FPI's Chief Economist, Jonas Shaende, was invited to testify before the New York State Senate Standing Committee on Codes and the New York State Senate Standing Committee on Crime Victims, Crime, and Corrections. Dr. Shaende spoke in support of the proposed S.3979C (Salazar)/A.2348B (Niou), the End Predatory Court Fees Act. Testimony: Full Text
The director of FPI's Immigration Research Initiative, David Dyssegaard Kallick, was invited to testify before the Congressional Small Business Committee about the role of immigrant businesses in the economic recovery after Covid. Kallick talked about two recovery scenarios: A Main Street-centered rebuilding that picks up on some innovations from the Covid period such as outdoor restaurants, expanded pedestrian areas, and bike paths that have transformed many downtowns and urban centers in very positive ways. This scenario would entail Main Streets as vibrant places where people [...]
New York State’s constitution requires the governor to provide the state legislature with a yearly balanced budget proposal including the necessary appropriation bills and legislation. The Legislature reviews the proposed executive budget and offers changes or modifications and enacts the state budget. As is customary, Governor Cuomo presented his proposed Executive Budget for FY 21-22 in January which was followed by a review and analysis from both legislative houses. The Assembly Ways and Means Committee’s Review and Analysis of the 2021-22 Executive Budget is known [...]
July 16, 2018.The State of New York continues to evaluate possible adjustments to its tax system in response to the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). Governor Cuomo proposed the idea of a statewide unincorporated business income tax (UBT) in early 2018. Perhaps due to the complexity involved, the UBT did not make it into the state budget package along with the other response measures: a payroll tax workaround, decoupling of rules for itemized deductions and other state tax rules from the [...]
February 7, 2017. Executive Director Ron Deutsch testified before the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees on the Governor’s FY 2018 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan. Income inequality, as indicated by the richest 1 percent share of total income, has grown substantially since 1980 in New York State as well as nationally. One of the most sensible tools the state has to address the growing income gap in New York is the millionaires' tax. The proposed extension of the millionaires' tax will help narrow the gap, [...]
September 22, 2016. James Parrott, a member of the New York City Council's Task Force on Economic Development Tax Expenditures chaired by Finance Committee Chair Julissa Ferreras, presented this testimony at a September 22 hearing on the Task Force report and recommendations for a rigorous, ongoing evaluation procedure. He also urged the Council to convene a hearing on the Hudson Yards property tax breaks, the costs of which are rapidly rising. PDF of Testimony
June 15, 2016. In testimony before the Baltimore City Council, James Parrott, says it would be sound public policy for the City of Baltimore to phase in a $15 an hour minimum wage. Considerable compelling and economically sound research supports the conclusion that businesses can accommodate such an increase. A higher wage floor would generate significant cost savings due to reduced turnover and there is room for modest price increases to ease the adjustment without jeopardizing overall employment levels or profitability. Businesses of all sizes [...]
May 12, 2016. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is under attack by forces that favor privatization and oppose sensible proposals to invest in expanding its package delivery services and in re-introducing postal banking services that exist in many countries and that were provided in the United States from 1910 to 1966. With the Postal Service’s unparalleled network of post offices in every neighborhood and village in the country, postal banking has the potential to provide affordable, consumer-friendly financial services to lower-income households and communities that [...]
March 16, 2016. The director of FPI's Immigration Research Initiative, David Dyssegaard Kallick, testified today before a U.S. Senate hearing on immigration, making the case that immigrants are contributing robustly to the United States economy, Written testimony is here. Video available here. In the video, the hearing starts at 21.08; Kallick's remarks are at 1:01:15, 1:17:03, and 2:04:05.
February 3, 2016. James Parrott testified at a New York State Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees hearing on workforce development about the impace of a $15 an hour minimum wage.
February 2, 2016. Executive Director Ron Deutsch testified before the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees on the Governor’s FY 2017 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan. Income inequality has increased in New York during the recovery with income for the 1 percent growing faster than the average income for everyone else. New York’s combined state and local tax structure is regressive and several rounds of substantial multi-year tax cuts in the past three years have done nothing, on net, to make the tax [...]
January 7, 2016. James Parrott testified at a New York State Senate Standing Committee on Labor hearing. In his conclusion, Parrott asserts that it would be sound public policy for New York State to phase in a $15 an hour minimum wage. Considerable economically sound research supports the conclusion that the businesses can accommodate such an increase. A higher wage floor would generate significant cost savings due to reduced turnover and there is room for modest price increases to ease the adjustment without jeopardizing overall [...]
September 25, 2015. James Parrott testified before the New York City Council today regarding three resolutions calling on Congress and the President to take action to address the Puerto Rican fiscal-debt-economic crisis. The resolutions deal with the issues of bankruptcy authority, Federal health care financing, and amending the Jones Act that has significantly raised shipping costs to and from Puerto Rico. Parrott’s testimony discusses the importance of Federal action given the governance constraints imposed on Puerto Rico by its status as a “territory,” and he [...]
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 [...]
June 1, 2015. FPI played an important role in the efforts to convince the New York Fast Food Wage Board in June and July 2015 to recommend a $15 wage floor for 136,000 workers in large fast-food chains. FPI materials include the following: Testimony at the Buffalo hearing of the Fast Food Wage Board, June 5, 2015 Supplemental comments to the Fast Food Wage Board, June 26, 2015 Op-ed, “Boosting the Wages of Fast-Food Workers Will Help the Economy,” in the July 20, 2015 Albany [...]