NYS Enhanced Services for Refugees: Now Is the Time to Expand
The New York State Enhanced Services to Refugees Program (NYSESRP) began in 2017 as a response to the federal government’s retreat from refugee resettlement. New York State was first in the nation to provide state funding to support refugee integration, a valuable investment in the refugees and asylees who call New York home. New York for Refugees—a coalition of refugee serving agencies, the Fiscal Policy Institute and the New York Immigration Coalition—seeks $5 million in the 2021 budget to expand NYSESRP and grow support for the integration of refugees and asylees into our communities. Click here for a 2-page brief [...]
Military Coup in Myanmar Reverberates in California, Indiana, New York, and Texas
Over the past week, the military in Myanmar, the country also known as Burma, overthrew the democratically elected government and arrested the top civilian leaders. The United States state department condemned the action, saying “the military must reverse these actions immediately.” These actions are being watched closely, and in horror, by Burmese communities in the United States. To help understand what this means in Burmese communities in the United States, the Fiscal Policy Institute presents here data showing that of the 151,000 people born in Burma in the United States, roughly half live in just four states: California, Indiana, New [...]
Arts Central to New York City’s Recovery
As New York looks to restart our economic engine after the pandemic, the arts and culture play a critical role, especially in New York City. Governor Cuomo underscored that connection in his State of the State and New York State budget announcements. "Cities are by definition centers of energy, entertainment, theatre, and cuisine. Without that activity and attraction, cities lose much of their appeal. What is a city without social, cultural, and creative synergies? New York City is not New York without Broadway.” The coronavirus hit the city hard, causing a massive health crisis and an economic disruption due to [...]
Long Island’s Immigrants are Integral for its Economic Recovery
County Executive Steve Bellone's editorial in the Long Island Press pointed out the contributions that immigrants make to the area, including the boost they provide to the economy. The Long Island immigrant community is a vital part of our workforce and economy as a whole, with more than half working in white-collar jobs as of 2015. Immigrants make up 18 percent of the combined population of Nassau and Suffolk counties, generating 20 percent of total economic output, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute. Learn more by reading FPI's report "New Americans on Long Island" and more from our Immigration Initiative.
Congressional COVID Relief Bill Offers New York Workers Some Needed Relief
New York State’s unemployed workers will soon see some relief from the federal coronavirus relief bill passed on December 21, 2020. The bill provides $300/week in enhanced unemployment compensation (FPUC). It also extends Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) for another 11 weeks. In October and November of 2020, New York’s unemployment rate stood at 10 percent, with over 800,000 unemployed workers. Those most impacted by layoffs include Black workers (at 14 percent unemployed) and Hispanic and Asian workers (both at 13 percent unemployed). Comparatively, 7 percent of white workers were unemployed. Immigrant workers, a category defined as naturalized citizens, green card holders, and undocumented immigrants, had a higher unemployment rate (11 percent) [...]
Tax Revenue Keeps States Running
December 21, 2020 New York, like every other state, relies on tax revenue to provide stable funding for necessary public services. The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly damaging to the state and local governments’ budgets as the necessary mitigation measures have continued to curtail business activity, which in turn depressed tax revenues. Among the most impacted industries are hospitality, tourism, and leisure sectors that employ many low-skilled and immigrant workers. When many workers permanently lose their jobs, the impact is both local and statewide. As people start having difficulties paying for essentials locally, their families suffer, and the whole community [...]
New York State’s Tenants Need Immediate Relief
December 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated New York State’s affordable housing crisis. This year’s high unemployment has most affected our state’s minimum wage workers and gig economy workers and has intersected with our state’s lack of safe, decent, and affordable rentals, particularly for those earning at or below 50 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). To help struggling renters and protect public health, the state legislature passed the Emergency Rent Relief Act of 2020 on May 28, 2020. It created a $100 million COVID Rent Relief program. However, only $40 million was awarded through the program administered by [...]
Cuts to Employment in the State and Local Public Sector will Disproportionately Harm Women and Black Workers
Governor Cuomo supports reducing state spending citing revenue shortfalls that have been fueled by the economic recession that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Reduced or eliminated state funding could mean losing public sector jobs that employ workers in communities statewide. This loss would disproportionately impact women and Black workers who constitute the majority of public sector employees. Historically, the public sector has been an essential employer for women and people of color. Public sector employment has offered a stable path into the middle class with regulated pay requirements, health benefits, and a pension. Losing a public sector job in a pandemic [...]
Recognizing the 10th Anniversary of the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights
The Fiscal Policy Institute was honored to be part of the New York State chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights on Saturday, December 12th. The NDWA is a strong voice for domestic workers across the nation. Domestic workers provide essential work within our homes, from child-care and caregiving to keeping our homes clean and functioning. The majority of domestic workers are women, mostly immigrants, and women of color. FPI will be releasing a report in January, but our preliminary data is available in three factsheets: Domestic Workers: [...]
What Does the December Jobs Report Mean for New Yorkers?
December 2020 The monthly jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor reflected the pandemic’s continuing impact on the job market and the economy. A triad of trouble included job growth remaining slow for the fifth straight month, employers scaling back hiring last month, and a stubbornly high unemployment rate of 6.7%, a slight decrease from October’s 6.9% New York State’s latest jobs report won’t be released until the end of December but looking at the last available report from October makes evident our state follows the same trend of job loss, high unemployment, and a slow job market. New York City was especially [...]
The Universal Burden of Education Debt
December 2020 What do you call a loan that has been obtained for the purpose of financing the costs of higher education? A student loan. However, considering the fastest-growing age segment of student loan borrowers are over the age of 60 and are not students themselves, perhaps there is a more suitable term that can be used–education debt. Much like auto debt, mortgages, and credit debt, the term education debt places emphasis on what the debt has been used for, instead of who has used it. Employing the term education debt allows us to paint a more accurate picture of [...]
NYC Labor Market Took a Hard, Sustained Hit from the Pandemic
New York City Residents were hit harder and longer by the pandemic than those in the rest of the state. While both the city and the state have shown job gains since May 2020, the rebound has been modest. The road to recovery is long. Looking at the Employment to Population ratio (EPOP), we can see both are doing worse than during the Great Recession when the New York state EPOP never dropped below 57.7 percent and averaged 59.3 percent over the whole period. The Employment to Population ratio (EPOP) shows the strength of the labor market. Unlike other unemployment [...]
The HEROES Act Should Include Undocumented Taxpayers
Across the United States, undocumented immigrants and their families are still experiencing eviction, food insecurity, hunger, and financial difficulties due to COVID-19. Federal relief has continuously excluded this population of immigrants from income replacement assistance, stimulus payments, and unemployment insurance, which has exacerbated the adverse economic effects on undocumented families. Earlier this year, the federal government passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to provide financial relief to families who were impacted by COVID-19. Sadly, undocumented immigrants and their families were intentionally excluded from receiving this economic assistance. The CARES Act excluded undocumented immigrants by specifically [...]
New York Helps Pave the Way: NY’s Immigrant Inclusive Policies
In localities and states across the U.S., advocates and legislators have been working together to invest in the collective health and well-being of immigrants. This year’s Policy wins have been significant as advocates, and legislators continued to fight back against federal attacks on immigrants, and COVID-19 exposed the already persistent racial disparities. A recent report from the National Immigration Law Center that outlines policy victories in the United States highlighted New York’s commitment to immigrants. Despite the lack of federal leadership in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the deliberate exclusion of many immigrants from federal relief and economic [...]
Medicaid Cuts Would Put 554,000 Essential Workers in New York at Risk
October 14, 2020 Many of New York’s “essential workers,” people working in jobs deemed necessary throughout the COVID pandemic, rely on Medicaid for their own health care. They risk severe hardship if federal policymakers fail to provide appropriate increases in Medicaid funding or weaken protections for program enrollees, according to a new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In New York State over half a million, 554,000, essential workers rely on Medicaid. The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic led to a growing need for Medicaid health coverage while state revenues declined sharply. Some states have cut [...]
Congress Must Agree on COVID Relief Package in the Next Week
The coronavirus pandemic has hurt us all. It has harmed our physical and mental health and economic well-being. As of September 24, 2020, COVID-19 has sickened over 7.2 million Americans and killed more than 207,000. The pandemic has harmed our economy, causing large-scale business shutdowns, which were ordered to protect public health. Tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs and incomes because of the pandemic, resulting in record-high unemployment rates and a rising need for services in New York State and beyond. Initially, job losses were concentrated in the foodservice, retail, and health and social assistance industries. Still, now [...]
Robust Rental Assistance Needed to Protect Tenants
August 2020 Download the full brief Governor Cuomo has extended the state’s limited eviction moratorium until September 4, 2020 but the application window for the state’s $100 million COVID Rent Relief program closed on August 6, 2020. Many of New York State’s renters require assistance above and beyond the programs and protections currently in place. The COVID Rent Relief program has limitations. It will only provide up to four months of rental assistance for those earning below 80 percent of the area median income (AMI and it will only cover the difference between the household’s rent burden on March 1 [...]
Over 40% of New Yorkers Uncounted as Feds Call for Early Halt to 2020 Census
8/4/2020 On Monday, August 3, 2020, the Census Bureau issued a statement, confirming reports that it plans for all 2020 census counting efforts to be cut four weeks short of what was expected. This is the federal administration’s latest attempt to inject an element of chaos and intimidation into what should be a unifying and democratic process. In April, the Census Bureau asked all households to respond to its 10-question survey either online or by mail. For those who did not respond, there has been an extended time of following up over the phone, by mail, and by door knocking [...]
Second Round of Economic Impact Payments Needed
Millions of New Yorkers remain unemployed due to COVID-19. With federal assistance set to end in July, the situation is dire as these payments were used to cover basic essentials for workers and their families - and those who were excluded from CARES Act support and state unemployment assistance continue to struggle. The facts are stark. "Over 9.3 million New Yorkers—48 percent of the state’s population—received Economic Impact Payments (EIP) totaling over $15 billion by May 22, 2020. Undocumented immigrants, as well as married couples who file jointly but have mixed status, were excluded from receiving the EIP." Download the [...]
Unemployed Workers Set to Lose Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation
Unemployed New Yorkers are scheduled to receive their final Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) checks on July 26, 2020. FPUC was enacted as part of the CARES Act and the legislation set FPUC’s expiration for the end of July. The unemployment insurance (UI) expansions included in the CARES Act were quick and appropriate responses to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The expansions were intended to help tens of millions of workers across the nation who were laid off due to mandatory business shutdowns ordered to protect public health The Retail and Accommodation and Food Service industries, which represent [...]
Federal Funding is Essential to Health Care Coverage for New Yorkers
Strengthening Medicaid and protecting health coverage for New Yorkers is critical to ensuring that our state can respond effectively to the coronavirus public health crisis and the current economic recession. The Urban Institute has projected that Medicaid caseloads could increase by as much as 1,204,000, or 22.5 percent, through FY 2021—an unprecedented spike. New York needs help to cover those who are newly unemployed and expected to enroll in Medicaid and offset extra Medicaid costs related to coronavirus. Without proper funding, the state will be unable to treat at-risk patients, keep families healthy, or provide life-saving care. Download the Factsheet [...]