Local Headlines for Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Report Says Tax Abatements Hurt School Budgets

A new report from a national research group says that tax abatement programs are hurting New York’s public school budgets. According to the Ithaca Voice, the group, Good Jobs First, estimates that in 2021 the state’s schools lost as much as $1.8 billion in revenue to tax abatements. The cost to Ithaca’s schools was more than $3.25 million over the same period. Industrial Development Agencies are largely responsible for making deals with developers that abate taxes for specific projects over a number of years. The deals often include payments in lieu of tax or PILOT agreements which mitigate the effect of the abatements. Heather McDaniel is president of the agency that oversees Ithaca’s IDA. She told the Voice the report exaggerates the effect of abatements and argues that tax abated developments are still increasing the local tax base. The state legislature is currently reviewing a proposed bill that would rescind IDAs’ authority to abate school taxes.

Workers Went on Strike More in 2022

A new Cornell study shows that US workers went on strike one and half times more in 2022 than in 2021. According to the Cornell Chronicle, the ILR school’s Labor Action Tracker reported 424 work stoppages in 2022 compared to just 279 in 2021. Hospitality and food service workers were the most likely to go on strike and most of those strikes were organized by Starbucks workers. The report showed that non-union workers also organized more stoppages than in 2021. According to Reuters, the total number of union workers climbed by 1.9% in 2022 but the overall percentage of US workers who are union members fell by two tenths of percent to 10.1%.

SNAP Benefits to Fall

Starting February 28, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP will reduce benefits to recipients across the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier. The SNAP Emergency Allotment program has provided an average additional benefit of more than $150 since March of 2020 but the program is running out. 2.8 million New Yorkers benefit from the program. Food banks and other food relief organizations are bracing for increased need.