Reuters reports a drop in the personal income of NY residents for the first time in 70 years:
“The recession put a 3.1 percent dent in the personal incomes of New York state residents, who endured their first full-year decline in more than 70 years, according to a report released Tuesday. Paychecks or net earnings tumbled 5.4 percent, while dividends, interest and rent slid 8.4 percent, to a grand total of nearly $908 billion, the state comptroller’s report said. Not only did New Yorkers’ personal incomes fall “almost twice” as much as they did in the nation as a whole, but they have yet to recover to pre-recession levels, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.”
The situation is likely to worsen if higher taxes prevail in the next year. NY must cut spending and reconcile the public-private earnings divide if it wishes to see real economic recovery.