Housing Affordability in Westchester County
April 4, 2000. Affidavit filed by Trudi Renwick, FPI Senior Economist.
April 4, 2000. Affidavit filed by Trudi Renwick, FPI Senior Economist.
March 27, 2000. New from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and specific to New York: How Much Additional TANF Spending Can New York Afford? New York Can Increase Use of TANF Funds While Maintaining A Rainy Day Reserve Early in 1999, Congresswoman Nancy Johnson, chair of the Human Resources subcommittee of the Ways and Means committee, sent a letter to all governors that urged them to spend more of their TANF funds or risk having Congress take some portion back. This warning was [...]
Most Relief Comes from the State Earned Income Tax Credit Enacted in 1994 New York has among the lowest income tax burdens in the country for low-income working families.1 Of the 42 states with income taxes, only Vermont and Minnesota do a better job than New York in shielding both poverty-line incomes and minimum wage-earnings from income taxation. New York is one of only four states in which near-poor two-parent families of four — those with incomes at 125 percent of the poverty line — [...]
March 2000. FPI prepares the Budget Process Reform section of Counterbudget, which is coordinated and published each year by SENSES, the Statewide Emergency Network for Social and Economic Security. Counterbudget provides an analysis of the Governor's Executive Budget Proposal and its impact on low-income New Yorkers focusing on the programs and policies identified as priority issues by the SENSES network of over 2500 human service, religious, labor, economic development and low-income organizations - issues including economic development, public assistance, health care, hunger and nutrition, housing, [...]
March 2000. FPI prepares the Revenue section of Counterbudget, which is coordinated and published each year by SENSES, the Statewide Emergency Network for Social and Economic Security. Counterbudget provides an analysis of the Governor's Executive Budget Proposal and its impact on low-income New Yorkers focusing on the programs and policies identified as priority issues by the SENSES network of over 2500 human service, religious, labor, economic development and low-income organizations - issues including economic development, public assistance, health care, hunger and nutrition, housing, taxes and [...]
March 15, 2000. A copy of the letter below was sent to each of the 50 governors. Ms. Johnson is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives. The Honorable Don Siegelman Governor of Alabama State Capitol 600 Dexter Avenue Montgomery, AL 36130-2751 Dear Governor Siegelman: As you may recall, I wrote last year urging you and other governors to increase the rate at which TANF money is spent, because there is so much states can [...]
March 6, 2000. William Tuthill reports in the Capital District Business Review: New York state's array of economic development programs, in which millions of dollars are annually loaned or given to spur businesses and create jobs, lack adequate means of measuring their own effectiveness, according to a report by State Comptroller H. Carl McCall. There are not enough tools in place to show whether funded projects have resulted in the increase or retention of jobs, the report said. It is an argument McCall has made [...]
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 [...]
January 25, 2000. The Fiscal Policy Institute's annual budget briefing: State government has begun to address one of New York's most glaring social disparities (the large and growing number of New Yorkers without health insurance), and it has begun investing in several other areas in which there are significant social investment gaps (such as child care). Unfortunately, it continues to miss the opportunity to use the surpluses generated by the boom on Wall Street and several other factors to do more in these areas, to [...]
January 18, 2000. New York State and New York City have always had much to brag about. There is, however, at least one major national trend in which New York's preeminence is more of a danger sign than a blessing. This involves the widening gap that exists between the economic well-being of people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder and those below them on that ladder. New national and state reports show income inequality in New York is the worst of any state. Below, [...]
January 7, 2000. This audit (Report 98-S-7) by the Office of the State Comptroller concluded that the ESDC does a poor job of tracking employment at companies that receive state subsidies, and that many companies have fallen short of the promises for creating or retaining jobs on which their subsidies were based.