New York City’s finances continue to benefit from better-than-projected revenues and savings generated through initiatives launched in response to its financial challenges, but the continued influx of asylum seekers, elevated demand for City programs and a declining surplus demand preparation to navigate future uncertainty.
The Climate Action Plan Progress Report for the New York State Common Retirement Fund highlights the Fund’s recent efforts to address climate risks and opportunities.
New York State has seen a concerning surge in reported hate crimes over the last five years, with the number of incidents increasing by 12.7 percent in 2023 alone. As the number of hate crimes has grown, these crimes are increasingly targeting people rather than property, with most attacks against Jewish, Black and Gay Male New Yorkers. Recent efforts recognize the severity of this issue, but more must be done to prevent the prejudice and biases that motivate these crimes from taking root.
Office buildings in New York City remain a critical contributor to its economy and tax base, as market values reached nearly $205 billion in fiscal year 2025, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Higher market values on office buildings are being fueled by growth outside of traditional Midtown office districts, including Hudson Yards, Chelsea, Union Square, Soho, Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City.
Local government sales tax collections in New York State totaled $5.83 billion in the second calendar quarter of 2024, up 2.2 percent (or $127 million) compared to the same quarter last year. While year-over-year growth in the second quarter was slightly stronger than the 1.6 percent increase seen in the first quarter, it still lagged growth rates realized after the first quarter in 2021. However, it was not unusual to see collections increase around (or under) 2 percent, year over year, in the decade before the pandemic.
New York’s Clean Energy Fund (CEF), established in 2016 to help New York reach its clean energy goals, has made good progress on reaching its goals for distributed solar capacity and leveraged funds, but is behind in meeting its energy efficiency targets for 2025. Since 2016, the CEF spent $3.4 billion through 2023 and has achieved 45% of its total efficiency goals.
New York City’s contract spending (excluding capital projects) has grown significantly in recent years, rising to $24.3 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2023, an increase of nearly $7 billion from FY 2019, representing an outsized share (41%) of total citywide operating spending growth in this period. Total contract spending for goods and services represented nearly 22% of operating spending in FY 2023, compared to 16% in FY 2010.
This report focuses on the condition of local bridges using data from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory. New York has made progress in recent years. Since 2017, the share of local bridges in poor condition has fallen from 12.1 percent to 10.0 percent. The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has directed federal funds to a variety of infrastructure projects, including bridge projects.
Agriculture is an important sector in Long Island, and provides many benefits to the regional economy and local residents. In fact, Suffolk County has the highest agricultural sales of any county in New York State, and is home to about one-fifth of the State’s wineries.
New York State is a leading agricultural state with 36,300 farms that produced $4.7 billion in products in 2010. New York ranks among the largest producers in the nation for some products, including ranking second in wine production.
