Responding to New York\u27s Budget Crisis

Wealthy individuals and big businesses have benefited dramatically from reduced taxes and increased subsidies, and they should make a fair contribution to resolving New York’s budget crisis. Taxes on the very wealthy and reduction of corporate welfare will do much more to reinvigorate the economy and restore fiscal health than drastic cuts in health and education spending

Working Toward Equality: Employment and Race in Buffalo

For all of the progress that our nation and our community have made toward equality, we remain plagued by severe racial disparities in many aspects of life. Perhaps none is more troubling or more important than inequality in employment. Access to a good job is, for most people, the key to a good life. Something is sorely amiss when the black and Hispanic unemployment rates in Erie County are more than twice those of whites, and when people of color are earning just over 70 cents for every dollar earned by whites

What Climate Change Means for Buffalo

Why should state and local governments respond to a problem with so many national and international ramifications? As we have seen, Buffalo and New York have much to lose from climate change, and much to gain from preventing it. Moreover, it is clearer than ever that states and localities will have to lead the way. In the past two years, the Democrats have failed to pass meaningful climate change legislation despite controlling the Presidency, Senate, and House. The chances are even more remote with a Republican Congress, including many members who deny that climate change is occurring, that it is man-made, or that it is dangerous. Only when a critical mass of states and localities are limiting carbon emissions and promoting green technology, energy, and development will national solutions become possible. And only by using states and localities as the “laboratories of democracy,” where different solutions are tested, will we arrive at national and international policies that truly work

City of Buffalo 2008-2009 Budgets and Four Year Plans

I am writing on behalf of the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) to comment on the City of Buffalo’s 08-09 Action Plan Recommendation. PPG is a new collaboration promoting a revitalized, sustainable Buffalo through research and advocacy. Our 2008 Platform has been endorsed by over 30 organizations, including Belmont Shelter, Catholic Charities, Community Action, Cornell University ILR School, PUSH Buffalo, the Homeless Alliance of Western New York, and the Center for Urban Studies

Who is Living in Poverty and Why?

In thinking about poverty, it is common to focus on those places and populations where the poverty rate is the highest, where poverty is the most concentrated and visible. Thus, many associate poverty with inner city residents, people of color, high school drop-outs, never-married mothers, and people without jobs – all of whom suffer from disproportionately high rates of poverty. There are both good and bad reasons to focus attention on these groups, but it is important to remember the big picture as well. What is most typical among the 39 million people living in poverty in the United States

The Potential Impact of Legalizing, Regulating, and Taxing Marijuana on Erie County and New York State

The costs of continuing the prohibition of marijuana far outweigh the benefits. Prohibition costs the public a large amount of money in law enforcement expenses and lost tax revenue; it imposes great harms on individuals, families and neighborhoods by criminalizing relatively harmless behavior and spawning a large, violent, underground economy; and it contributes heavily to the large racial disparities in our criminal justice system

A Raise for Fast Food Workers Will Help Western New York

The most pressing problems in Western New York in many areas of life, including education, healthcare, and criminal justice, can be traced to a single root: poverty. Families living in poverty suffer from lower graduation rates, more chronic diseases, and more criminal violence than families earning living wages. In our region, as around the nation, roughly 45% of workers are employed in low-wage service sector jobs. Those jobs are not going away; in fact, they are the fastest growing occupations in the economy. They do not require – or pay a premium for –high levels of education, and so gains in education will have a minimal impact on the wages they pay (already, more than two in five restaurant workers have some college education). The key to reducing poverty and the myriad, expensive problems it causes is to raise the wages of service sector workers

IDA Reform

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on IDA reform. I teach at the University at Buffalo Law School in the areas of affordable housing and community economic development. I am submitting these remarks on behalf of the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG). PPG has united over 40 Buffalo-area non-profits around a 2009 Community Agenda, which includes this plank regarding subsidy reform: Reform New York State’s Subsidy Programs New York State should reform its major subsidy programs, such as Industrial Development Agencies and Empire Zones, to ensure that economic development dollars are being spent wisely and with maximum community input. Reform legislation should include job quality standards (living and prevailing wages), local hiring, green building requirements, anti-pirating and recapture mechanisms, and anti-sprawl provisions. Locally, the six IDAs in Erie County should be merged into one countywide authority

Revitalizing Buffalo: Let\u27s Take the High Road

Recently, Buffalo awoke to find that it had become the second-poorest major city in the nation, trailing only Detroit. We are also second in rate of abandoned properties, right behind St. Louis. Everyone agrees that we are a city in need of some economic development. But what type of economic development do we need? As debates about the casino and Bass Pro demonstrate, the answers to this question vary widely. Most observers, however, would probably agree that the current system is not working well and could benefit from vigorous public discussion and reform

City of Buffalo 2009-2010 Action Plan

I am writing on behalf of the Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) to comment on the City of Buffalo’s 09-10 Action Plan. PPG’s mission is to help build a more just, sustainable, and culturally vibrant community through action-oriented research, policy development, and citizen engagement. Our 2009 Community Agenda has been endorsed by over 50 organizations, including Belmont Shelter, Buffalo Urban League, Catholic Charities, Community Action, Habitat for Humanity Buffalo, Hispanics United of Buffalo, Homeless Alliance of Western New York, PUSH Buffalo, True Bethel Church, and the WNY Area Labor Federation