Economic Articles

1) A Risk Of Id Theft

Fraud alerts for credit cards are being suggested for students in Long Island University, due to identity theft. About 25,000 to 30,000 were given letters stating that the tax forms mailed to them were in "defective mailers." Adhesive was missing on one side of the envelope, which lead to half the 1098-T "Tuition Statement" being destroyed by U.S. Postal Service processing machinery. The 1098_T contains the student's name, address and Social Security number. Robert N. Altholz, treasurer and vice president for finance at LIU, has stated that new statements to all students has now been mailed out, using a different dealer, and also notified the state attorney general, state Consumer Protection Board, and state Office of Cyber Security.

2) Home Prices Lowest In 3 Years

The housing prices have decreased in Long Island and Queens, to their lowest level in roughly about 3 years. However the account of unsold homes, have gone up about 23 percent. However, after years of an stable raise, the prices ended up falling down in 2006. From Nassau County and Suffolk, Queens had a falling price, which made itself to be considered “the hardest hit.” The values of houses seem to be falling everywhere nationally, however after 40 years of increasing numbers, the national median home price had decreased for the first time last year. According to the data from the National Association of Realtors 2007 had ranked the fifth-highest in sales. Experts have claimed that they believe prices will reduce for another two years before it begins to increase again. According to the director of Dowling’s College’s Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute, who is Martin Cantor, he assumes that It’ll take seven months, for the time a house consumes on the market.

3) Blue-ray Wins A Round In Battle With HD-DVD

Netflix Inc. has proclaimed that the company will stock high-definition of DVD movies solely in a format known as Blu-ray. Therefore boosting a win towards Blu-ray. Overall, this indicates that the competition between Sony’s Blu-ray and the HD-DVD format supported by Toshiba could soon end. Its known that Blu-ray, is much more secure having an higher capacity along with having involvements with the six major movie studios such as The Walt Disney Co., Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. However, Blu-ray is known to be more expensive. Toshiba’s HD-DVD players also share the same functions, however wont be widely available in Blu-ray players until next year. Many consumers are reluctant to buy because the costs of Blu-ray players are still high. But, consumers, also have other options such as online movie downloads and video on demand. No conclusion have been made however, as to Blu-ray dominating the market, this just seems to be an “pyrrhic victory.”

4) Property Tax Cap Helps Homeowners

The NY state’s local property taxes seem to be out of control. Gov. Eliot Spitzer has now responded by proposing a commission to recommend a property tax cap plan, which is also headed by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. Most people are complaining about school taxes. Even with a program like STAR, the problem seems to have gotten worse, mainly because there are no effective controls on spending. Meanwhile though, New Yorkers, still continue to vote with their feet and leave the state. If New York is going to want to compete for jobs and business it must change. A property tax cap is the most important step New York should take if it is to contain the cost of government. However some belive it can harm education. The only way to address high taxes is to focus on spending.

5) …But Schools Would Pay The Price

Two crucial issues will be coming up, due to Spitzer's plan on capping school district local property taxes. These two issues include: unbalanced funding of public schools and high property taxes. It is better to have the schools funded through the state income tax, since the property tax would just punish the schools along with the inflation. The poorer schools would be affected the most. It is suggested that the state should set up a per-pupil expenditure level. So they would get state aid according to the number of students, and also consideration taken in for students from poverty for disproportionately higher spending. So this way it wouldn't matter what area they live in, rich or poor, they would get equal considerations. This Fiscal Equity case was ruled by the court to provide New York City with more money so they can be on level with the other districts. Also,