New York State has enacted substantial expansions to its childcare subsidy program in recent years, supporting more families than ever. Yet the State risks undermining these gains by underfunding the program in fiscal year 2026, forcing New York City and other localities across the state to deny service to eligible families beginning as early as April 2025, putting them on a waitlist.
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) houses over 500,000 New Yorkers and receives a majority of its funding from the federal government, leaving it especially at risk of impending federal budget cuts. New York State must be prepared to fill gaps in both the operating funding and capital funding for NYCHA.
Unemployment insurance stabilizes the state economy during economic downturns, but New York’s UI system has been insolvent for decades and UI benefits are inadequate to keep workers out of poverty.
Lawmakers must look to progressive revenue sources for MTA funding
Download the Memo Download the Report The Fiscal Policy Institute today released two publications on how to fix New York State's insolvent unemployment insurance system: a memo recommending tax changes, and a short report detailing the UI system’s chronic underfunding and low benefit level. Unemployment insurance (UI), which provides temporary income to laid-off workers, is one of the State’s most important economic stabilization policies. Unemployment can both throw workers into poverty and exacerbate recessions by [...]
The statewide transition to PPL on April 1 risks being a catastrophe for home care workers – lowering wages while eliminating health insurance coverage for tens or even hundreds of thousands of workers. Neither PPL nor the state has offered any explanation of why this is happening or what PPL intends to do about it; many workers are currently seeking information about whether they will still have health insurance on April 1.
FPI released its annual report on the Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2026
Stories of a New York Medicaid enrollment crisis are difficult to square with other data. Census data shows that 47.0 percent of New Yorkers were covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2023; that’s slightly below the national average of 48.6 percent, but certainly not a crisis
The Executive Budget projects total state-share Medicaid growth of 17.1 percent, or $6.4 billion – an extraordinary rate of growth. Department of Health Medicaid spending alone is projected to rise by $4.3 billion or 13.7 percent. Yet enrollment has declined sharply over the past 18 months and is projected to remain virtually flat this year. What explains this dramatic divergence between spending and enrollment?
Video of FPI's first look at the fiscal year 2026 executive budget
Population growth, widening inequality, and cost-of-living strains
The proposed “inflation rebate” will not offset NY’s cost-of-living squeeze
The executive budget makes significant upward revisions to its expected revenue for both the current and upcoming fiscal years (fiscal years 2025 and 2026, respectively), raising anticipated tax receipts by $4.6 billion and $4.1 billion from the levels projected in the fiscal year 2025 enacted budget financial plan. Strong personal income tax receipts drive higher-than-anticipated revenue.
New York’s economy depends on immigrants, including those without documentation. Deportation of these workers would dramatically decrease affordability and availability of food, homes, and care—all basic needs for New Yorkers.
Governor Hochul today released her executive budget for fiscal year 2026, which reflects an overdue recognition of the State’s strong fiscal position and capacity for making new public investments in order to ease cost of living pressures for working New Yorkers.