Needless to say, it’s morose.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says Gov. David Paterson’s state budget proposal would slice $1.3 billion from New York City, which could result in a workforce reduction of almost 19,000, 8,500 of which would be teachers. The state budget disproportionately affects municipalities, including New York City, and is balanced on the back of the city’s workforce, the mayor said in Albany this morning.
Bloomberg pointed to a proposal that would eliminate the state’s appropriation to homeless shelters, which would effectively slash $55 million from the Department of Homeless Services budget next year. This comes at a time when the city is seeing record number of homeless individuals. The mayor also blasted Paterson’s proposal to completely eliminate state revenue sharing for the city — to the order of $328. Other counties across the state are seeing 1 to 5 percent reductions.
Under this proposal, Bloomberg said the city would have to close 15 senior centers, 500 parks employees would face layoffs (equal to closing recreation centers, pools and beaches, citywide) and 500 soup kitchens would lose funding.
The good news: The mayor did laud the governor’s proposal to tax soda and increase the tax on cigarettes.
We will get a closer look at how these budget cuts affect the city on a micro level on Thursday, which is when the mayor is scheduled to release the city’s preliminary budget, according to his remarks.
Here are his prepared remarks in full:
“Good morning. Thank you, Chairman Farrell, Chairman Kruger, my own State Senator Vice Chair Liz Krueger and members of the committees. Seated with me are Mark Page, the City’s director of Management and Budget, and Micah Lasher, our Director of State Legislative Affairs.
“All of us, at all levels of government, face difficult decisions this year. You and the Governor have the task of balancing a budget that has a $7.4 billion gap between revenues and spending. Projections are for even greater deficits next year and the year after that. The Governor has presented what he calls a ‘budget of necessity.’ We all know that hard budget choices are necessary – but so are fair ones.
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By Courtney Gross on January 25, 2010, 11:44 am
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