TESTIMONY: IBO Director Ronnie Lowenstein presents the New York City Council with an overview of IBO’s latest economic forecast and our estimates of revenue and spending under the Mayor’s Executive Budget.
The Mayor’s Executive Budget for FY 2023 restored some funding for the city’s organics recycling program, which suffered cuts in the Mayor’s previous budget proposal. However, none of the reinstated funding is for the expansion of the city’s curbside collection program.
This New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) report shows the initiatives taken New York City to improve its response to medical emergencies. Analyzed in this report are data and information regarding the costs of having a stronger initiative as well as the improvements made over the time period 1999 to 2011.
At the request of Council Member Chi Ossé, the IBO estimated the annual cost of introducing fare-free local bus service in New York City under three scenarios: waive bus fares for all riders, riders who are 65 or older or who have disabilities, and New Yorkers who are low income.
Governor Cuomo's latest proposal for reviving the 421-a tax break for housing development has several new features. The Mayor's preliminary budget did not account for the potential cost of this new iteration of 421-a. How much more could this cost the city in forgone tax revenue? IBO's estimate.
IBO has found the most recent budget initiative for government-funded nonprofits providing human service programs to New Yorkers will pay less than half of the cumulative raises provided to unionized City employees.
We’ve updated our charts on education department spending. The update now chart spending per student, enrollment, sources of funding, and other details from 1990 through 2020
IBO has updated two sections of its Education Indicators: Student Attendance (data on average attendance and chronic absenteeism rates in traditional public schools) & Student Achievement (standardized test scores for grades 3-8 and Regents exam performance for high school students).
IBO has updated all education indicators including summary statistics on student enrollment, demographics, and academic performance, school-level teacher and principal characteristics, and building capacity and utilization in traditional public schools.
In this Budget Brief, IBO provides more details on our latest economic forecast and estimates of tax revenues, as well as a comparison with the Mayor’s tax projections included in the Preliminary Budget.
TESTIMONY: IBO’s Elizabeth Brown presented testimony to the NYC City Council on key findings from her evaluation of the IDA’s Industrial Program. See the PowerPoint slides
This fiscal brief by the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) addresses the City's new EarlyLearn program. The brief addresses its purpose, the initiative taken to implement it, and the challenges that face it. Also included are data related to funding and child care enrollment.
Traffic on city streets is approaching pre-pandemic levels. With more traffic, comes more collisions & many of these accidents involve drivers impaired by alcohol or drugs. IBO looks at annual trends in the number of arrests of impaired drivers, as well as the number of collisions involving injuries
To help New Yorkers and elected officials have a better understanding of the early childhood policy landscape IBO’s new report offers a detailed overview of the historical financial trends and policy shifts affecting Pre-K and 3-K programs.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown brought about extraordinary economic distress for New York City and its residents. That distress is now easing thanks to an influx of federal aid to the city budget and the successful development and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
To calculate a commercial property’s value for tax purposes, the city uses what is known as a “capitalized income approach.” IBO examines this method, focusing on a key part of the calculation and investigates how overestimation of these rates leads to inequitable property assessments.
Over three-quarters of the roughly 8,000 inmates currently held in city jails are categorized as detainees, meaning their cases have not yet been settled.
QCEW data produced by the New York State Department of Labor shows that there are 226,900 private firms in NYC with about 3.8 million workers on their payrolls.
IBO’s review of New York City’s spending on antismoking programs finds that spending levels
have varied widely in recent years—and that after trending downward the local adult smoking rate has been increasing.
IBO used the address of each student attending a New York City public high school in the 2012-2013 school year to identify the census tract in which each student lived and the median household income for households residing in the tract.
About 75,000 students—or over 7 percent—of the city’s 1.1 million public school students lived in the city’s homeless shelter system or were doubled up in the home of a friend or family member at some point during school year 2013-2014.
The average time in city jails credited to inmates newly sentenced to state prisons from Bronx courtrooms grew to 15.7 months in 2012, about six months more than the average in the remainder of the city. Lowering this average could save NYC money.
NYC BY THE NUMBERS: The Old Farmer’s Almanac says the Northeast may be in for a snowy winter. Regardless of such predictions, the city budgets for snow removal based on a formula in the City Charter. Some years this leads to savings, other years shortfalls. What’s the cost of digging out?
When a low-income household loses their income or faces an extraordinary bill, they can face a utilities cutoff--or eviction. Did the pandemic lead to a surge in one-time emergency housing grants by the city?
When Mayor Bloomberg presented his last budget plan in November, he noted that the city’s full-time and full-time
equivalent headcount had fallen by 15,368 since December 31, 2001. But staffing levels since the end of fiscal year 2002, tell a different story.
NYC BY TNE NUMBERS: When New York City went on a pandemic “pause” in the spring, work at some 35,000 construction sites came to a halt. But not for long. How many sites restarted work—and why—during the pause?
Over the years 2002-2012, about 60 percent of the more than 75,000 homeless families with children entering the city’s shelter system had either a building with rent regulated apartments (43 percent) or a New York City Housing Authority development (16 percent) listed as their last address.
In 2002, Mayor Bloomberg urged that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) take over the 82 express and local bus routes (most based in Queens) operated by seven private companies under franchise agreements
that included city subsidies.
The 421-a property tax exemption is the city’s largest tax expenditure, costing more than $1 billion
in forgone taxes each year. The exemption dates back to the 1970s and is currently up for renewal
in Albany.
IBO’s study of enrollment losses during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic, offering a comprehensive analysis of traditional public schools and charter schools in New York City.
In 2017 the Campaign Finance Board provided candidates running for municipal offices ranging from the Mayor to City Council with a combined $17.7 million in public funds to support their campaigns.Candidates who meet the requirements are eligible to receive matching funds.
every $
Unlike many of the other major de Blasio Administration initiatives, there has been relatively little focus on ThriveNYC, which aims to greatly expand access to behavioral health services in the city. We detail the resources being committed to the 54 programs under the ThriveNYC umbrella
IBO has compiled a descriptive overview of the financing deals and public subsidies for Madison Square Garden and the three most recently constructed major league sports stadiums within New York City: Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, and Barclays Center.
EXECUTIVE BUDGET FOCUS: With a boost from federal Covid-related funds, the Mayor’s budget plan enables the sanitation department to restart a variety of program cut during the recent budget crunch.
Our data detailing school spending since 1990 has been updated and now features interactive charts and graphs. It includes information on per pupil spending, revenue sources, and school debt service and pension costs.
The New York City Independent Budget Office released a new video series( it developed to enable students, parents, and advocates to navigate New York City public school budgets.
This report compares schools proposed for closing against other schools. The schools proposed for closing are found to be low performing, with below average student performance. However, there is no guarantee that a closing school will be replaced by a more successful one.
FOCUS ON THE PRELIMINARY BUDGET: With planned capital expenses growing over the next five years, the cost of debt service will also increase, but probably not by as much as OMB expects.
Build and the Industrial Development Agency play important roles in helping to finance economic development and job creation in the city, yet they are not city agencies. This report looks at their history.
The financial emergency act was enacted in 1975 in response to NYC's historic financial crisis. After years of incurring substantial operation deficits, papered over with short-term borrowing, all masked
by inadequate reporting and accounting controls, the city found itself unable to sell its short-term notes in the credit markets in the spring of 1975.
IBO analysis of shows that the DOE requires additional city funding to continue programs funded with federal Covid aid, for Carter Cases, charter schools and more.