Res. No. 43
Title
Resolution calling upon the New York State Legislature to introduce and pass, and the Governor to sign, legislation establishing a tax credit for businesses that are located within neighborhoods with high rates of unemployment or that employ workers who live in neighborhoods with high rates of unemployment
Body
By Council Members Cornegy and Brannan
Whereas, While New York City's unemployment rate has been declining since its peak during the midst of the Great Recession, according to the New York State Department of Labor (DOL), as of November 2017 it still remained at 4.0 percent; and
Whereas, The unemployment rate varies from borough to borough, with the unemployment rate in November 2017 in the Bronx at 5.7 percent, Brooklyn at 4.1 percent, Staten Island at 4.0 percent, Manhattan at 3.6 percent, and Queens at 3.5 percent, according to DOL; and
Whereas, The boroughs with lower levels of income have higher rates of unemployment; and
Whereas, In 2009, the Fiscal Policy Institute found a similar inverse relationship between income level and unemployment rate when it analyzed the data broken down further by New York City neighborhood; and
Whereas, In its brief entitled "New York City in the Great Recession: Divergent Fates by Neighborhood and Race and Ethnicity," the Fiscal Policy Institute reported that unemployment rates in the third quarter of 2009 ranged from 5.1% on Manhattan's Upper East and West Sides, to 15.7% in the South and Central Bronx and 19.2% in Brooklyn's East New York neighborhood; and
Whereas, Unemployment, and particularly long-term unemployment, leads to adverse consequences for the unemployed workers and their families; and
Whereas, According to the Congressional Budget Office, some of those adverse consequences include lower earnings for new job market entrants, reduced earnings after job loss, negative health effects, and family stresses; and
Whereas, Those adverse conseq...
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