Photo Courtesy of ABNY
City Comptroller Scott Stringer recently laid out his agenda to strengthen the city’s economy.
By Michael V. Cusenza
The City is on solid fiscal ground for several reasons, but the next generation of New Yorkers is “facing an uphill battle,” according to Comptroller Scott Stringer, who recently laid out his economic agenda before the Association for a Better New York.
Stringer outlined a plan to bolster the economy of the five boroughs by increasing affordable housing, supporting minority and women-owned business enterprises, fighting poverty and strengthening schools.
Specifically, Stringer proposed tripling the City’s Earned Income Tax Credit to uplift low-income New Yorkers; creating a coordinated approach to helping MWBEs and small businesses grow; establishing a City Land Bank to build the next generation of affordable housing; and accelerating successful programs to ensure all children are college and career-ready and can take advantage of the expanding tech economy.
“Our economy has seen seven straight years of growth since the Great Recession. We’ve added nearly 550,000 private sector jobs, and a higher percentage of our population is employed than ever before,” the comptroller said. “So City revenues are up, and we’re attracting more investment than almost any other city in America. One result – our technology community is booming. Tech jobs have soared 57 percent in New York since 2007. And financial services continue to pay more than 20 percent of all private sector wages. Make no mistake – a lot of people are better off because of this growth. But it’s just not true for all New Yorkers.”
Millennials, or “our children,” as Stringer put it, “are coming of age in a city that pays less and costs more than it did for any of us.” According to the comptroller, more than half of all the jobs that have been added since 2009 are low wage.
“So even though they’re the most educated generation we’ve seen, 47 percent of New York City’s Millennials wind up working in retail or fast food,” Stringer noted. “The result – today’s young people are actually earning 20 percent less than their counterparts did in 2000. For the first time in recent history, we are witnessing a new generation that is actually worse off economically than their parents were.”
For Stringer, one of the answers to the problems facing our young people and less fortunate populations is in tripling the City’s Earned Income Tax Credit contribution from 5 percent to 15 percent of the federal tax credit. This proposal, according to Stringer, would lift 15,000 additional families out of poverty, inject millions of dollars to the local economy, and help one million children and two million adults living near the poverty line to make ends meet.
In his speech to ABNY, Stringer also underscored the historic impact the EITC has had on nyc. Last year alone, with the City’s EITC contribution at 5 percent of the federal EITC, the program put $2.8 billion back into the pockets of 950,000 residents, and pulled 150,000 families out of poverty.
“Government should invest in programs that work, and year after year the EITC has gotten results,” Stringer said. “For roughly one-quarter of one percent of the City budget, we can lift thousands of families out poverty, inject millions of dollars into the local economy, and provide a brighter future for one million children. We can help all of our businesses and families get ahead, if we act decisively, right now.”
