New York State Commission on Poverty
Summary
Catholic Charities USA has initiated a “Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America” with a goal of cutting poverty in half by 2020. More than a dozen states have created bi-partisan commissions to narrow the widening gap between the rich and the poor by eliminating barriers — such as lack of education, poor transportation and inadequate child care — that prevent many from finding better jobs and escaping chronic poverty. The time is right for New York State to create a similar Commission that has concrete goals for reducing poverty within a specific timeframe.
Conference Position
The Catholic Conference supports the establishment of a State Poverty Commission to develop concrete goals for reducing poverty within a specific timeframe.
Rationale
Census Bureau poverty data for New York State released in late August 2008 were disturbing. Despite several years of moderate economic expansion, New Yorkers were just as likely to be poor in 2007 as they were in the last recession, in 2001, according to an analysis by the Fiscal Policy Institute. Also, the income of the typical New York working-age household was no higher in 2007 than in 2001, when adjusted for inflation. Catholic Charities agencies are certainly seeing no signs of improvement during the current economic downturn, with more individuals and families seeking emergency assistance as both food and gas prices increasingly strain household budgets. Agencies also worry about the coming winter, when heating costs will rise well beyond many households’ means. This is likely to result in rising poverty rates and falling median incomes.
The Census data show that New York’s poverty rate (14.3 percent) was higher than the nation’s as a whole (12.4 percent) and the highest among all northern states. Only Southern and Southwestern states had higher poverty rates than did New York.
Residents of our cities were even more likely to be living in poverty last year, with poverty rates of 31% for Syracuse, 29.1% for Rochester, 28.7% for Buffalo and 24.4% for Albany. New York City’s poverty rate was 18.5%. Buffalo had the third-highest poverty rate among the nation’s largest cities, with only Detroit and Cleveland having a greater proportion of residents living in poverty.
The U.S. Census defined poverty for a family of four as living on less than $21,730 a year in 2007. Yet research shows that the federal poverty thresholds don’t truly portray the numbers of individuals unable to meet their basic needs. The Economic Policy Institute, for instance, has found that a family of two parents and two children living in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metropolitan area would have needed $57,457 in 2007 to cover basic housing, food, child care, transportation, health-care and other expenses.
Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington State already have adopted anti-poverty programs. What these state programs have in common is broad political support, community involvement and new measures of what low-income families and individuals need to become self-sufficient. Connecticut has set a goal of cutting childhood poverty in half by 2014. Maine set 5, 10 and 20-year targets for percentage reductions in the number of people living in or near poverty. Illinois lawmakers unanimously approved a proposal to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. Minnesota had a much more ambitious goal in mind when it created a Legislative Commission to End Poverty in Minnesota by 2020.
New York State has both a moral and a legal obligation to provide for the needs of the poor. Article XVII Section 1 of the New York State Constitution provides that “The aid, care, and support of the needy are public concerns and shall be provided by the state…”
New York State should follow in the footsteps of these other states and create a New York State Commission on Poverty. This Commission would examine the root causes of poverty in New York, set poverty reduction targets and adopt promising anti-poverty policies gleaned from research and experience from around the country.
You can download this document, New York State Commission on Poverty, in PDF form.
