The Latest

One Barrier To Affordable Housing

|

ou hear a lot of untruths about unaffordable housing in New York. Developers say NYC housing is unaffordable because they don’t get to do whatever they want. Despite some of the most liberal zoning in the country, tax breaks (instead of infrastructure assessments) for new buildings, and massive upzonings near transit stops in the last administration. Those who run public housing programs say the problem is not enough government spending on housing and not enough government regulation. Even though New York CIty has spent more than anyplace in the U.S on housing, to the detriment of other things, and is one of the few places in the country with rent regulations.

Another thing that’s been said from time to time is housing is unaffordable because New York CIty does not allow wood frame apartment buildings in the “fire district,” which includes every borough except Staten Island. Unlike places with cheaper housing, such as Houston. Next time developers bring up Houston, remember this “luxury apartment” fire. I seem to have a different idea than would be Houston renters as to what constitutes “luxury.”


http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Workers-may-have-sparked-massive-apartment-5349092.php#/0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eZ2kN_rXKE

Another Brooklyn political story: the sad parts of “the only game in town”

|

Many of my faithful readers know that I often refer to politics as “the only game in town”. By now, some will deduce my reasoning behind this statement, while others will probably remain guessing. Using figurative language is one thing, using metaphors and analogies is another; but the reality still is that political involvement means dealing with real people and tangible challenges: and that should automatically be the good parts to politics. And yet -too often in my regard- political involvement can lead to some really sad outcomes.

BLS Local Government Employment Data 1990 to 2013

|

This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released annual average employment data for 2013, along with rebenchmarked data for that year and the years preceding. I’ve downloaded some of the data to review trends in local government and other employment, from 1990 (the earliest year now available) to last year, for New York City and the Rest of New York State. The data show that local government employment was 23,400 (5.0%) lower in New York City in 2013 than it had been in 1990. In the rest of the state, in contrast, local government employment was 79,800 (14.6%) higher. With regard to the private sector workers that have to pay taxes to support public employees, on the other hand, if one excludes the Health Care and Social Assistance sector (which is substantially government funded) New York City had 226,100 more in 2013 than it had in 1990. The rest of New York State had 2,900 (0.1%) fewer private sector workers in 2013 than in 1990, the Health Care and Social Assistance sector aside.

While those are the changes from 1990 to 2013, however, there was a big break in the direction of things from 2009 to 2013, as compared with 1990 to 2009. The rest of the state, coming off the Great Recession lows, has been adding private sector jobs, while local government has been losing jobs. More commentary, the data and some charts may be found on “Saying the Unsaid in New York.”

Taxing the Sick: The State Assembly Plan to Tax Pharmaceuticals

|

Look I know that "medical marijuana" is for many a Trojan Horse, and the real goal is to legalize marijuana use for the purpose of getting high. And as a means to raise revenues to be redistributed to those who control the New York State legislature. That is, after all, where the lottery money eventually went.

Even so, I can't help but note the hypocrisy of putting a 10% tax on "medical marijuana" in the State Assembly budget, as reported by Crain's. Are not healing drugs for sick people exempt from sales taxes in this state? If so there should be no additional revenues if the marijuana is "medical." In fact, unless more people spent more time getting high, there could be less revenue as highly taxed alcohol users switch to tax-exempt pot. (The same may be said for legalizing wine in food stores — no additional drinking, no additional revenues).

Debt and Inequality Go Together: Rising Debt Is the Cause of Rising Inequality

|

As a German economist once pointed out, while any individual business can increase its profits (and thus executive pay, if shareholders are powerless) by paying its workers less, businesses in general must turn around and sell things to those same workers to make money. As inequality rises what they gain in the labor market they lose in the consumer market, as they must cut prices to make sales or see their sales fall. The same may be said of trade – country A can only sell goods and services to country B if country B has the money to pay for it, from selling to country A or someone else. For these reasons, debt and inequality go together. Debt allows businesses to pay workers less and yet sell them more, and countries with trade surpluses to sell to countries with trade deficits. And so it has been in the United States.

The Federal Reserve released the latest data on U.S. debts, for 2013, last week. Charts, a spreadsheet and related commentary may be found on “Saying the Unsaid in New York.”

Gatemouth Gets His Irish Up

|

I’d like to thank the current Czar of Russia for making my job here a lot easier by proving the point that any celebration of nationalism is inherently politically, which makes discussions of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade so much easier by shoveling off from the conversation a large layer of bovine-related excrement.

The NYC Subway and MTA Commuter Rail Lines Need to Cover Their Costs on an “Auto Equivalent” Basis

|

There are two points of view with regard to how much of the cost of subway and commuter rail mass transit, ideally, would be covered by the fare. One viewpoint is that the fare should be as subsidized as possible, or even eliminated, and that the transit system should be as dependent as on funds allocated by politicians )whose backers tend to be other, more powerful interests.) That is the point of view held by politicians themselves, who like to cast themselves as “fighting for the people” to “save the fare” while never actually coming up with the money, forcing the MTA to borrow instead. And the Straphangers Campaign, the very effective lobbyist for past transit riders in competition with the interests of current and future transit riders. And some of those affiliated with organizations like Streetsblog, who believe that transit is so morally superior, in an environmental sense, to driving that mass transit should be paid for entirely by drivers. And, contradictorily, that driving should be drastically reduced.

I, on the other hand, believe that the higher the share of subway and commuter rail transit costs that is covered by the fare, the better off transit riders will be, now and in the future. Covering costs frees the transit system from having to beg a political class that drives everywhere and believes mass transit if for the serfs. It frees the transit system from attack from those living in places with less mass transit. And it ensures the viability of the transit system, and the city’s economy, in a future characterized by shrinking public resources and lower incomes.

The City of New York Should Take Over Its Bus and Paratransit System

|

Metro New York’s mass transit ridership has been booming. The condition of its infrastructure hasn’t been this good for 80 years. Significant improvements in the quality of the transit experience continue to be added, most recently with the “Bustime” system. And yet the metro area’s mass transit network, and thus its economy, may face a bleak future. As I noted in this post, for 20 years, the city and state governments (and the generations their politicians represented) have been unwilling to pay for the ongoing replacement and renewal of the transit (and road) infrastructure. They have borrowed for it instead. And as a result, younger generations face a choice between ending ongoing renewal and replacement, and allowing the system to deteriorate until its eventual collapse (the path the New York City Housing Authority is on), or paying twice – once for their own obligations, and a second time for the obligations shirked in the past.

We got into this situation because Generation Greed insisted on an “everybody wins” deal for itself, with big fare cuts relative to inflation, pension increases for unionized employees, tax revenues diverted to other things, and soaring payments to contractors for MTA projects. Getting out of this situation is still possible, but it would require sacrifice across the board. Although it is probably a waste of time, given that the same politicians backed by the same interests are still in charge, I’ve decided to write about what some of those sacrifices could be, starting with a contribution by the City of New York.

The 2015 to 2044 MTA Capital Plans: Generation Greed’s Plan to Leave New York State in Ruins

|

In my prior post, I noted that from 2007 to 2012 overall U.S. inflation was 10.7%, and the average annual pay of most Downstate New York workers increased just 8.0%. Wall Street pay fell. But based on data from the National Transit Database (NTD), the total operating cost per employee work hour for MTA component agencies increased by 15.2% for Metro North, 15.5% for the Long Island Railroad, 21.8% for the NYC subway, 24.8% for New York City Transit buses and 4.8% for MTA Bus, the former private bus companies in New York City. Mostly due to soaring retirement costs thanks to pension enhancements retroactively granted in the past but not paid for at the time, and past pension underfunding. That’s the bad news.

Now for the really bad news. Those operating costs, as measured by the NTD, do not include soaring interest payments on MTA bonds. As of this January, the MTA has $32.8 billion in debt outstanding, of which $2.5 billion is variable rate, according to information on its website. Little of that debt has been incurred to expand the system to new areas and riders, which might result in more tax and fare revenues. Most of the money has been borrowed to merely pay to replace buses, subway and rail cars, and other components of the transit system as they wear out. The MTA even borrows for painting under its capital plan. In the most recent MTA capital plan, the cost of this type of this (in reality) maintenance spending was about $4.4 billion per year. Nearly all of it was borrowed. And with the interest on past debts (along with the retirement benefits) soaking up more and more of the MTA’s annual revenues, no one knows where the money to maintain the system for the next 30 years (while the existing debt is paid off) is going to come from. And no one in politics wants to talk about it. Further commentary and a spreadsheet are on “Saying the Unsaid in New York.”