September 11: Recent Estimates of Fiscal Impact of 2001 Terrorist Attack on New York
Highlights
In 2002, GAO reported that the New York budget offices estimated that from the terrorist attack, New York City sustained tax revenue losses of $1.6 billion for 2002 and $1.4 billion for 2003, New York State $1.6 billion for 2002 and $4.2 billion for 2003. GAO found some limitations to these estimates, such as that it is likely that they included some of the economic recession under way in September 2001, as well as events after the attack, such as economic fallout from the Enron collapse and accounting firm improprieties. After GAO issued its report in 2002, some New York agencies used revised economic data to assess the attack's fiscal impact. In this context, GAO was asked to update its report to ascertain whether the recent government studies using revised economic data would provide more precise information on the fiscal impact of the terrorist attack. In doing this work, GAO did not independently estimate the attack's impact on New York tax revenues.