Proposal to Recapture High End Federal Tax Cut Windfall

December 20, 2010. In the wake of the historic agreement between the President and the Republican Congressional leadership to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest, the New York City Council's Progressive Caucus has developed an interesting proposal. The proposal calls for the state of New York to impose a temporary income tax surcharge to recapture for New York the "windfall" high income New York filers will be receiving. Related: an op-ed by Brad Lander, co-chair of the Progressive Caucus.

2020-10-27T13:09:42-04:00December 10th, 2010|Blog, Tax & Budget, Tax Policy|

Grow Together or Pull Further Apart? Income Concentration Trends in New York

December 13, 2010. New data shows that extreme inequality restrains growth for most New Yorkers - polarization trends in New York City and New York State expose an economic fault line. A new report from FPI documents the pronounced concentration of income growth that has occurred in New York State and New York City since 1980 - the first time that state income tax data has been compiled to analyze trends since 1980 in income growth by various segments of the state's population. Among the [...]

The Growing Budget Burden of New York’s Business Tax Expenditures

December 7, 2010. Over $8 billion a year goes to “back door” spending in the name of job creation. This new report from FPI identifies $5.4 billion a year in state government "back door" spending in the name of economic development and job creation. An additional $2.8 billion a year is being drained from New York's local government budgets because of a variety of tax expenditures in state law. In these tough budget times, these billions of dollars in business tax expenditures, which have historically [...]

Misleading NYS GDP Data for 2009: Federal release distorts picture of NYS’s economy

November 18, 2010. The Bureau of Economic Analysis today released advance estimates that dramatically overstate New York State's actual economic decline for 2009 - making New York the third worst-off state - because the BEA figures are based on very partial data and exclude any information on corporate profits. A much better indicator of New York’s relative economic performance in 2009 is provided by BEA's own data on total employment by state, which put New York tenth best of the 50 states. Release with data [...]

The Changing Profile of Long Island’s Economy: How U.S.-born workers have fared as immigration has grown

November 17, 2010. This report shows the big overall immigrant contribution to Long Island's economy, stressing the diversity of immigrant jobs, but also looking at whether immigrants are displacing U.S.-born workers or lowering wages. For nearly all Long Island residents the answer is no. However, there is reason for concern about African American men with a high school diploma or less. They seem to be losing ground (higher unemployment rates) as immigrant share of the labor force increases. This issue deserves attention despite the fact [...]

Background on the Economists Selected by the New York City Economic Development Corporation for Its Living Wage Study

October 27, 2010. City policymakers deserve the benefit of a rigorous study that looks at the actual costs and benefits of extending living wage standards to subsidized development projects. This brief looks at the track record of the lead economist, David Neumark, for the management consulting firm selected by the New York City Economic Development Corporation to conduct a study of the possible economic impact of wage requirements on projects subsidized by the City. The brief examines the extensive criticism of Neumark's past labor market [...]

High unemployment persists, but New York has not fared as badly as most states in the downturn

October 22, 2010. A new report from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that from the start of the national recession through September 2010, New York's 3.3 percent total job loss ranked it 39th among all states. New Yorkers have certainly not been spared the recession's devastating effects; however, New York was hit less hard than most parts of the country. Still, there were 800,000 New Yorkers officially unemployed in September, a number nearly 75 percent higher than when the recession began in New York [...]

Stiglitz calls for a second stimulus at FPI event

October 8, 2010. FPI presented its Frances Perkins Working People's award to Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz at an event in Manhattan on October 7. In his acceptance remarks, Stiglitz made a strong case for additional economic stimulus to put the country firmly on the road to recovery. A good summary of Stiglitz's remarks by Kathy Brady of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition is available in the October 8 edition of NYCETC's newsletter, the NYC Workforce Weekly. Article >>

Hundreds of millions at stake for New York’s working families: Current tax debate to determine future of key work-supporting tax credits

September 27, 2010. Low- and moderate-income New Yorkers have a huge stake in the tax debate now going on at the national level: over $600 million annually in work-supporting tax credits. Enhancements to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) that were made by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will expire at the end of 2010 unless extended by Congress. A new report from the Fiscal Policy Institute reviews the workings of these two tax credits, how they [...]

Federal Tax Policy at a Crossroads

September 21, 2010. This policy brief compares the distributional impacts on New York taxpayers of President Obama's plan and an alternative plan laid our in the Senate Republican leadership bill S.3773 - and looks at the impact of the same two proposals on programs and services. Conclusion? There are five reasons that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy should be allowed to expire as scheduled, and the modifications of those tax cuts enacted as part of the Recovery Act should be made permanent.

2020-10-27T13:07:09-04:00September 21st, 2010|Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Tax & Budget|
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