April 3, 2014. In doing research and analysis of the New York City social services workforce, a preliminary chart pack was assembled that includes: NYC Contract Budget for Social Services Demographics of Private Social Service Workforce NYC Social Services Sector: Annual Earnings by Occupation Social Services Wages & Hours Social Services Workers: Family Income Relative to Poverty Status
March 31, 2014. This brief compares the New York State Revenue Bill to earlier Executive, Assembly, and Senate tax proposals.
March 27, 2014. James Parrott testified at a New York City Council oversight hearing looking at the effects of removing job security protections from the City school bus contracts. The previous administration set in motion a contract re-bidding process that stripped school bus drivers, matrons and mechanics of job security protections. That action has already led to the bankruptcy of a large school bus company in the middle of the school year and threatens to further unsettle the industry on which the City relies to [...]
March 26, 2014. This brief puts the Tax Foundation’s 2014 State Business Climate rankings into perspective and shows why attempting to improve New York's ranking will have very little impact on economic growth or job creation.
March 24, 2014. The 2014-2015 New York State Budget Tax Brief compares the tax proposals in the Assembly and Senate budget resolutions with those in the Executive Budget. The major proposals are analyzed and their impacts discussed.
March 11, 2014. In his review of NYC Mayor Bill deBlasio’s first budget, FPI’s James Parrott notes the new mayor’s progressive change in direction compared to prior City budgets. Not surprisingly, the major new initiative included in the Preliminary FY 2015 budget is full funding for the UPK/afterschool proposal scheduled for launch in the fall of 2014. The briefing summarizes trends in state and federal aid, and analyzes projections for tax revenue growth. Parrott describes the municipal labor contract situation as a challenge but not [...]
Thank you for honoring Frank. You will receive an email confirming your purchase. If you have any questions, please contact Bryan LaVigne at 518-786-3156 or blavigne@fiscalpolicy.org
February 27, 2014. In testimony presented before the New York City Council Civil Service and Labor Committee, FPI’s James Parrott summarized several employment, wage and cost of living trends affecting low-wage workers in New York City. He noted that 37 percent of all wage-earners in the city are paid less than $15 an hour, and that half of all black and Latino workers are low-wage by this measure. Parrott discussed several groups of low-wage workers and suggested policy steps the City could take to raise [...]
February 19, 2014. A new report from the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) that presents data on income distribution trends for all 50 states from 1917-2011, confirms an analysis of income trends in New York that the Fiscal Policy Institute initially published in 2010. The report, by economists Estelle Sommeiller and Mark Price, builds on a groundbreaking study by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanual Saez in 2003 that used data from income tax returns to document rising inequality in the United States since World [...]
Two events were held honoring the contributions of Frank J. Mauro, Executive Director Emeritus: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 in Albany and Thursday, May 1, 2014 in New York City.
February 14, 2014. While New York’s economy is gradually recovering, far too many workers still earn very low wages. Pay for the typical New Yorker has not kept up with inflation, and the majority of new jobs being created in New York and nationally are in low paying fields. As communities in New York struggle with these serious economic challenges, other states have empowered localities to respond by adopting higher local minimum wages. From California to Maryland, growing numbers of cities and counties are enacting [...]
February 11, 2014. James Parrott testified before the New York City Council Education and Women's Issues Committees on Feb. 11, 2014, on the subject of Mayor deBlasio's Universal Pre-Kindergarten and After-School Proposals. Parrott supported the notion that there should be a dedicated funding stream to pay for these proposals financed by an increase in the top rate on the City's personal income tax. He examined the proposed increase in historical perspective, reviewed the issue of migration in response to local and state tax differentials, and [...]
February 10, 2014. Executive Director Fred Floss testified before the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees on the Governor’s 2014-2015 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan. Floss noted the proposal for FY2015 is contractionary, since it cuts $2 billion in expenditures and only reduces taxes by $480 and will therefore be a drag on economic growth in New York State. He also commented on a number of tax proposals including the property tax freeze, corporate tax reductions and the estate tax proposal. If implemented, [...]
February 5, 2014. In an opinion piece that ran in the Detroit News, Andrew Wainer makes the case that immigrants can be an important part of a strategy for economic revitalization of Detroit. While the jumping-off point of the article is Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's proposal for highly skilled immigrants who would be tethered to Detroit by a geographically restricted Visa, Wainer makes the case that it's not just highly skilled immigrants who count, and that regular immigration, without special Visas, have been an important [...]
February 4, 2014. Submitted by Carolyn Boldiston, FPI’s Senior Fiscal Policy Analyst. Testimony includes: recommendations for the 2014-2015 state fiscal year; review of actual and proposed reductions in human services spending; use of federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding in the 2014-2015 Executive Budget; and, the impact of decline in the purchasing power of the monthly cash assistance grant.