Fiscal Year 2025 Revenue Likely to Exceed State Projections by At Least $4 Billion

Reasonable assumptions about state revenue growth show additional spending power and quell concerns about future budget gaps By Emily Eisner, Ph.D., Economist and Andrew Perry, Senior Policy Analyst March 15, 2024 View PDF of Report Toplines: FPI’s model of State revenue growth projects FY25 revenue will likely exceed current forecasts by at least $4 billion. The DOB’s assumed growth rates for State revenue are very low by historical standards and are out of sync with [...]

What to Look for in the One House Budgets

The New York State Senate and Assembly will soon release their proposals for the fiscal year 2025 budget. Following last week’s revenue consensus, the legislature will be able to propose $1.3 billion more in spending than the executive budget. This additional revenue will allow the legislature to restore many of the budget cuts proposed by the executive budget, especially to school aid and home care. The legislature can, however, go beyond restoring the proposed cuts and put forward deeper investments in public services that address New York’s affordability crisis. These investments will require raising additional revenue.

Consensus Economic and Revenue Forecast: Finding Quarters in the Couch Cushions

By Emily Eisner, PhD, Economist March 4, 2024 View PDF of Report Annualized revenue adjustments average $1.01 billion over past seven budget cyclesIn the New York State budget process, revenue projections are frequently underestimated. The Division of Budget’s pattern of under-estimation is particularly evident in the State’s Economic and Revenue Consensus Report (henceforth referred to as the “Report”). The report released Friday, March 1, 2024, adds an additional $1.35 billion in revenue to the total projected revenue for [...]

Testimony on Mayor’s November Financial Plan

December 11, 2023 Submitted to the New York City Council Committee on Finance Good morning — I am Andrew Perry, Senior Policy Analyst at the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization committed to improving public policy to better the economic and social conditions of all New Yorkers. Overview: New York City faces real fiscal strain in the current fiscal year and next year. However, projected gaps are the result of an unexpected and temporary fiscal shock – the [...]

2023-12-11T07:49:13-05:00December 11th, 2023|City Budget, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Economy Shows Improvement, but Employment Needs Time to Recover

Read the full report here: Economy Shows Improvement, but Employment Needs Time to Recover Several measures show signs of gradual improvement for New York residents as the state emerges from the covid-19 recession. One such indicator is the steep decline of new unemployment insurance claims, which had recently peaked in winter this year. Another such positive indicator is the continued gradual decrease in the statewide unemployment (U-3) rate, which peaked at 16.2 in April of 2020 as a result of pandemic-induced layoffs and business closures. The [...]

New York State Fines and Fees Revenue Lacks Transparency, Obscures Economic Harms

New York State relies on fine, fee, and surcharge revenue to fund government operations- including the functions of the courts and state agencies providing criminal justice, public safety, and victim services. This funding is generated via a complex set of state statutes, including penal, vehicle and traffic, environmental conservation, judiciary, and finance laws and is spent through the General Fund and a bevy of State Special Revenue Funds. No one state government entity or agency is charged with comprehensively reporting on the imposition, collection, and [...]

State and Local Employment in New York, Cut in the Pandemic, Has Been Down for a Decade

Read the full report here: State and Local Employment in New York, Cut in the Pandemic, Has Been Down for a Decade State and local government employment is vital to our economy and our quality of life. State and local governments—and their employees—exist because New Yorkers have decided over generations that we need people who are dedicated and trained to teach our children, clean our streets, protect our communities, maintain our highways and bridges, and perform hundreds of other jobs. The number of public employees [...]

Domestic Workers are Essential Workers: By the Numbers in New York

Download the full report: "Domestic Workers Are Essential Workers: By the Numbers in New York" Throughout the coronavirus crisis domestic workers have been placed under a double pressure. Already underpaid, many have lost their jobs, or lost hours on the job, putting them under added financial stress. Even when on the job, however, domestic workers find themselves under added physical and psychological stress, acting as essential workers during a pandemic at some risk to their own health as they protect the health of others. Domestic [...]

Unemployment Compensation for Excluded Workers: $3.5 Billion Needed for 2020 and 2021

The New York State Assembly and Senate both support creating a fund to provide unemployment insurance to workers who are excluded from the unemployment insurance system, primarily undocumented immigrants and people leaving incarceration during the Covid-19 pandemic. Both houses included $2.1 billion in their one-house budgets this week, the starting points for negotiating the final state budget. This is an impressive commitment to a critical priority. However, matching the minimum level of benefits that other unemployed New Yorkers receive and extending the aid through the [...]

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: New York’s Share of the Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Fund

Read the full report: The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: New York’s Share of the Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Fund The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 includes $350 billion in aid for states, territories, and tribal governments for the purpose of alleviating the fiscal stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the $350 billion, $195.3 billion is allocated for payments to states, $130.2 billion for city and county governments, $20 billion for tribal governments, and $4.5 billion for territories. These coronavirus fiscal recovery funds [...]

New York’s Pandemic State Budget: Recovering and Reimagining

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 10, 2021 Media Contact: [email protected], 518-786-3156 ***VIDEO link below***   New York's Pandemic State Budget: Recovering and Reimagining  Fiscal Policy Institute's Recommendations for the FY 2022 State Budget    Read the report: "Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2022: New York Recovering and Reimagining"  Watch the video: Fiscal Policy Institute's Annual State Budget Presentation 2021 (Albany, NY) Today the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) released a 30-minute video highlighting its report "New York State's Pandemic Budget: Recovering and Reimagining." FPI urges a bold vision in crafting the FY [...]

FPI’s Presentation on the Proposed Executive Budget for FY 2022

Our state budget helps determine the future for every New Yorker. This year the stakes are exceptionally high as the pandemic continues to imperil our health and financial well-being. Will the choices we make crafting our state budget reduce inequality, or will the gap continue to widen? FPI took a look at the proposed New York State Executive Budget and offered actions to create a more just New York for all.  Watch our 30-minute video overview and read the report "Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2022: New York Recovering and Reimagining" to learn more.   [...]

Student Loan Debt Shortchanges Us All

Economic Recovery Depends on Our Ability to Contribute to the Economy  Read the report: “The Rising Burden of Education Debt on Older New Yorkers”   December 3, 2020 (Albany, NY) The burden of education debt is not limited to students, it includes their parents and grandparents. Currently, the fastest-growing age-segment of the student loan market is age 60 and older. With New York looking for a speedy economic recovery, solving the education debt crisis means a healthier and more productive state.   "Higher education has been portrayed as the key to unlock the door to opportunity [...]

2020-12-30T09:47:36-05:00December 3rd, 2020|Education, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

COVID-19 Revenue Shortfalls Threaten Increase to Fines and Fees

 November 2020 Declining revenues threaten New York State’s Local Governments, starting with steep declines in sales tax revenue collections. This revenue stream, which annually totals just over $16 billion for New York State’s counties, cities, towns, villages, and school districts, is expected to shrink precipitously in 2020 and into 2021, exceeding the six percent decline realized during The Great Recession.[i] At the same time, the state’s property tax cap limits local governments’ ability to bolster local revenues. Moreover, Congress’s continued decision not to pass a [...]

2020-12-30T09:49:26-05:00November 23rd, 2020|Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

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 [...]

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