Reports

Nonprofit organizations in 2022 provided 1.3 million jobs to New Yorkers, just over 1 in 6 private sector jobs in the State. However, nonprofits in New York have been shrinking since 2017, both in number of establishments and in number of jobs, while expanding in the rest of the nation. This report analyzes the most recent employment and wage data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for charitable organizations identified as 501(c)(3)s for the period 2017 through 2022, the latest data available.

Farming in New York plays a critical role, both as an economic engine for communities and as an essential part of our food supply system. This report provides a comprehensive breakdown of farming across upstate New York, Long Island and New York City, including an analysis of State programs and tax benefits for farmers.

The benefits from four major social insurance programs provide crucial financial support during difficult times in the lives of hundreds of thousands New York workers and their families each year. This report analyzes benefits provided for representative workers under unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, temporary disability insurance and paid family leave. 

The State’s employment picture has changed in significant ways since 2000 with the health care and social assistance industry increasing its share of total employment as manufacturing and financial activities shrank. Since the pandemic, the State has taken longer than the nation to regain the jobs lost; the nation fully recovered by June 2022, while for New York, recovery did not occur until April 2024. Despite the relatively slow employment recovery, growth in wages paid to workers has outpaced inflation.

Chronic absenteeism rates among New York public and charter school students increased sharply as schools transitioned back to in-person learning after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided and remained high with nearly one in three students chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year. The rates were higher for high school students at 34.1%, 7.6 percentage points more than elementary and middle school students.

Higher education institutions provide tremendous value to New York’s local economies and the State’s overall economic health through employment, wages, student spending, and more. The sector employed over 296,000 people in 2023, paying wages of around $26.5 billion, but still has over 13,000 fewer jobs than in 2019. Maintaining a vibrant higher education system is critical to New York’s future.

In SFY 2022-23 (April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023), OSC completed 10 audits of preschool special education providers' expenses submitted to SED. These audits cumulatively identified $7.7 million in recommended disallowances, or more than 13 percent of the total claimed expenses of $57.7 million for the audit period.

New York State has seen a surge in hate crimes over the last five years with 1,089 reported instances in 2023, marking the highest number since data collection and annual reporting were mandated by New York’s Hates Crimes Act of 2000. As the number of hate crimes has grown, these crimes are increasingly targeting people rather than property, with most attacks against Jewish, Black and Gay Male New Yorkers.

As required by Section 196 of the Navigation Law, the Comptroller prepares an annual report to the State Legislature and the Governor. The report includes: a description of the costs and damages paid by and recovered for the Fund; the monies spent pursuant to Section 186 (including amounts spent for oil spill prevention, training activities and equipment purchased), and the economic and environmental impacts on the State.

The Climate Action Plan Progress Report for the New York State Common Retirement Fund highlights the Fund’s recent efforts to address climate risks and opportunities.

New York’s Clean Energy Fund (CEF), established in 2016 to help New York reach its clean energy goals, has made good progress on reaching its goals for distributed solar capacity and leveraged funds, but is behind in meeting its energy efficiency targets for 2025. Since 2016, the CEF spent $3.4 billion through 2023 and has achieved 45% of its total efficiency goals.

This report focuses on the condition of local bridges using data from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory. New York has made progress in recent years. Since 2017, the share of local bridges in poor condition has fallen from 12.1 percent to 10.0 percent. The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has directed federal funds to a variety of infrastructure projects, including bridge projects. The IIJA created the Bridge Formula Program, which provides $2.0 billion in federal funding for New York bridges from federal fiscal years 2022-2026. New York State’s Bridge NY program facilitates federally funded local bridge projects. Since 2016, Bridge NY has funded more than 800 projects with a total investment of nearly $1.7 billion. For county-level bridge data across the State, see our interactive map | download data [xlsx].

The tourism industry’s post-pandemic recovery is uneven across the State, with Long Island nearly at full recovery of jobs lost while the North Country and Mohawk Valley are struggling to regain their footing. Visitors flocked to outdoor destinations, with attendance at State parks 9.1% higher in 2023 over 2000, while jobs are still 4.3% below pre-pandemic levels.

Motor vehicle fatalities in New York State have risen 25.8% since 2019, with fatalities in 2022 at the highest level in a decade, even as the number of vehicle miles travelled, licensed drivers and traffic accidents have declined. State lawmakers recently enacted “Sammy’s Law,” which allows New York City to reduce speed limits in certain “safety zones” that are prone to pedestrian traffic injuries and fatalities. Such discretion could be provided to other local governments looking for ways to make their roads safer.

The Office of the State Comptroller issued five reports examining “New Yorkers in Need.” These publications provide a fact base for understanding the local and demographic variations in need; explain the implications of lived poverty, food insecurity and housing instability; and make recommendations for bolstering the federal safety net and improving State efforts.

Nearly one in five New York children live in poverty, and rates are significantly higher in some of New York's largest cities. With the 2021 Child Poverty Reduction Act, New York has set a goal to reduce child poverty by 50% by 2031 and has taken action in recent State budgets. The State and federal government have the solutions to lift more children out of poverty, and policymakers should act with urgency to use them.

Food insecurity is increasing in New York, with one-in-nine households (11.3% or 875,000 families) unable to get enough food at some point during 2020 through 2022 because they lacked money or other resources. Nationally, food insecurity increased for the first time in over a decade to 11.2% during 2020 through 2022. With the end of the pandemic, many of the enhancements to federal safety net programs also ended. Additional federal and state efforts are needed to address food insecurity.

New York State’s Environmental Facilities Corporation has provided financing for over 2,000 essential local water infrastructure projects totaling more than $23.7 billion since 1990, but the estimated capital improvement needs for water and sewer projects far exceeds this amount, and tens of billions of dollars in local projects remain in the pipeline. Using federal capitalization funds, New York has spent more for Clean Water and Drinking Water projects than any other State; however, the need remains significant and more can be done to reach communities which have not yet accessed funding through financing and State grants.

Historic federal pandemic relief funds, though being spent down, continued to boost New York’s balance of payments in Federal Fiscal Year 2022. For every dollar New York sent to the federal government in tax receipts, it received $1.06 back in federal spending, as compared to a national average of $1.28, ranking New York 39 out of 45 states with a positive balance of payments. This report is the eighth in a series by the Office of the State Comptroller that examines the flow of funds between the federal government and the states.

Interactive Map | Excel file with supporting data

In the throes of the economic uncertainty and fiscal turbulence caused by the COVID crisis, legislation was enacted as part of the SFY 2021-22 budget authorizing the use of State-supported bonding with final maturities up to 50 years for capital purposes for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. This legislation has been reauthorized and proposed again in the State Fiscal Year 2024-25 Executive Budget. As we approach the State’s coming 2024-25 fiscal year, the budget proposal authorizing such 50-year borrowing should be rejected, and the State should return to long-standing bond financing norms. The budget also includes a proposal to severely restrict the State Comptroller’s terms and conditions oversight of private sales of State debt, which should be rejected.