While overall federal aid to New York City declined nearly $1 billion over five years, such aid has been relatively flat when excluding stimulus and Hurricane Sandy disaster recovery funding, according to a
Over the past five years, said IBO researchers Frank Posillico and Ana Maria Ventura, total federal aid to the city dropped from $7.9 billion in 2011 to just under $7 billion in 2015, a decrease of roughly $933 million, or nearly 12%. The drop in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus dollars was largely the reason.
IBO said excluding stimulus and disaster-related assistance, federal aid increased from $6.3 billion in 2011 to $6.7 billion in 2012, and then slowly declined to $6.3 billion in 2015. "When adjusted for inflation, the $6.3 billion received in 2015 is 6.4%, or $403 million, below the aid received in 2011," the report said.
Federal aid comprised less than 10% of the city budget last year.
According to the report, federal aid excluding stimulus and recovery funding totaled $32.3 billion, or just over 85% of total federal aid received from 2011 through 2015.
Three city agencies received a combined $22.5 billion, or about 70%, of federal aid during that period: Department of Education ($8.4 billion), Human Resources Administration ($7.7 billion), and Administration for Children's Services ($6.4 billion).
The report said Housing Preservation and Development, Homeless Services, and Health and Mental Hygiene also received a significant share of federal aid during that period, totaling $2.4 billion, $1.6 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively.
Five federal grant programs outside stimulus and disaster recovery accounted for $16.8 billion, or more than half the city's aid from Washington.
The largest source of federal aid to the city is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which provides cash and other assistance to lowest-income families.
Funding to the city under that program rose from $1 billion in 2011 to $1.5 billion in 2013 as New York State, which receives the funds from Washington, changed the formula for allocating the funds to localities. Funding then declined to $1.4 billion in 2015.
