Briefing on Mayor deBlasio’s Preliminary FY 2016 NYC Budget: Addressing Needs and Budgeting Cautiously as the Recovery Progresses

March 10, 2015. In his briefing of NYC Mayor Bill deBlasio’s second budget, FPI’s James Parrott notes: several positive budget changes; strong job and tax growth, but uneven gains for workers and families; budget outlook improving; and items still to be addressed on the budget front.

Policy Brief: Property Tax Relief (Circuit Breaker)

March 5, 2015. The property tax relief plan (circuit breaker) proposed by the governor would help low- and middle-income New Yorkers that are struggling to pay their taxes and should be adopted with a few changes that would make it even more effective. The governor’s Executive Budget proposal includes a significant new property tax “circuit breaker” that would provide relief to households whose property taxes are unreasonably high relative to their income. Currently, 33 states and the District of Columbia provide some type of property [...]

Policy Brief: Education Tax Credit

March 2, 2015. The Executive Budget includes an Education Tax Credit (ETC) that would provide individuals and businesses with a substantial credit against income taxes owed for donations to private and public schools, or scholarship organizations. The governor’s legislation proposes a 75 percent credit rate, with individual credit amounts capped at $1 million. Any unused credit could be carried over to a subsequent year. Both businesses and individuals would be eligible to receive the credit on personal or corporate income tax returns. Total credits would [...]

New York State Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2015-2016

February 10, 2015. In its 25th annual New York State briefing book, the Fiscal Policy Institute analyzes and comments on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2015-2016 Executive Budget. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Budget proposal takes some positive steps forward in clearly acknowledging, for the first time in his tenure, the incredible child poverty and income inequality that exist in our generally affluent state and recognizing the need to give greater property tax relief to those who need it most rather than spreading it too thinly. However, for [...]

Living Wage and Minimum Wage Efforts

July 30,  2015. Given the long-standing gap between the growth in wages and productivity that has eroded living standards for most workers and their families in New York and around the country, raising the wage floor has become an economic policy imperative. FPI has been at the forefront in efforts in New York State and New York City to raise wages for low-wage workers. FPI played an important role in efforts to convince the New York Fast Food Wage Board in June and July 2015 [...]

New Analysis Confirms Low- and Middle-Income New York Taxpayers Pay Higher Tax Rate than the Richest New Yorkers

January 16, 2015. A new study just released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) finds that the wealthiest New Yorkers are paying a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than lower-income families that are struggling everyday to make ends meet. New York households with incomes under $100,000 pay higher effective state and local tax rates, ranging from 10.4% to 12%, than the richest 1% of households with incomes over $600,000, who pay [...]

Immigrant “Main Street” Business Owners Playing an Outsized Role

January 14, 2015. Immigrants are a little more likely to own businesses than their U.S.-born counterparts, but they are a lot more likely to own Main Street businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants, and barber shops, finds a new study released today by the Fiscal Policy Institute and Americas Society/Council of the Americas. Immigrants make up 16 percent of the labor force and 18 percent of business owners, but 28 percent of Main Street businesses (defined as retail, food services and accommodation, and [...]

New York City Taxes Ripe for Reform

January 13, 2015. The City of New York taxes its wealthiest residents much less than middle- and low-income residents, and state and local officials should fix three major City tax breaks that expire this year, according to a new report from the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI). In a sweeping report that reviews decades of tax changes and trends, FPI pinpoints inequities, tallies the cost of broken tax breaks, and urges tax reforms that reflect today’s economy and current challenges. A report summary is also available. [...]

Wage Standards are Key to Reversing the Erosion of Wages and Living Standards in New York City

December 16, 2014. Despite considerable growth in the New York City economy over the past two decades, very little of that growth has trickled down to the average worker and his or her family, according to our new report. Wage standards like the minimum wage and the living wage are critical in ensuring that there is a floor under the job market and that workers are adequately paid. Prevailing wage standards, however, are a key means to ensure that skilled labor provides a path into [...]

The Shale Tipping Point: The Relationship of Shale Drilling to Crime, Traffic Fatalities, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and Rents in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio

December 14, 2014. A report completed by a research team of the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative found a clear relationship between the density of shale well drilling activity and increases in crime, rents, traffic fatalities and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). These key “quality of life” issues had been identified in prior work by the Collaborative and in the work of others as having a potential relationship with intensive extractive industry “booms.” To examine this relationship, the Pennsylvania research team divided the counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, [...]

42% of NYC residents don’t have enough income to cover the basic necessities of a Self-Sufficiency budget, according to a new report.

December 2, 2014. According to the new 2014 edition of the Self-Sufficiency Standard for NYC, released today by the Women’s Center for Education and Career Advancement at a forum at the New School, the cost of a basic family budget in New York City has increased by 45% since 2000 while the median earnings of adults increased by only 17% over the past 14 years. The report, Overlooked and Undercounted: the Struggle to Make Ends Meet in New York City, is an update and extension [...]

Economic and fiscal impacts of proposed consolidations involving 5 postal facilities

November 10, 2014.  The American Postal Workers Union asked FPI to estimate the net economic and fiscal impacts of proposed consolidations involving five postal facilities around the country. The proposed consolidations were part of a nationwide “cost-savings” plan that would have further slowed mail delivery times. One of these involved a proposal to downsize sorting operations at the mail processing center in Newburgh, New York, in the lower Hudson Valley and to consolidate these operations at the Albany processing and distribution facility, 90 miles away. [...]

Expanding Opportunities and Improving City Social Services Quality through a Career Ladder Approach

September 24, 2014. The City of New York delivers most human services through $5 billion in annual contracts with non-profit providers. However, there are insufficient opportunities for lower-level social service case workers at these providers to acquire the education needed to move up a career ladder to more responsibility and better compensation. The result is a two-tiered job market that confines many women of color to the lower tier making inadequate wages. Thisprogram, explored a unique opportunity to address this challenge. Presenters Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO/Executive [...]

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