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Bloomberg Will Leave Plenty Of Poor People For Next Mayor To Deal With
By
Lauren Evans
Published Apr 22, 2013
Modified Apr 22, 2013
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By
Lauren Evans
Published Apr 22, 2013
Modified Apr 22, 2013
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Nearly half of all New Yorkers were considered poor or "near-poor" in 2011, new data from the Center for Economic Opportunity shows, an increase of more than three percentage points from 2009, the year the recession "officially" ended. Though poverty levels appear to have stabilized, the next mayor will play a large hand in whether conditions for New Yorkers continue to improve.
“The next mayor is going to face a very difficult budget situation in which he or she will struggle to maintain basic services and have little room to expand welfare-related programs or services to needy New Yorkers, a fiscal situation that is getting very little attention in the current mayoral race,” Steven Malanga, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, told the Times.
Mark Levitan, who authored the analysis, wrote that the new mayor will be stepping into office at a particularly crucial time, since food stamps, housing subsidies, the tax system and other services that impact poverty most significantly are facing challenges—and in some cases, extinction.
Coinciding with the end of the slump in the job market is the end of the recession-related expansion of the safety net. Food Stamp benefit levels have not increased since they were raised by the 2009 Obama stimulus program. The benefit formula will revert to its pre-stimulus rules in November 2013, creating a reduction in benefits. Some of the economic stimulus-related income tax credit programs expired at the end of 2010. The number of weeks that Unemployment Insurance is available to the long-term jobless was cut in 2012. The reduction in the payroll tax rate expired at the end of 2012.
"My fear is that we are moving to another dynamic where employment and earnings are rising and the safety net is contracting,” Levitan told the Times, adding that he's nevertheless "sort of an optimist." As he should be: Has he seen our homeless shelters?
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Lauren Evans
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