We are facing perhaps the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.  People are out of work and struggling to get by.  For months our economy has been hemorrhaging jobs. Credit is hard to come by and unemployment rates keep going up.  In fact since September 2008, our economy has lost nearly 2.8 million jobs. And the housing crisis that started this whole crisis has already left many of our neighbors in Staten Island and Brooklyn at some stage of home foreclosure and has depressed home values.  As the center of the U.S. financial industry, New York has been particularly hard hit by the economic downturn.  We’ve already lost more than 40 percent of the jobs added in the 2003-2008 economic expansion.  This business downturn also puts pressure on city and local services.  

In Washington we have been working hard to get our economy out of this mess and to help get our nation back on track.  In February 2009, we in Congress passed and the President signed H.R. 1 --The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to jump start our economy.  The bill contains many tax provisions and investments designed to help businesses large and small in Staten Island and Brooklyn. 

First, HR 1 provided tax cuts for 95% of all Americans through payroll tax reductions.  It eliminated the AMT for middle class workers, provided a first time homebuyer tax credit of $8000 to revitalize the housing market, a sales tax deduction to help encourage people to buy cars, and a $2500 tax credit for students attending college. 

It also provided billions of much needed support for our schools and State and local budgets to avoid painful layoffs among our teachers, and to avoid dramatic cuts in our health care services.

And of particular importance to our district are the $64 billion provided to rebuild our infrastructure.  This district has some of the longest average commutes in the nation and we desperately need funds to upgrade our mass transit and our highways.  We have made our case – and we have already secured over $440 million for the repair of the Staten Island Ferry terminal, the rehabilitation of the D/M subway line in Brooklyn, the build out of the retail spaces at the Whitehall and St. George Ferry Terminals, reconstruction of the Staten Island Railway bridges, and rebuilding the Staten Island Expressway.

And while the economy may take some time to recover, these initiatives combined with the efforts taken by the Federal Reserve to restore our credit markets, are starting to have a strong effect – not only here on Staten Island and Brooklyn, but in the nation as a whole.

Download my Resource Guide to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Take advantage of the Tax Benefits from the Economic Recovery Act on your 2009 tax return.

Here is additional information from the White House on Economic Recovery funds which have be distributed in New York.