New Yorkers plan to spend up to $192 million for back-to-school supplies this year, with approximately 64 percent of this spending ($123 million) driven by school supply lists from their children’s schools.
As New York State struggles to meet the challenges of its current fiscal crisis, State policy makers must find ways to encourage growth in various sectors of the State’s economy to ensure the long-term fiscal health of the State. Small businesses – including those owned by minorities and women – are a vital part of that economy.
Local sales tax collections, including New York City’s, increased by 10.5 percent during the first three quarters of 2010, compared to a 9.0 percent decline in the same period the year before. However, over a third of this growth is due to sales tax rate increases and the extension of the sales tax to additional items in New York City and Nassau County. Adjusting for these tax increases, the growth in sales tax collections to date in 2010 has been about 6 percent.
Local sales tax collections grew by 9.9 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, when sales tax collections declined by 6.0 percent. However, nearly a third of this growth was due to a sales tax rate increase in New York City.
The 2011-12 Executive Budget proposes a $1.5 billion net cut in State aid to schools, which would result in a 7.3 percent decrease in aid to districts statewide, translating to a 2.9 percent reduction to total general fund budgets.
This report describes the fiscal challenges facing school districts in New York State. As with other classes of government, school districts have struggled to maintain fiscal balance in the midst of rising costs and declining economic conditions.
New York’s counties, cities, towns, and villages frequently utilize local development corporations (LDCs) and other private entities for economic development and other activities. These LDCs and similar private entities are exempt from many of the constitutional and statutory provisions that guide the operations and financial transactions conducted by local governments, increasing the risk of waste, fraud, or abuse of taxpayer dollars or assets.
Real property tax assessment is an important function of local governments. In 2009, New York’s city, county, town and village assessing units spent nearly $132 million and employed roughly 1,350 certified assessors, tax directors and assessment appraisers.
Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) are public benefit corporations created by an act of the State Legislature on behalf of one or more local governments. IDAs are intended to advance the job opportunities, health, general prosperity and economic welfare of the people of the State of New York, and to improve their recreation opportunities, prosperity and standard of living.
New York’s 57 counties (excluding New York City), 61 cities, 932 towns, and 556 villages reported spending nearly $2.6 billion to maintain 187,000 highway lane miles in 2009. Highway maintenance is one of the largest categories of expense for local governments, representing 7.6 percent of total local government expenditures.
