The rumors are true! Governor Cuomo's office has sent an op-ed written by the governor expressing his support for tax reform. You can read the whole thing below, but here's one key paragraph: "In New York under the permanent tax code, an individual making a taxable income of only $20,000 pays the same marginal tax rate as an individual making $20 million. It’s just not fair. While New York’s earned income tax credit, child care credit, and high standard deduction help working poor families, New York has left the middle class with an undue burden which also hinders our economic recovery." more ›

Today the Census Bureau released its report [pdf] on income, poverty and health insurance, and doggone it, would you believe these statistics are not specifically too good? According to the most recent census numbers from 2010, approximately 1 in 6 Americans are impoverished. That's 46.2 million people, up from 43.6 million in 2009—15.1 percent of the population were below the poverty line last year, the highest percentage since 1983. But hey, that was last year. We've still got more than three months left in 2011 to turn this thing around! more ›

Even though the city's Department of Finance apologized, Queens co-op owners are still furious that a DOF computer error caused their property values to rise as much as 147%. (Higher property values mean higher property taxes.) The DOF says it'll cap the increases to 50%, but residents think that's BS: Sherry Davis, who lives in Douglaston, told the NY Times, "How it is possible that the values of our properties can go up by more than 100 percent during one of the biggest real estate declines in a generation? This is the last affordable part of New York City — this isn’t Chelsea or the Upper East Side for goodness’ sake — and we risk being priced out of our own neighborhood." more ›

During his press conference to discuss the economy today, President Obama acknowledged it was a "slow recovery" and said that while he was doing everything possible, "Because I am president, and the Democrats have control the House and Senate, it's understandable that people are saying, 'What have you done?"' CNBC reports, "Obama insisted again that Bush-era tax cuts be extended for individuals earning over $200,000 a year and joint filers earning over $250,000." Obama says Congress should pass the middle class tax cuts, "I’m prepared to work on a bill and sign a bill this month to ensure that middle class families get tax relief," but Republicans are "holding middle-class tax relief hostage" in order to "give tax relief to millionaires and billionaires." more ›

The number of court cases filed by landlords over nonpayment of rent jumped about 19 percent in the first two months of 2009 from the same period last year, to 42,257 from 35,588. And lawyers, judges, and tenant advocates tell the Times that more and more middle-class renters are finding themselves in the unexpected position of facing eviction. The spectrum of "middle-class" includes a former Merrill Lynch employee thrown out of his $5,700/month Tribeca apartment (he owed $20,000 in back rent) as well as the single mom of three fighting to keep her $1,750/month apartment after losing her bookkeeping job (previously, she lost her house to foreclosure when she lost her job as a legal recruiter). Then there's Kevin Brewster-Streeks and his partner Greg Armstrong, both in their 20s and both buried in debt since Brewster-Streeks lost his $36,450 job as a records clerk at a law firm. After two bouts in housing court, they moved out of their $1,650/month Bronx apartment in February, owing nearly $7,000 in back rent. Brewster-Streeks says, "It’s kind of dehumanizing. They see you as a certain kind of person. We’ve never been that certain kind of person." more ›

In one corner, there's Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Klein. In the other, middle-class parents who have been told their children have been placed on wait lists for kindergarten placement. The NY Times describes it as a "mounting...middle-class vitriol against the school system." One parent shared a letter to the Dept. of Education—"You have unleashed the fury of parents throughout this city with your complete lack of preparedness"—while another recounted, "I got a call from Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign about yadda yadda yadda was I going to vote for him. As a parent who has a child with no place to go next year, no indication of where he’s going to go next year as a result of the mayor taking control of education, I said absolutely not... You would think that Bloomberg, who is a businessman, knows how to manage inventory like this. My kid isn’t just a bottle of vodka, but this is about inventory.” The Dept. of Education believes their approach to wait lists is fair and "will ensure that children have a placement offer by the end of June." more ›

A new report from the Center for an Urban Future (whose previous report, "Attack of the Chains," sparked a bidding war between Fox and Warner Bros.) confirms the obvious: the so-called middle class can no longer afford to live in New York and are relocating in large numbers to the exburbs or far-flung cities like Houston, where $50,000 a year gets you the same standard of living as a $123,322 salary does in Manhattan. Don't scoff; Space City has theater, opera, ballet, air-conditioned skywalks, a Holocaust Museum—even a lively local weblog, just like the one you enjoy here! more ›

Today, the NY Sun had an editorial questioning why City Council Speaker Christine Quinn remains in a $1,600/month rent-stabilized apartment, when she makes $141,000/year from the City Council, owns half a $500,000 house in NJ, and her partner is a corporate lawyer enough for their combined income to probably be at least $300,000. The editorial then looks at Governor Paterson's and Representative Charles Rangel's rent-stabilized living situations (Paterson also has a home upstate, and Rangel has a villa in the Dominican Republic). The Sun writes, "The effect is that a measure originally designed to keep the lower and middle classes from being forced out of the city has become a program that effectively subsidizes country homes outside the city for the upper middle class." more ›