One year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4 out of 5 small businesses continue to report an overall negative impact in their business. This report explores the latest U.S. Census Bureau survey data from New York’s small businesses, the allocation of fiscal relief for New York from the American Rescue Plan of 2021, and the latest figures from the Comptroller’s monthly cash report.

A year after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in New York State, the economic disruption caused by the pandemic remains severe. One key measure is the total number of New Yorkers claiming unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. The figure remains elevated 11 months after the initial surge of job losses, with 2.4 million claims reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as of mid-February 2021.

The Executive Budget Financial Plan for State Fiscal Year 2021-22 projects that federal operating aid spending in the current fiscal year will total $76.6 billion, an increase of 30 percent over last year. The proposed Budget assumes the State will receive at least $3 billion in unrestricted federal assistance for each of the next two fiscal years. However, that level of funding would not be enough to avert painful spending cuts to local governments, nonprofits and other service providers, or tax increases.

As of December 2020, arts, entertainment and recreation employment declined by 66 percent from one year earlier, the largest decline among the City’s economic sectors.

Each year, thousands of New Yorkers take the opportunity, while paying their State taxes, to support a variety of charitable purposes through the State’s personal income tax check-off programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic ended a period of economic expansion in New York City during which new records for population, tourism, employment, and property values were achieved. As a result, City revenues grew rapidly from FY 2010 to FY 2019, enabling City spending to grow by 55 percent, nearly four times the rate of inflation, and provide a budget cushion of more than 10 percent of City-funded revenues at the start of FY 2020.

New York ranks seventh among all the states in the percentage of adults who are experiencing food scarcity, at 14 percent compared to the 11 percent national rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest Household Pulse Survey.