Comments on the New York City Charter Revision Commission’s preliminary recommendations on “public reporting and data access”
June 28, 2005. Testimony by FPI Executive Director Frank Mauro.
Comments on the New York City Charter Revision Commission’s preliminary recommendations on “fiscal stability”
June 27, 2005. Testimony by FPI Executive Director Frank Mauro.
Prospects for Information Technology Jobs in New York’s Finance Sector
June 2005. A report prepared by the Fiscal Policy Institute for the CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development through a project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In August, Randi F. Marshall of Newsday wrote about the report: Technology's Human Need.
The Problem with the Hudson Yards Property Tax Breaks
June 16, 2005. A brief by FPI Deputy Director and Chief Economist James Parrott. (PDF) Also see the veto message issued by Mayor Bloomberg explaining his June 9, 2005,veto of City Council legislation requiring greater accountability in the expenditure of PILOT revenues.
Groups Urge Lawmakers to Make Industrial Development Agencies More Accountable, More Transparent and Less Corrupt
June 15, 2005. Group press release, plus eight simple ways to reform IDAs: Industrial Development Agencies Law Due to Sunset on June 30, 2005 Groups Call Upon Legislature and Governor to Make Real Changes That Will Make The Program More Accountable, More Transparent and Less Corrupt Over 100 community, religious, education, health care, labor and human services organizations from throughout New York State have endorsed a joint statement of principles to reform the state's Industrial Development Agency laws. The joint statement was issued today at [...]
The Future of Social Security: Where are We Going?
June 12, 2005. A presentation given by FPI Senior Economist Trudi Renwick at a Rockland County Community College forum.
Funding a Sound Basic Education for All New York’s Children
June 2005. This issue brief is an updated and condensed version of FPI's original January 1999 report on this subject. The update is based on: the Campaign for Fiscal Equity's Schools for New York's Future Act, FPI's analysis of the fiscal implications of that proposal, and the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy's April 2005 report, Achieving Adequacy: Tax Options for New York in the Wake of the CFE Case. Read the brief >>
Privatization without Competition equals Huge Losses
June 7, 2005. By FPI Executive Director Frank Mauro: how New York State's approach to "contracting out" wastes hundreds of millions of dollars a year without increasing service quality. Report >>
Who foots the bill for $6-billion rail job?
June 6, 2005. While Pataki and Bloomberg push for a Manhattan-JFK link, more pressing projects are at risk. An op ed by FPI Senior Fellow David Dyssegaard Kallick, Newsday. Read >>
The Path Not Taken: How New York State has Increased the Tax Burden on the Middle Class and Cut Taxes for its Highest Income Taxpayers by Over $8 Billion a Year
June 4, 2005. A little bit of tax history by Fiscal Policy Institute Executive Director Frank Mauro. In 1972, New York State had a personal income tax with 14 brackets, ranging from a low of 2% to a high of 15%. Since that time the state government has significantly restructured the state personal income tax in a variety of ways. Among the changes that have been made since 1972 has been a move to something that is much closer to a flat tax. This has [...]
The Federal Income Tax Deduction for State and Local Taxes Paid
May 23, 2005. This deduction is a key element of American federalism and a protection against double taxation: Allowing taxpayers to deduct the state and local taxes that they pay in calculating their federal income tax liability is an essential part of a governmental system in which the federal and state governments have independent sovereign taxing authority. In the American federal system, when people pay state and local taxes, they have less money left over to pay federal taxes. Thus, when it comes to the [...]
Taking Away the Ladder of Opportunity: Hotel Conversions and the Threat Posed to New York City’s Tourism Jobs and Economic Diversity
May 17, 2005. Despite record tourism and business travel levels, the wave of conversions of high-end hotel rooms to luxury condominiums is costing the city dearly in terms of hotel jobs. Over 3,200 Manhattan hotel rooms will be lost in 2004 and 2005 and another 3,000 hotel rooms are in jeopardy of conversion. As a result of conversions, hotel employment in New York City has fallen by 2,200 or five percent since September 2004. Considering the importance of a prosperous tourism sector to the city's [...]
The Tentative Recovery is Still a Long Way from Restoring Jobs, Wages and Incomes to Pre-Recession Levels for New York City’s Low- and Moderate-Income Households
May 2, 2005. Testimony by James Parrott, FPI Chief Economist, before the New York City Rent Guidelines Board. Testimony >>
Companies Certified Prior to the June 2004 Sunset of a Little Known and Badly Misused Tax Break Are Back in the Money
April 1, 2005. Good Jobs New York has uncovered an unpublicized rider to Empire Zones "reform" legislation that allows firms certified for Zone Equivalent Area (ZEA) Wage Tax Credits prior to June 2004 to receive up to five years of benefits - despite the program's expiration. GJNY released a list of benefit recipients that include Giuliani Partners, Ernst & Young, Fox News and News America. The press release: Contact: Stephanie Greenwood, Good Jobs New York, 212-414-9394 Bettina Damiani, Good Jobs New York, 212-414-9394 A little-known [...]
Vulnerable New Yorkers Would Lose up to $4.4 Billion in Federal Funding under House Budget Plan
March 30, 2005. The Senate's plan has considerably smaller cuts in basic low-income programs. Will the Senate accede to the harsher House budget? A press release from the Fiscal Policy Institute. Contact: Trudi Renwick, 518-786-3156 New York's share of federal funding cuts in key programs that assist our state's low-income elderly residents, families with children, and people with disabilities could be as much as $4.4 billion over the next five years under the budget plan the House passed earlier this month, a new report from [...]