Press Releases

Statement on Governor Cuomo’s FY 2018 Budget Proposal

January 18, 2017. Making state and local taxes less regressive in New York is a top priority for our organization. We are pleased to see the Executive Budget proposal include an extension of the millionaires’ tax and applaud the Governor for making this the centerpiece of his new budget. Given the great income disparities in our state, we think the Governor and the legislature should go further. We would like to see the millionaires’ tax made permanent and to have additional brackets added at the [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:26:58-05:00January 18th, 2017|Press Releases, State Budget|

New Census Data Show Improvement in Poverty and Incomes in New York State

September 19, 2016. New York has reason to be optimistic as poverty is declining and incomes are on the upswing, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. FPI notes that there were significant declines in the overall poverty rates for New York State and New York City in 2015 from 2014 (but no other significant year-over-year changes). The New York State poverty rate for 2015 was 15.4%, down 0.5% from 2014 (15.9%) resulting in approximately 90,000 fewer New Yorkers living in poverty. New [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:26:59-05:00September 19th, 2016|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Press Releases|

New York State Leads Nation in Income Inequality

June 16, 2016. In Income inequality in the US by state, metropolitan area, and county, a new report published by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) for the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN), Mark Price, an economist at the Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg, PA and Estelle Sommeiller, a socio-economist at the Institute for Research in Economic and Social Sciences in Greater Paris, France detail the incomes of the top 1 percent and the bottom 99 percent by state, metropolitan area, and county. “Great income [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2025-04-04T14:27:27-04:00June 16th, 2016|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Tax & Budget, Tax Policy|

Analysis of Refugee Groups Provides Evidence of High Levels of Integration Across Indicators

June 16, 2016. The Fiscal Policy Institute and the Center for American Progress released a report that analyzes how four key refugee groups—Bosnians, Burmese, Hmong, and Somalis—in the United States are doing on key indicators of integration, such as wages, labor market participation, business ownership, English language ability, and citizenship. As the United States and other countries wrestle with how to handle the sharp rise in the number of people around the globe displaced by conflict and persecution, the long-term experiences of the four groups studied [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:26:59-05:00June 16th, 2016|Migration, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Nearly 1 million NYS workers will benefit from new Federal overtime rule

May 18, 2016. FPI applauds the White House and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez in announcing a new federal overtime regulation today requiring overtime pay for most salaried workers earning up to $47,476 a year (or $913 weekly). FPI’s James Parrott stated, “This will benefit an estimated 982,000 New York salaried workers with either additional pay for more than 40 hours a week, or by scaling back the long hours they work each week without any reduction in pay.” The Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, a [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:00-05:00May 18th, 2016|Economic Trends & Policy, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Statement on Minimum Wage Announcement

March 31, 2016. The Fiscal Policy Institute is pleased to hear that a deal has been reached on increasing the minimum wage and that New York is on a path to $15 for all workers. This historic decision will provide wage increases to over 3.1 million New Yorkers that need and deserve a raise. Approximately 46 percent of workers benefiting from this increase, those in New York City, will see their wages rise to $15 per hour by the end of 2018 (2019 for workers in [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:00-05:00March 31st, 2016|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Press Releases|

$15 Minimum Wage Would Raise Earnings for 1.1 Million Immigrants

March 23, 2016. In a brief, the Fiscal Policy Institute states that gradually raising the New York State minimum wage from its current level of $9/hour to $15/hour by 2019 in New York City and mid-2021 in the rest of the state would give a much-needed raise to 1.1 million immigrant workers. In all, there are 3.2 million New York workers who will benefit from the phased-in wage increase, which would on average increase wages by $4,900 per year. These numbers reflect the workers who [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:00-05:00March 23rd, 2016|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Migration, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Wealthy New Yorkers Urge Governor Cuomo and Legislature to Enact 1% Plan for New York Tax Fairness

March 21, 2016. Some of the wealthiest New Yorkers have sent an open letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature urging passage of the “1% Plan for New York Tax Fairness” to replace the temporary ‘millionaires tax’ set to expire at the end of next year. The Fiscal Policy Institute’s 1% Plan calls for new tax rates ranging from 7.65% to 9.99% applied to new tax brackets starting at $665,000, the income threshold for the top 1% of New Yorkers. The [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:01-05:00March 21st, 2016|Press Releases, Tax & Budget, Tax Policy|

New York Economists Support a Statewide $15 Minimum Wage; Recent academic research shows it’s good for workers, businesses and the economy

March 14, 2016. More than 75 economists from throughout New York State joined together this week to send a message to Albany: a phased-in increase in the minimum wage to $15 by 2019 in New York City and by mid-2021 in the rest of the state is a prudent and much needed policy that would raise the incomes of struggling low-wage workers and boost their spending power without hurting the state’s economy. The economists’ statement cites a number of academic authorities in summarizing the case [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:01-05:00March 14th, 2016|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Letters, Press Releases|

Tax Breaks for Wealthy Contributors to Private or Public Schools?

March 2, 2016. The education tax credit proposals currently being discussed have significant drawbacks as outlined in FPI's new brief. Both the governor’s proposal and the senate’s represent misguided tax policy for a number of reasons: The PCEA represents a radical and unwise departure from existing state tax policy because it provides an unprecedented proportion (75 or 90 percent) of tax reduction relative to a contribution. It has the potential to lessen charitable contributions for a wide range of worthy causes. Because of how the [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:01-05:00March 2nd, 2016|Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, State Budget, Tax & Budget, Tax Policy|

Full Implementation of Obama’s Immigration Executive Actions Would Bring $82 Million in Tax Revenues to New York

February 24, 2016. A 50-state study released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, co-released in New York by the Fiscal Policy Institute, finds that if President Obama’s executive actions on immigration were permitted to be fully implemented they would bring an additional $82 million in New York state and local tax revenue compared to not having the actions in place. The executive actions would add to the tax revenue in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia. Nationally, the report [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:01-05:00February 24th, 2016|Migration, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Tax & Budget, Tax Policy|

A Fair Wage for Human Services Workers: Ensuring a government funded $15 per hour minimum wage for human services workers throughout NYS

December 9, 2015. A new report prepared by the FPWA, Human Services Council and FPI, documents the current state of the nonprofit sector providing State-funded human services and discusses the implications of the Governor’s proposed $15 an hour minimum wage. The groups support inclusion of the nonprofit sector workers in the wage increase and make the case for increased State funding in human service contracts. More than 200,000 human services workers across NYS are the driving force behind services like afterschool programs, child welfare, early [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:02-05:00December 9th, 2015|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Property Tax Relief for Low- and Middle-Income Property New Yorkers Must Remain a Priority

May 27, 2015. This report details the stark differences between the circuit breaker relief proposals advanced by the Governor and Assembly versus the flawed STAR rebate plan the Senate proposed. The report shows that both programs would provide some property tax relief but the circuit breaker credits are superior to STAR rebates in many ways. For example: Circuit breakers would address a serious shortcoming of the property tax—that payments are not linked to the taxpayers’ ability to pay. STAR rebates are the same regardless of income [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:04-05:00May 27th, 2015|Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations, Tax & Budget, Tax Policy|

Statement on Mayor’s Budget Commitment to Increase Wages for Low-wage Nonprofit Social Sector Workers

May 8, 2015. Contact: James Parrott, Deputy Director, Fiscal Policy Institute, 212-721-5624 "The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA) and the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) applaud the Mayor for including in his Executive Budget a first-ever $11.50 per hour wage floor for the City's contracted social service workforce. FPWA and FPI have been advocating for this important commitment over the past year. This will mean a big earnings boost for 10,000 workers whose wages currently average less than $10.00 per hour. These front-line workers, many [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:04-05:00May 8th, 2015|Economic Trends & Policy, Labor Market & Workforce, Press Releases, State Budget, Tax & Budget|