Monthly Archives: February 2000

February 14, 2000. FPI Executive Director Frank Mauro takes a look at the revenue side of the 2000-2001 Executive Budget. Governor George Pataki's first Executive Budget of the new century avoids some of the most counter productive cuts of his previous budgets. The 2000-2001 Executive Budget, for example, does not propose cuts in Tuition Assistance for the neediest of students, and it avoids what had come to bean annual battle over Medicaid. BUT this latest Pataki budget fails miserably in seizing the opportunities provided by [...]

February 9, 2000. A report by Frank Mauro and Carolyn Boldiston. The current TANF surpluses provide New York State with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fight poverty and lift poor families towards independence and self-support. This includes liberalizing the earned income disregard, providing a long overdue grant increase, and making new efforts to reach hard-to-serve parents and children. New York is more likely to continue to meet work participation rates if it invests in activities that have proven successful in helping people to move from welfare [...]

February 1, 2000. An op ed by FPI's Trudi Renwick, in Newsday. A new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute reports that New York has the most unequal income distribution of the 50 states. Concerted action by both the public and private sectors is needed to reverse this imbalance. The average income of the top 20 percent of New York families is 14 times as large as the average income of the poorest 20 percent. New York [...]