NEW YORK—The troubles of New York City’s economy, including increasingly high budget deficit projections, are overshadowed by the woes of other cities in the state.
Manufacturing, as with other portions of America, for decades provided many jobs in New York. Starting in the ‘60s, the sector began shifting. From 1980 through 2010, approximately 765,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the state, and the current number, about 457,000, is down from a peak of approximately 1.8 million in 1953.
Job gains in other sectors have offset those losses, such as the 1.7 million gained in the service sector between 1980 and 2010—but these gains have gone to downstate areas. Other cities in the state have been left with high poverty and unemployment rates.
As these cities have lost jobs they have also increasingly lost residents. Through 2010, the population shrank by 279,000 people, which is almost 15 percent of the 1980 population. Most of those who left were under 40.
Then revenues go down because there aren’t as many people, and the tax rate per person goes up. Meanwhile, federal aid is declining.
This situation is pressing concludes a recent report by the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
“Local and state officials, and New York’s citizens, must recognize the need for new and more serious discussions of what public policies might best address these longstanding and intensifying challenges,” states the report.
In Perspective
To put the cities in perspective, New York City’s operating budget is $68.5 billion this year, while the second highest is Buffalo at just $464.2 million, going down to the smallest, Sherrill at $6.1 million.
A source of 25 percent of revenues, property tax, is limited since it is so high in many of these cities, while other costs are rising, such as a $659 million jump in city employee benefits for 52 cities outside of New York City. Other sources of funding are needed for expanding infrastructure and other areas.
The situation can seem grim at times. A Sept. 21 analysis from the nonpartisan Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) said new Census Bureau data concludes that virtually half of the children in upstate New York’s largest cities lived in poverty in 2011, including more than half in Rochester, Syracuse, and Schenectady.
