How Trump plan may cost city 25G jobs

Amazon is set to bring 25,000 jobs to New York state but a proposal from President Trump to change welfare and immigration policies could take as many away.

Councilman Stephen Levin offered up the eye-popping figure at a City Council hearing on the President’s “public charge” proposal, which could force thousands of legal immigrants here to choose between public benefits like SNAP food stamps and a path to legal permanent residency. The proposal would count the acceptance of food benefits, Medicaid and other social services programs against an immigrant’s application for a green card.

The city expects that if the ruled passed, many people — including some who wouldn’t be affected by the rule but might still be afraid of running afoul of it — would stop using food stamps. And that could have big consequences for not just the city’s immigrant residents, but for the city’s economy.

“Every SNAP dollar spent by recipient generates $1.79 in economic activity. Every $1 billion in Snap benefits creates 9,000 full-time jobs. The economic impact of this proposed rule on New York City would be devastating. Potentially up to 25,000 full time jobs — when we talk about the Amazon issue, that’s how many jobs could be lost by this proposed rule alone,” Levin said.

Levin was citing a report by the Fiscal Policy Institute, which estimated that 25,000 jobs would be lost statewide if 25% of the people likely to be be worried about the rule charge — families where at least one person is a non-citizen immigrant and one person has received the public benefits at stake — unenroll from food stamps or Medicaid.

In addition to the 25,000 lost jobs, that scenario would also lead to a loss of $2.2 billion in direct federal funding to the state, and a $3.6 billion loss in rippled effects to grocery stores, doctors’ offices and hospitals, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute.