March 11, 2013. El Diario reports on a demonstration urging New York State legislators and governor to make the NYS DREAM Act a priority. Según un reporte del Instituto de Política Fiscal, de aprobarse esta ley, unos 5,500 estudiantes indocumentados que son elegibles, podrán tener acceso al Programa de Asistencia Educativa, que es financiado por el Estado.
March 11, 2013. A letter to the editor by James Parrott, Crain’s New York Business. Greg David's March 4 column (“Inequality debate doesn't reflect reality”) could have been titled “Economists agree NYC's inequality is very high and poverty is up; some think it's a problem.” Fiscal Policy Institute reports have documented this reality: The local economy has fared better than the nation overall in the recovery, yet inflation-adjusted median incomes here have plummeted by 8%, more than for the U.S. overall, and poverty has increased [...]
March 10, 2013. A report in El Diario about activism around the NYS DREAM Act. Según un reporte del Instituto de Política Fiscal, de aprobarse esta ley, unos 5,500 estudiantes indocumentados que sean elegibles, podrán tener acceso al Programa de Asistencia Educativa, que es financiado por el Estado. Javier Valdés, de Se Hace Camino Nueva York, organización que ha liderado la lucha a favor del Dream Act estatal, dijo que es de vital importancia que el Senado Estatal incluya fondos para el Dream Act en el [...]
March 9, 2013, Poughkeepsie. A Better Choice Budget Forum was held on Saturday morning, March 9, 2013 at 11 am at the Holy Light Pentecostal Church at 33 South Clover Street in Poughkeepsie. Speakers included Poughkeepsie Common Councilmember Ann Perry, Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner, long-time community activist Mae Parker-Harris and FPI Executive Director Frank Mauro.
March 8, 2013. The New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL), in its press release yesterday on the latest employment data, emphasized some good news—that New York State has had 17 consecutive months of private sector job growth, and that the state gained an estimated 29,600 private sector jobs in January (on a seasonally adjusted basis.) Nothing wrong with reporting good news. There was more good news in NYSDOL’s annual payroll employment revision that was also released yesterday. The annual “benchmark” revision showed that the [...]
March 7, 2013. Highbrow Magazine reviews why Americans should care about comprehensive immigration reform. A 2012 study by the Fiscal Policy Institute, “found that there were 900,000 immigrants among small-business owners in the United States, about 18 percent of the total, ” a higher percentage than the total immigrant share of the population, which is 13 percent. Hamilton Place Strategies, a Washington research group, argued in a recent paper that low-skilled immigrant workers in agriculture also boost the economy by increasing work for Americans in [...]
March 5, 2013. Part I of the budget briefing on Mayor Bloomberg’s Preliminary FY 2014 NYC Budget makes the following points: Unemployment remains very high in this historically weak “recovery.” NYC job growth better than the U.S., but considerable hardships persist. NYC tax revenues have rebounded, but federal and state aid share declined. State budget choices and pressures continue to squeeze NYC. City-funded expenditures projected to increase 3.4% in FY 2014, with increases in debt service and health insurance. Most agency budgets are cut. Over [...]
March 4, 2013. The Legislative Gazette reports on the political prospects of the NYS DREAM legislation. "I very much hope that this is the year where, finally, we are able to pass the state DREAM Act to provide financial aid to our undocumented students to attend higher education," King said. "We understand that their success is the state's success, their success is the success of our state's economy." King's assertions were backed by a recent Fiscal Policy Institute study which found that a student who [...]
February 27, 2013. The Legislative Gazette with a good story about FPI's analysis of the NYS DREAM Legislation's strong return on investment, released in coordination with the annual Albany Day of the New York Immigration Coalition. The Fiscal Policy Institute released a financial assessment of the New York state DREAM Act at the New York Immigration Coalition's lobbying day in Albany on Wednesday. The controversial bill would allow undocumented students -- many of whom were brought to the United States illegally by their parents, but [...]
February 27, 2013. A tumbler post from Univision focuses on the very affordable price per taxpayer of the NYS DREAM Legislation. The Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), a non-partisan research organization, has issued a report looking at the costs and benefits of the state-level bill. And since we all know it’s easier to do math when it involves fried dough, they’ve broken out the costs in doughnut dollars:
February 27, 2013. A proposal is gaining ground in New York State that would allow all students—including those who are undocumented immigrants—equal access to the state's Tuition Assistance Program. Last year, the Fiscal Policy Institute published an analysis of the costs and benefits of the proposal. This new report digs deeper into the fiscal and economic benefits to New York State, and shows that if the proposal were financed through the income tax the cost to a typical taxpayer would be 87¢, the price of [...]
February 25, 2013. Last night, the White House released the following likely impacts from sequestration in New York State if Congress does not act to cut the deficit in a balanced way. Bringing in more revenue by closing tax loopholes along with smarter reductions in spending would allow the federal government to avoid the following cuts in New York State: Teachers and Schools: The loss of approximately $43 million in funding for about 120 primary and secondary schools placing almost 600 teacher and aide jobs [...]
February 24, 2013. This op-ed piece by David Dyssegaard Kallick of FPI and Tanya Broder of the National Immigration Law Council ran in the Kansas City Star, the Denver Post, the Bradenton (Florida) Herald, the Anchorage Daily News, and other local papers around the country.
February 24, 2013. A Newsday article reports that the Long Island Association—the most influential business group in the area—has announced its support for comprehensive immigration reform. Immigrant advocates want to ensure workers are not exploited or paid lower wages and have eventual access to a path for citizenship. David Dyssegaard Kallick, immigration research director at the Fiscal Policy Institute in Manhattan, said efforts should first address the estimated 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants, while creating an orderly immigration system, without flooding business sectors with [...]
February 16, 2013. When viewed with a gender lens, the Governor’s 2013-2014 budget impacts New York City’s low-income women and their families in many ways, from decreased resources for low-income women seeking to get a foothold in the job market, to reduced funding for a wide range of essential support services, including access to child care. These proposed budget cuts, coupled with a weak recovery and sharp increases in poverty levels in NYC, further destabilize those most in need. Over the last three years, poverty [...]