From June 2006 through June 2013, the number of New York City residents receiving food stamps (now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) increased by 71.1 percent, from 1.1 million to 1.9 million.
In April 2017 the city’s Human Resources Administration implemented new employment services contracts for cash assistance recipients who are able to work.
Using an annual sample of 770,000 personal income tax returns, IBO explored the distribution of income among New York City residents during the years 2006 through 2014.
The ways New Yorkers use their local public libraries has changed. Branch libraries in all three systems have become broader community resources rather than repositories of books and information.
The amount the city budgets each year for snow removal is set by a formula in the City Charter. The formula is the average of spending on snow removal in the five prior years—so the budget for 2014 is based on the actual amounts spent in fiscal years 2008–2012.
Over the past 10 years, New York City’s overtime spending has increased from $928 million in 2006 to $1.659 billion in 2015, an increase of $731 million, or close to 80 percent (about 40 percent after accounting for inflation).
The city makes an annual payment to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to support the authority’s capital program. NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign asked IBO to review the annual contributions to see if they have kept pace with inflation.
With the rising number of homeless families and individuals in the city’s shelter system there has been a related rise in the costs of running the shelters.