Social Policy

Watchdog Groups to Senate and Assembly: Don’t Come Home Without Passing Comprehensive Clean Contracting Reforms

For immediate release: June 5, 2017 Contact: Ron Deutsch, Executive Director 518-786-3156 (o), 518-469-6769 (c), deutsch@fiscalpolicy.org   Watchdog Groups to Senate and Assembly: Don’t Come Home Without Passing Comprehensive Clean Contracting Reforms Legislature has yet to act on massive corruption risks revealed by biggest bid rigging scandal in New York State history Watchdog groups again called on New York State Senate leader John Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to pass comprehensive Clean Contracting legislation. To date, the legislature has not passed the comprehensive reforms needed [...]

2024-12-18T12:26:42-05:00June 5th, 2017|Press Releases, Social Policy|
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Medicaid Supports New York’s Schools and Children

For immediate release: April 20, 2017 Contact: Ron Deutsch, Executive Director, Fiscal Policy Institute 518-786-3156 (o), 518-469-6769 (c) Christy DeBoe Hicks, State Communications Specialist, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (202) 408-1080; cdhicks@cbpp.org  Medicaid Supports New York’s Schools and Children House Republican Plans to Cut Medicaid Would Jeopardize Critical Health Services for Students [Albany, NY] – New York’s schools receive over $273 million from Medicaid each year, according to data released by the Washington, DC-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. This funding pays for [...]

2024-12-18T12:26:43-05:00April 20th, 2017|Blog, Healthcare|
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Proposed EITC Expansion Is No Substitute for Proposed $15 Minimum Wage

March 18, 2016. The state’s EITC is an extremely important benefit to low- and moderate-income working families. There is considerable merit to Assemblyman Kolb’s proposed 50% enhancement to the state’s EITC, raising it form 30% to 45% of the federal EITC. However, the proposal is certainly not a substitute for raising the minimum wage. It is more appropriate to view the EITC and raising the minimum wage as complementary policies. See the complete brief issued jointly by the Fiscal Policy Institute and the National Employment [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:01-05:00March 18th, 2016|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Social Policy|
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New York State Economic and Fiscal Outlook FY 2017

February 3, 2016. In its 26th annual New York State budget briefing book, the Fiscal Policy Institute analyzes and comments on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s FY 2017 Executive Budget. The Executive Budget advances some bold and progressive proposals that well reflect the values and needs of New Yorkers. In particular, the governor has shown great leadership and vision in forcefully advocating for a first-in-the nation statewide $15 minimum wage. If enacted, the minimum wage increase would lift the incomes of 3.2 million New Yorkers who desperately [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:02-05:00February 3rd, 2016|City Budget, Economic Outlook, Economic Trends & Policy, Education, Healthcare, Labor Market & Workforce, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Social Policy, State Budget, Tax Policy|
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No Permanent Extension of Business Tax Credits Without Permanent Extension of EITC/CTC Credits to Working Families

December 7, 2015. Senator Charles Schumer joined with leading anti-poverty advocates today to insist that Congress not permanently extend business tax credits without first making permanent tax credits to working poor families. The improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) that were enacted several years ago are extremely important to millions of working families across the country, including nearly 1.5 million children in 755,000 New York families. Yet these improvements are scheduled to expire in 2017—and if they do, [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:02-05:00December 7th, 2015|Press Releases, Social Policy|
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Extend Tax Credits to the Poor

October 12, 2015. The following op-ed by Ron Deutsch appeared in the Times-Union. Millions of Americans go to work each day, sometimes balancing multiple low-wage jobs, and yet they still struggle to make ends meet for themselves and their families. The fact is, far too many hardworking Americans slip into poverty each year. I see this firsthand in my role at the Fiscal Policy Institute. We do, however, have two powerful and effective tools that encourage work and help lift working families out of poverty [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:03-05:00October 12th, 2015|Letters, Social Policy|
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Testimony: The Establishment of a New York City Retirement Security Board

June 23, 2015. James Parrott testified at a New York City Council Committee on Civil Service and Labor on the establishment of a New York City Retirement Security Board. The case for a retirement security fund and program for private-sector workers can be summed up as follows: New York City’s population is aging, many private sector workers do not have employer-provided retirement coverage, and our tax system rewards those who have employer-provided retirement coverage but does relatively little to help those who don’t have such [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:04-05:00June 23rd, 2015|Economic Trends & Policy, Social Policy, Testimony|
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Op-ed: De Blasio’s welfare reform correction: Critics who claim we’re sliding back to the bad old are blind to reality

March 27, 2015. An op-ed by James Parrott, Daily News. Some see the slight increase in New York City's welfare rolls in recent months as cause for alarm, warning that we are on an inevitable slide back to bad old days of chronic government dependency. In fact, the uptick reflects a long overdue policy correction. Changes underway are about making temporary assistance "a leg up and not a hand out," which is exactly what welfare should be. Far from dismantling welfare reform, Mayor de Blasio [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:05-05:00March 27th, 2015|Letters, Social Policy|
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Comparison of the Executive, Assembly, and Senate Education Proposals FY 2015-2016

March 24, 2015. The governor’s Executive Budget proposal would increase school aid by $1.07 billion. The increase in school aid is contingent on passage of a package of changes to teacher evaluation, tenure, and other procedures called the Education Opportunity Agenda. The budget also includes an Education Tax Credit which would provide a large credit for donations to schools and the Dream Act which would provide tuition assistance to undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children. The Assembly’s proposed budget would increase school [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:05-05:00March 24th, 2015|Education, Migration, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Social Policy, State Budget, Tax & Budget|
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Policy Brief: Schools and Poverty

March 17, 2015. The state can improve low-performing schools and help students who face learning barriers by increasing funding for key education programs and poverty-fighting efforts. Proposals by the governor and the legislature are a start, but still fall short of what is needed. In a report issued in February, the state identified 178 schools in 17 school districts as “priority” or “failing” schools. These schools score in the bottom 5 percent in student proficiency tests or have low graduation rates, or both. The school [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:05-05:00March 17th, 2015|Education, Social Policy, State Budget|
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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 [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:05-05:00March 2nd, 2015|Education, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Social Policy, State Budget, Tax & Budget, Tax Policy|
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Testimony at the Joint Legislative Public Hearing on the 2015-2016 Executive Budget – Human Services

February 4, 2015. Submitted by Elizabeth McNichol, FPI Senior Fellow. Testimony includes: recommendations for the 2015-2016 state fiscal year; a summary and analysis of actual and proposed reductions in Human Services spending; use of federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding in the 2015-2016 Executive Budget; and, the impact of decline in the purchasing power of the monthly cash assistance grant.

2024-12-18T12:27:06-05:00February 4th, 2015|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Social Policy, State Budget, Tax & Budget, Testimony|
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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, [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:22-05:00December 14th, 2014|Economic Trends & Policy, Healthcare, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Social Policy|
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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 [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:22-05:00December 2nd, 2014|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Must Read, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Social Policy|
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Hundreds of thousands of low-income families would benefit from a New York minimum wage increase

July 17, 2014. David Neumark’s piece in the July 6 Wall Street Journal (“Who Really Gets the Minimum Wage?”) argues that because some low-wage earners are in high-income families, increasing the minimum wage isn’t a very effective way to reduce poverty. In particular, he cites research to the effect that “if we were to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 nationally, 18% of the benefits of the higher wages (holding employment fixed) would go to poor families [but] 29% would go to families with incomes [...]

2024-12-18T12:27:24-05:00July 17th, 2014|Blog, Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Social Policy|
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