Newly released Census Bureau statistics, including poverty data released today, show that the economic recovery has not yet reached New Yorkers. A significant and growing percentage of New York City’s individuals and families continue to live in poverty. Nearly half of individuals living in poverty worked full or part time jobs in 2010. Racial disparities in earnings remain high and household incomes have fallen.
Governor Cuomo announced the membership of the new Western New York Regional Economic Development Council today. Regional Councils are the state’s flagship job creation program, and it’s expected that the Governor will announce appointments to the Finger Lakes Regional Council when he stops in Rochester and the Central New York Regional Council when he stops in Syracuse later today.
The announcement comes several days after the release of a fifty-two-page plan for Regional Councils, which laid out more detail about their operation and how membership on the Councils will be structured.
Community, faith and labor leaders held a rally and press conference in front of the Queens Center Mall today to protest the use of taxpayer dollars to subsidize projects that do not create good jobs or broader community benefits.
East Greenbush, Central Islip, Buffalo, Rochester, Queens, NY—Community, faith and labor leaders held rallies and press conferences in five cities around the state to protest the use of taxpayer dollars to subsidize projects that do not create good jobs or broader community benefits. As part of the statewide Getting Our Money’s Worth campaign, advocates gathered at wasteful development projects in their local communities, highlighted a new report, Seizing the Moment: How Regional Economic Development Councils Can Build a Good Jobs Economy, and called on state leaders to create a good jobs plan that improves upon current economic development outcomes.