In a Manhattan Minute
The Tumblr of Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer
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Click here to read the full text of my State of the Borough Address
Over the last decade, the average family has seen the price of everything go through the roof – housing, healthcare, taxes and tuition. Since 2000, the price of a 30-day Metrocard has increased 65%, and gasoline and heating oil prices have tripled. Meanwhile, salaries and benefits are not keeping pace.
We need to reclaim the city for middle class and working New Yorkers. Tonight, in my State of the Borough Address, I’m proposing a set of policies that will help make our city more affordable and prepare it for the future.
First, I’m announcing a plan to cut taxes for working and middle class families. It’s simply not right that in New York City someone who makes $50,000 per year pays the same city tax rate as someone who makes $500,000 per year. I’m proposing that we create a more progressive income tax system that restoresfairness and boosts the economy. You can read more about my tax plan in today’s Wall Street Journal.
Second, we should make housing more affordable by creating a larger fund to rescue foreclosed buildings. We should then work with non-profit developers to renovate these properties and turn them into affordable housing.
Third, at a time when small businesses are having trouble getting loans, we should create an alternative lending source for them. A city-run program is running successfully in Philadelphia, and we should use that model here to unlock the capital that small business owners need.
There are a number of other steps we should take, from passing the paid-sick leave bill to diversifying the city’s economy by developing New York’s higher education, high tech, and green energy sectors. We should reform stop and frisk, and consider replacing it with other, proven strategies that keep illegal handguns off our streets by working with communities, not against them.
Ultimately, we need to confront the great challenges of our time. We need to build a city that honors our heritage and reaffirms our future as a place where working people can buy a home, put down roots, and raise a family, always assured that the next generation will have it better than the one before. I’m prepared for that fight, and I know you will join me. Together we’ll get this done.
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Today, I’m releasing a report, Banking on the Future, that addresses the region’s crumbling infrastructure and follows up on the symposium I hosted in March with the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute. We’ll be able to repair our existing infrastructure while meeting future needs only through urgent action, and this report lays out how we can do it.
New York City is a shining example of how infrastructure investments create prosperous and productive urban environments. Yet much of NYC and the region’s infrastructure is aging and in need of repair. Some examples:
- 66 percent of New York City bridges and overpasses have been rated “functionally obsolete” by the New York State Department of Transportation;
- The MTA’s capital plan will see debt service payments surge to over one fifth of the MTA’s operating budget while leaving the City with an antiquated transportation system;
- Indian Point – the source of up to a quarter of the City’s electricity – will be potentially coming off-line just a few short years from now.
The need to develop a long-term strategy for meeting New York City’s enormous infrastructure needs cannot be understated. Fixing our current infrastructure while meeting future needs remains a great challenge, and one we’ll only be able to address through urgent action.
Luckily, infrastructure repair also provides an opportunity for investment and job-creation. With a combination of financing models (including investments from pension funds, public-private partnerships, and the continuation of federal funding streams), we can fix our infrastructure while stimulating the city’s economy.
It’s clear that New York City and the rest of the nation can no longer afford to sweep this problem under the rug — Bank on the Future has some ideas for the steps we should take.
