- Sarah Crean on Exclusive: Proposed policy would allow industries to self-audit pollution-generating activities
- David Howard King on Bronx senator's health quest
- Cristian Salazar and Carla Murphy on Stops lawsuit given class status
- Cristian Salazar on NYC Council passes banking bill
- David Howard King on Senate Dems Look to Nat'l Issues
Work and Labor Reports:
Transport Workers Contract Shouldn't Harm Riders
The public interest will be served by an agreement between the MTA and the transport workers union that maintains a good standard of living for workers, is within the MTA’s ability to pay, and does not force further harm upon riders by increasing fares or reducing service, according to this report by the Citizens Budget Commission. 2012-02-02
Tracking Development Deals
The Independent Budget Office has examined annual reports submitted by the Economic Development Corp. on its discretionary deals and has issued a brief summarizing the information on 1,098 projects undertaken between 1994 and this year. In terms of number, it found more projects were in manufacturing than any other sector. However, when one looks at the size of the projects, information and financial services comes out on top. This area accounted for the largest value of new projects during the Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani administrations, but under Bloomberg, stadiums have been the number one beneficiaries. Despite the data provided by the development agency, the Independent Budget Offices says it remains difficult to determine what effects its efforts have had on job creations and retention. 2011-11-09
Living Wage: The Administration View
With the living wage almost certain to be a major issue in City Council this fall, the Bloomberg administration has released the final copy of a study it commissioned on the impact of giving higher pay to people who work for businesses that receive a city subsidy. It concluded that the base wage of $10 an hour could cost New York 6,000 to 13,000 low-skilled jobs. The report was quickly condemned by City Comptroller John Liu and others who say a living wage could help reduce poverty in the city. 2011-10-11
Unions in New York
Organized labor in New York is stronger than in other cities and states, according to a new report. The State of the Unions 2011 by the City University found 23 percent of the city's workforce belongs to a union, a higher rate than in any other major U.S. city. and that with 24 percent of its workers in unions, New York state also ranks first. The report paints a statistical profile of union members here, finding women, African-Americans and Puerto Ricans have higher unionization rates than the general population, largely because they hold a disproportionate share of public sector jobs, which are more likely to be unionized. 2011-09-07
Disclosure from Development Agencies
While improvements have been made in tracking the performance of the state's Industrial Development Agencies, more needs to be done, according to a report by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. In particular, the report concluded, more efforts need to be made to verify how effective these public benefits corporations are in retaining and creating jobs. Some 115 of the development agencies, along with 279 local economic development corporations, operate in the state, proving tax exemptions to businesses. 2011-07-13
End of the Stimulus
New York is set to lose its federal stimulus funds for job training this month, compelling the city to eliminate or reduce promising programs, according to a new report from the Center for an Urban Future. The cut will have the greatest impact, the report found, on the Summer Youth Employment program, which thanks to the federal money enrolled 52,255 people in 2010 but may serve only 23,000 people this year. The cut comes with the city unemployment rate at 8.6 percent. 2011-06-21
Hidden Cost of Union Construction
The Regional Plan Association takes a look at how hidden costs of union construction in the city are making them non-competitive. Meanwhile non-union shops, and mixed shops are rapidly growing. The study says that non-union and mixed shops are 20 to 30 percent less expensive than their full-union competitors. 2011-05-02
Spending the Stimulus
The office of Gov. David Paterson has released another in a series of quarterly reports documenting how New York has spent the money it received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, popularly known as the stimulus plan. According to the report, the state funded more than 53,8000 jobs with the money in the third quarter of 2010. 2010-11-30
Workplace Violence in New York
A report by the New York State Assembly Subcommittee on Workplace Safety finds that workplace violence is rising in New York and that a large percentage of employers do not comply with the state's workplace violence prevention law. A survey of state agencies and authorities found that 44 percent of agencies and 46 percent of authorities surveyed could provide evidence that they completed mandatory workplace violence prevention program. 2010-11-29
Racial Disparity in Unemployment
African-American and Hispanic New Yorkers are facing unemployment rates nearly three times higher than their counterparts according to a data analysis released today by Comptroller John Liu.
2010-10-29
Retirees' Insurance Bill
New York State will have to pay some $205 billion for health insurance for retired state and local government employees, according to a new report by the Empire Center. A new government accounting standard, the report says, enabled the center to figure out what it says is the true cost of insurance for the public employees, many of whom are retired but too young for the federal Medicare program. New York City accounts for almost $62 billion of the total. 2010-10-19
Low-Income New Yorkers Struggle with Work
Nearly 25 percent of low-income New Yorkers reported losing a job within the last year, according to this annual survey by the Community Service Society. Two-thirds of unemployed, low-income New Yorkers have been out of work for over a year, and 31 percent have been out of work for three years or more.
2010-10-15
Reforming the City Employee Welfare Funds
This new report by the Citizens Budget Commission calls for reform of the city's municipal union welfare funds, which receive $1 billion in taxpayer contributions annually. 2010-08-05
