Reports

New York City’s May 2011 financial plan (the “May Plan”) projects a surplus of $3.2 billion for FY 2011, resulting largely from a drawdown in reserves, higher revenues due to an improving economy, and agency cost-reduction actions. The City intends to transfer the surplus to FY 2012 to help balance that year’s budget.

New York City has a serious lack of affordable housing. The New York State Comptroller issued a report on affordable housing in April 2009 that utilized data from the 2008 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey (HVS), which is issued every three years.

New York City’s economy is recovering from the recession at a faster pace than the nation and the rest of New York State. Since job losses ended in November 2009, the City has gained 73,400 private sector jobs, or half of the jobs lost in the recession, but public sector job losses are beginning to accelerate. While the unemployment rate has declined from a peak of 10 percent to 8.9 percent, it remains unacceptably high.

Since the housing bubble burst in 2007, many homeowners across the nation have faced foreclosure.

This report is the seventh in a series of reports on the capital security program of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

Cash bonuses paid to New York City securities industry employees declined by nearly 8 percent to $20.8 billion in 2010, about one third less than paid out in 2007 before the financial crisis.

New York City’s economy is recovering from the recession at a faster pace than the nation and the rest of New York State. In the ten months after December 2009, the City regained 76,300 private sector jobs—about 47 percent of the jobs lost— but the unemployment rate remains high.

The recent financial crisis, which was precipitated by excessive risk-taking, began in the United States but quickly spread across the globe and caused the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has long suffered from a structural imbalance between recurring revenues and expenses.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is responsible for operating the largest mass transit system in the nation, with an average weekday ridership in 2009 totaling nearly 5.1 million.

The recession has been less severe in New York City than in the nation and in other parts of New York State, and less severe than first feared, but the impact has been painful nonetheless. New York City lost 185,500 jobs; the unemployment rate peaked at 10.5 percent in November 2009, the highest rate in 17 years; and tax revenues fell by 7.1 percent in FY 2009 ($2.8 billion), the steepest decline in at least 30 years.

The worst recession since the Great Depression appears to be coming to an end, but it has cost the nation 8.4 million jobs. While the downturn has been less severe in New York State and New York City than in the nation, the impact has been painful nonetheless. New York City lost 186,900 jobs and tax revenues fell by 7.1 percent in FY 2009 ($2.8 billion)—the steepest decline in at least 30 years.

The nation is slowly emerging from the worst recession since the Great Depression, but the recovery is expected to be slow and uneven. Although the national economy grew at 5.9 percent during the fourth quarter of 2009, the strong growth could not offset the deep contractions that occurred in the first half of the year. As a result, the economy contracted by 2.4 percent in 2009, the largest annual decline in 63 years.

Wall Street bonuses paid to New York City securities industry employees rose by 17 percent to $20.3 billion in 2009.

In the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) initiated intense planning efforts to determine how to best protect its customers and key assets from any future terrorist incident.

New York City lost 110,000 jobs (2.9 percent) between October 2008 and October 2009, which has caused a sharp drop in utilization of the MTA’s transit facilities (e.g., subways, buses, and bridges and tunnels).

New York City has always been a gateway to opportunity for people from around the world. Successive waves of immigration created a melting pot of cultures that left its mark on the City’s history and its neighborhoods.

Spanish | Russian | Chinese | Korean | Haitian-Creole

The nation is emerging from the worst recession since World War II. While New York City was hit hard, the impact has not been as severe as initially feared or as painful as elsewhere in the nation. The City has lost 125,000 jobs, and the November Plan assumes that job losses will peak at 220,000 during the third quarter of 2010—fewer losses than in either of the past two recessions.

The global financial crisis was rooted in excessive risk-taking, which exposed the financial industry to historic losses when underlying assumptions proved faulty.

Long Island City and Astoria are the westernmost parts of Queens, only minutes from Midtown Manhattan. The area benefits from a strong transportation network, which has made it attractive to business and residential development.