 7.7 percent tax on income over
$500,000 and a 7.5 percent tax on any income that couples report over
$150,000. Pataki vetoed this tax hike on New York's most affluent, but
lawmakers then enacted the measure over his veto. What happened? Over the next
three years, with the tax hike on the wealthy that Pataki vetoed on the books,
the number of taxpayers in New York making over $200,000 actually increased by
31 percent.
The occasion was the unveiling of the Omnibus Bill that would combine
short-term tax relief and long-term tax reform. It proposes enacting a
"circuit breaker" and, in the long run, shifting costs to the state.
The Omnibus Bill is the brainchild of Frank Mauro, director of the
Fiscal Policy Institute, an Albany-based economic think tank.
"We came up with this vision that sort of embraces the best of a number
of bills out there," he said.
In closing New York's projected $26 billion budget deficit, we agree
with Governor David Paterson when he says that raising taxes should be the
last resort. New Yorkers already pay a lot of taxes. But a proposal for a
surcharge on the wealthiest New Yorkers is certainly in order considering the
state's economic woes ...
In a state and city with the country's
widest income disparities between the rich and the poor, protecting the
underdog is all the more necessary.
The landscape is already polarizing as the business-oriented Citizens
Budget Commission calls for controlling government spending on social services
while the labor-friendly Fiscal Policy Institute urges ramping up taxes for
higher income brackets.
July 30, 2008. A special
roundtable discussion on New York's economic health convened by WAMC-Albany
in the wake of Governor Paterson's proposed budget cuts. Hosted by Alan Chartock.
"Increasing taxes on higher-income people is less harmful than cutting
government spending," Renwick said. "It should be a balanced approach that
doesn't put increased stress on people who can least afford to pay."
July 30, 2008.
Home health aide union steps up campaign. 1199 SEIU intends to strike if
contracts are not ratified with 25 area home care agencies by mid September,
rally planned for Aug. 7. By Daniel Massey, crains.com.
July 29, 2008. Governor Paterson's speech on the state's financial
situation: outlook and commentary. On the Economy hosted by Bloomberg's Tom
Keene.
Frank Mauro, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a
nonpartisan group near Albany, said history offers some choices that can work.
One is the temporary surcharge on higher incomes that was used by New
York in 2003, Mauro said. For three years, incomes over $150,000 and $500,000
paid extra in different degrees, helping the state through a crisis then.
The federal government should help states, Mauro said, because it can
run a temporary deficit with less harm than if the states try it. This would
prevent states from cutting spending and thus adding to recessionary pressure
even as federal stimulus payments go out to try to combat recession. The
federal government has helped with temporarily higher Medicaid matches and
revenue sharing.
June 16, 2008.
Arguments Against a Property Tax Cap. A segment on Capital Tonight with
Brian Taffe of Capital News 9, joined by David Little, the
Director of Governmental Affairs for the New York School Boards Association, and
FPI executive director Frank Mauro.
May 28, 2008.
For the
record. Unionization translates to higher wages for low-wage workers,
according to a joint report released May 15 by New York's Fiscal Policy
Institute and the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
The Chief-Leader.
May 15, 2008.
Report: Low-wage union workers get 16% more. A new study shows that
unionized workers in the lowest wage brackets in New York state earn 16% more
than non-union workers with similar education. By Daniel Massey, Crain's.
Wouldn't it be nice if there were a mechanism to keep your property
taxes in line with your income? Proposed bill would cap property taxes based
on homeowner's annual income. About 340,000 upstaters could benefit.
April 29, 2008.
PILOT would just subsidize resort. An op ed by John K. Mullen, a professor
of economics and finance at Clarkson University, in the Adirondack Daily
Enterprise.
Social inequality and injustice form another sin. A glance around the
city and the state makes the point quickly enough.
Underlining that reality is a new study by an Albany-based research
group, the Fiscal Policy Institute. It shows that the gap between rich and
poor in New York State keeps widening. A chasm is more like it. In the late
1980s, the study said, families in the top 20 percent of earners made about
seven times as much as those in the bottom 20 percent. By the middle of this
decade, they were making about nine times as much.
April 16, 2008. Pols call for hedge
fund taxation. Bloomberg, New York Metro.
New York - Six New York City Council members endorsed a proposal to
extend the city's tax on unincorporated businesses to include private equity
and hedge fund managers, saying it would raise as much as $225 million.
The lawmakers joined with janitors representing the Service Employees
International Union, members of the Working Families Party and the laborfunded
Fiscal Policy Institute to call for the taxation of performance fees managers
take.
April 10, 2008.
An Agent of Change in an Age of Chaos. A podcast by Sam
Roberts, New York Times. In a
tribute to Barry Gottehrer,
Sam alludes to FPI's recent report,
Pulling Apart, to show that problems facing
the city - unmasked more than forty years ago by Gottehrer's award-winning reporting
for the Herald Tribune - still persist today despite greater public order.
February 22, 2008.
Bush budget stiffs New York: report. President George Bush's 2009 budget
could cost New York State $1.7 billion in federal support, according to the
Fiscal Policy Institute. By Tommy Fernandez,
Crain's New York Business.
The Fiscal Policy Institute has an easy remedy for Gov. Eliot L.
Spitzer's decision to trim aid increases he promised schools as part of a
four-year plan. The institute calculates that the slowdown would cost Buffalo
$5.6 million. That's a lot of teachers, books and other necessities in a
district with lots of poor students - in both senses of the word.
The answer: temporarily increasing the top income tax rates on the
state's highest earners, as the Legislature did in 2003 when it passed a
three-year surcharge over the veto of then-Gov. George E. Pataki.
Granted, it's a radical notion, expecting those with the most to help
those with the least.
But Frank Mauro, institute executive director, recalled Pataki singing
the same "sky will fall" song the well-off always sing when we talk about
helping poor kids. The threat was that raising taxes on those who benefit most
would slow the economy and make people flee the state.
"Neither of those things happened," Mauro said at last weekend's New
York State Association of Black & Puerto Rican Legislators conference in
Albany.
...
Beyond dealing with the current problem, Mauro said, a permanent
surcharge on the highest earners also would reduce property tax pressures on
low-and middle-income homeowners. That would be a permanent benefit.
The non-partisan Fiscal Policy Institute endorsed the circuit breaker
concept as a mechanism for temporary tax relief. But in doing so, it also
called on the state to stop shifting the tax burden to local governments and
to enact systematic changes in fiscal policy to correct what created the high
taxes.
January 31, 2008.
多团体发起移民教育运动.The
Epoch Times (Australia).
January 31, 2008.
Tax reform long overdue. A letter to the editor by
Robin Vaccai Yess, Middletown Times Herald-Record.
Funding schools through property taxes is inequitable, unfair and
unrelated to a person's ability to pay. Until it changes to an income-based
tax to fund schools, our seniors and young families will continue to be forced
out.
It's a two-part problem - the funding mechanism and school district
spending. If district budgets continue to rise by more than twice the rate of
inflation, the tax must continually increase. So, yes, we need a different,
equitable method to fund schools, but school spending must simultaneously be
brought under control.
The commission should seek help from the Fiscal Policy Institute, the
Public Policy Institute and the numerous tax reform groups throughout the
state for tax reform solutions that have already been developed. Many members
of the Assembly and Senate, who are paid with taxpayer dollars, have drafted
proposed legislation.
January 17, 2008.
We Want Higher Taxes. [Thanks Jay for the snappy headline. What we really
want is to take a fresh look at rolling back all the tax cuts enjoyed by those
with the highest incomes - in order to ease the pressure of property taxes as
well as income taxes on those of more modest means.] By Jay Jochnowitz, Capitol
Confidential.
Immigration is much more a blessing than a problem in New York. New
immigrants have made a marked contribution to virtually every community in
Queens. In Jackson Heights, Elmhurst and Flushing, immigrant-owned businesses
have flourished, creating jobs and raising property values. These businesses pay
taxes that enable the city to build schools and pay for health care for the
poor.
December 5, 2007.
25% of NYC construction jobs are 'off the books.' The fiscal costs to
taxpayers were $489 million in 2005 and are likely to reach $557 million in
2008, according to a report. By Tom Frederickson, Crain's New York Business.
FPI's study concluded that immigrants contributed $229 billion to the
New York state economy in 2006; that's about 22.4 percent of the state's GDP.
According to David Dyssegaard Kallick, an author of the report, "These
figures should wipe away any impression that immigrants are holding the New
York economy back; in fact, immigrants are a central component of New York's
economic growth."
November 27, 2007.
City of immigrants. An editorial from the New York Daily News.
New York's burgeoning immigrant population is helping to build just what
this city needs to prosper: a thriving middle class. So says a new study that
examined in detail the economic impact that the foreign-born are having on the
Big Apple.
Any way the Fiscal Policy Institute researchers sliced the data, they
found the city's 3 million immigrants - legal and illegal - are pulling their
load. The researchers also uncovered how the immigrants have become deeply
woven into the fabric of life.
...
The numbers add up to the fact that the 3 million New Yorkers born
overseas have had surprisingly positive impacts on a city whose neighborhoods
would wither without them. They are opening large numbers of small businesses,
and more than half have become U.S. citizens. They can vote and they will
surely remember politicians who play on nativist fears.
October 1, 2007.
Feeling budget pinch: Spitzer says Wall Street uncertainty and the lack of a
budgetary surplus mean frugal times, with fewer programs and less spending.
By James Madore, Newsday.
September 11, 2007.
Economy here beats the state. By Diana Ladden,
The Independent (covering Columbia and southern Rensselaer counties).
September 10, 2007. Gap
between rich and poor in America ever-widening: Though many still see this as
the land of opportunity, the promise of the good life is fading. By Leigh
Donaldson, Maine Today.
September 9, 2007. There is some hope
on the local job front. By David Robinson, Buffalo News.
September 3, 2007.
A day to celebrate America's laborers. An editorial from the Troy
Record.
September 3, 2007.
Jobless rate up slightly for Broome and Tioga: Local figure still lower than
state, U.S. averages. By Doug Schneider, Binghamton Press & Sun
Bulletin.
September 3, 2007.
Upstate economic picture brightens: Wages, job creation figures show 2006 was
stronger, report says. By Jay Gallagher, Elmira Star-Gazette.
September 2, 2007.
Labor of Love. By Dwayne Kroohs, Kingston Daily Freeman.
September 1, 2007.
State Of NY Labor. By Jay Jochnowitz, Capitol Confidential.
The Fiscal Policy Institute today released
State of Working New York 2007, its annual report on how workers are
faring in the Empire State.
The findings were mixed, with wages, median income, and job growth all
up last year, but pay not keeping pace with increases in productivity, wages
still not back up to their 2002 levels, top earners benefiting more than
those further down the scale and more families falling into the category of
working poor.
The report also found employers relying more on independent
contractors, the result being that fewer working people are receiving health
and other benefits they would traditionally have gotten as employees.
The report recommends raising the minimum wage to $8.25 in 2007
dollars, a level it says would be a “fair permanent standard,” requiring
that Industrial Development Agency incentives be keyed to creating good
jobs, more focus in economic development on jobs for New York's
well-educated workforce, cutting property taxes and relying more on income
tax to pay for government.
It also urges the state to move quickly on ways to trim health care
costs and look at universal coverage, rein in the use of independent
contractors, and increase unemployment benefits and basic welfare grants.
September 1, 2007.
Reports differ on state's economy: Fiscal Policy Institute says New York's
productivity is best in U.S.; Business Council says state lagging. By
Chris Churchill, Albany Times-Union.
September 1, 2007.
Wages in New York up by 1.7%: First rise in 4 years; report upbeat on jobs.
By Jay Gallagher, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
September 1, 2007.
Regional economy is healthy. By Michael Hill (AP), Middletown Times
Herald-Record. Also in the Troy Record:
Jobs increased, salaries inched up in state.
September 1, 2007.
Jobs, wages rise; problems remain: Upstate job growth of 0.9% best in a
decade. By Jay Gallagher, Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.
July 24, 2007.
U.S.
hikes minimum wages. The U.S. government raised the minimum wage by 70¢
to $5.85 today, the first increase in 10 years. The federally mandated wage
hike is the first of three that will push the minimum wage to $7.25 by 2009.
Reported by Jeanne Yurman of Reuters.
September 4, 2005.
Stagnant wages mar
Labor Day. Commentary on the State of Working New York 2005 by business
reporter and columnist David Robinson in the Buffalo News. (PDF)
September 4, 2005.
In Manhattan, Poor Make 2¢ for Each
Dollar to the Rich. Sam Roberts of the New York Times reports on new
analysis conducted by Professor Andrew Beveridge of Queens College, and compares
it to findings of the Fiscal Policy Institute and others. (HTML)
September 4, 2005.
Little in the Middle. An op ed by FPI Senior Fellow David Dyssegaard Kallick,
New York Times.
October 29, 2000. Evaluation of Tax Cut Proposals of U.S.
Senate Candidates Rick Lazio and Hillary Clinton. FPI Executive Director
Frank Mauro and Governor Pataki's Chief Economist, Stephen Kagann, reach
different conclusions in op eds published together in the New York Daily
News. To read what Mauro and Kagann think about the Clinton and Lazio
proposals, click here.