What to Look for in the One House Budgets

The New York State Senate and Assembly will soon release their proposals for the fiscal year 2025 budget. Following last week’s revenue consensus, the legislature will be able to propose $1.3 billion more in spending than the executive budget. This additional revenue will allow the legislature to restore many of the budget cuts proposed by the executive budget, especially to school aid and home care. The legislature can, however, go beyond restoring the proposed cuts and put forward deeper investments in public services that address New York’s affordability crisis. These investments will require raising additional revenue.

Consensus Economic and Revenue Forecast: Finding Quarters in the Couch Cushions

By Emily Eisner, PhD, Economist March 4, 2024 View PDF of Report Annualized revenue adjustments average $1.01 billion over past seven budget cyclesIn the New York State budget process, revenue projections are frequently underestimated. The Division of Budget’s pattern of under-estimation is particularly evident in the State’s Economic and Revenue Consensus Report (henceforth referred to as the “Report”). The report released Friday, March 1, 2024, adds an additional $1.35 billion in revenue to the total projected revenue for [...]

State Economic Update: Economy Recovers While Inequality Rises

By Emily Eisner, PhD, Economist January 11, 2024 View Full Economic Update Overview   New York State is home to one of the largest, most thriving economies in the world; as of 2022, New York’s gross domestic product was over $2 trillion, rivaling the entire economy of Canada and larger than the economies of Australia and South Korea. Despite New York’s aggregate economic strength, New York faces real economic challenges, including a decrease in total employment, climbing poverty rates, and [...]

2024-02-20T19:08:48-05:00January 15th, 2024|Blog, Economic Outlook|

Update: FY25 State Budget Gap Reflects Stable Fiscal Condition, Not Crisis

January 9, 2024 Toplines The November financial plan made significant revisions to the FY25 budget gap — shrinking the gap from $9.1 billion to $4.3 billion, resulting in more routine gaps. The current FY25 budget gap of $4.3 billion is a moderate, not extreme, budget gap. Moderate outyear budget gaps are generally the result of conservative revenue estimates intended to ensure fiscal stability. Conservative budget forecasting is a sound fiscal practice that protects against economic downturns — not a [...]

2024-01-09T12:04:35-05:00January 9th, 2024|Blog, Fact Sheets, State Budget|

New York State’s Reserves: A User’s Guide

New York State has generated significant budget surpluses in recent years as its economy recovered more quickly than expected from the Covid pandemic. Like most other U.S. states, New York saved a considerable portion of these surpluses in its fiscal reserve funds, building a buffer against fiscal stress during future economic downturns. With the Division of the Budget projecting an economic slowdown and depressed revenue in the years ahead, the appropriate use of the State’s fiscal reserves is now a subject of debate. This post will provide an overview on why fiscal reserves exist, and how they can be used to smooth out fluctuations in the economic cycle and maintain stable public services.  

2023-10-21T15:03:55-04:00September 21st, 2023|Blog|

Mind the Gap: When are State Budget Gaps a Concern?

New York’s fiscal year 2024 Enacted Budget Financial Plan, released June 2023, projected budget shortfalls for fiscal years 2025 through 2027. While future budget gaps are a perennial feature of New York’s budget forecasts, the most recent projected gaps exceed those generally projected in times of greater economic stability, aligning instead with gaps projected during economic downturns. These projections must be interpreted, however, in light of an improving economic outlook as well as the inherent uncertainty of fiscal forecasting.

2024-01-29T17:34:38-05:00September 5th, 2023|Blog, Featured on Home, State Budget|

May Cash Receipts Begin to Stabilize Following April Volatility

Following the release of the State Comptroller's May Cash Report yesterday, Fiscal Policy Institute Executive Director Nathan Gusdorf today released the following statements: "The New York State Comptroller's May cash basis report shows that total tax receipts for fiscal year 2024 to date are 3.4 percent over the projections in the Enacted Budget financial plan, with Personal Income Tax receipts to date exceeding such projections by 5.5 percent."

FPI Testifies to NYS Senate on Fines and Fees

FPI's Chief Economist, Jonas Shaende, was invited to testify before the New York State Senate Standing Committee on Codes and the New York State Senate Standing Committee on Crime Victims, Crime, and Corrections. Dr. Shaende spoke in support of the proposed S.3979C (Salazar)/A.2348B (Niou), the End Predatory Court Fees Act. Testimony: Full Text

2021-10-29T14:49:28-04:00October 29th, 2021|Blog, City Budget, Testimony|

Excluded Worker Fund Will Run Out of Money

October 7, 2021 (updated from October 4). The groundbreaking Excluded Worker Fund, which gives aid to people who are excluded from unemployment insurance benefits, has crossed the $1 billion mark, and stands at $1,148,078,400 as of October 4. That’s a huge benefit to workers - nearly all of them undocumented - in our state, and is helping people and local economies in all regions. Equally impressive: 99 percent of those who have been approved get $15,600, the higher of two benefit levels. This is designed to [...]

2021-10-07T15:45:10-04:00October 4th, 2021|Blog, Migration|

Some Regions Lag in Excluded Worker Fund

October 4, 2021. New York State’s historic Excluded Worker Fund has been helping undocumented immigrants and others who were left out of unemployment compensation during the pandemic. According to data provided by the New York State Department of Labor last week, the fund - as predicted - is having an important positive impact on all regions of the state. The most important benefit of the Excluded Worker Fund is helping workers and their families, but the infusion of money into the community helps local economies [...]

2021-10-04T18:01:06-04:00October 4th, 2021|Blog, Migration|

Millions of Dollars Help Immigrants and Boost the Local Economy Across NYS

Sept. 3, 2021. The first data is out: $250 million has already been issued to immigrants who lost work during the pandemic but were excluded from federal aid, and another $600 million is “undergoing final verification.” After just the first month, 50,000 people have already been found eligible, funds have been dispersed to over 10,000, and another 40,000 are in the final stages of the verification process. Equally impressive: 99 percent of those who have received the funds are approved for $15,600, the higher of [...]

2021-09-07T12:46:26-04:00September 3rd, 2021|Blog, Migration|

Cutting Off Federal Aid to the Unemployed: States are Slamming the Recovery Effort

More than 400,000 people are poised to lose unemployment benefits this weekend as eight states withdraw early from pandemic-era programs. While $300 a week federal supplements to state benefits are not ending until September, eight states (Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming) join seventeen others who have already cut this benefit or plan to do so soon, affecting about four million recipients altogether. Supporters of these cutoffs argue that the supplements are keeping workers from returning to the workforce, [...]

2021-06-17T11:45:37-04:00June 17th, 2021|Blog|

NY’s Excluded Worker Fund is a Model for Other States – CBPP and EPI

Two national groups put a spotlight on FPI's work with the Fund Excluded Worker Coalition that resulted in $2.1 billion toward allowing undocumented immigrants to get something like what others in New York got in unemployment benefits and stimulus payments. This was a historic victory that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute are encouraging other states to follow! CBPP: Whitney Tucker, Deputy Director of Research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, pointed to the fund as a prime [...]

2021-06-03T11:07:41-04:00May 24th, 2021|Blog, Migration|

FPI’s Census 2020 Hindsight in Gotham Gazette

Shamier Settle, Policy Analyst with the Fiscal Policy Institute, wrote this article in the Gotham Gazette about the census count and what the numbers mean for New York. FPI started its census work in 2018 with this report, which estimates of how much funding community based organizations would need to conduct outreach for the census count in 2020. That same year FPI also began highlighting the importance of including investments in the census in the state budget. Through their participation on the steering committee of New York Counts 2020, [...]

2021-05-19T16:07:19-04:00May 19th, 2021|Blog, FPI in the News, Social Policy|
Go to Top