De Blasio unveils a ‘cautious’ budget plan of over $95B
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
It may be $3 billion higher than the
current budget plan, but Mayor Bill
de Blasio’s $95.3 billion preliminary
city spending plan for 2020-21 takes a
cautious tone, as the city worries about
how Albany will tackle a projected $6
billion budget deficit.
While outlining his projected budget on
Jan. 16, de Blasio said there has been less
fiscal growth for the city this year due to
the $1.6 billion spent on labor settlements
and investments, $270 million in debt services,
$256 million in education mandates
like special education and charter school
costs along with $175 million in criminal
justice mandates including bail reform.
In a statement about the 2020 budget
growth rate, officials said that the city’s
preliminary budget reflects an increase
in tax revenues with an expected growth
rate of 4.6 percent. Officials predict a
much smaller growth rate — 2 percent
— for 2021 revenue, reflecting slowing
local and national economies.
The announcement comes three
weeks earlier than when the Mayor
presented the city’s preliminary budget
last year and five days before Governor
Andrew Cuomo is scheduled to give
details on his own financial plan for
the state. During his Jan. 8 State of the
State address, Cuomo proposed making
localities cough up more money for
Medicaid, which makes up $4 billion
worth of the deficit.
“The situation is very straightforward
and our focus is in one place and it’s
Albany, New York,” said the Mayor, who
added that the “worrisome” deficit was
the largest he had every seen in the state
during his tenure. If Cuomo were to call
for cuts to Medicaid, it would roll back
years of progress to the city’s NYC Health
+ Hospitals system, De Blasio said, which
was close to bankruptcy when he took
office six years ago.
A spokeswoman for the Cuomo, Dani
Lever, was quick to push back against
De Blasio’s assumptions about Cuomo’s
upcoming preliminary state budget, stating
that “we have heard of smoke and
mirrors and political straw men, but
how the mayor can claim he is reacting
to cuts from the State before the State has
even proposed a budget is spreading the
political cream cheese too thick even for
a toasted bagel.”
The bagel and cream cheese reference
was used as a jab to Mayor de Blasio’s
tweet on National Bagel Day (Jan. 15)
stating his preferred bagel was whole
wheat, toasted with extra cream cheese.
The mayor deleted the post and retweeted
his bagel order, but without the word
toasted, as bagel aficionados mocked him
for what many consider to be a sin against
the New York breakfast staple.
The second financial challenge for
the city’s budget is the the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, De Blasio said.
Demands for $3 million in capital funding
and $100 million for Access-A-Ride, a
paratransit service for New Yorkers with
disabilities or mobility issues, would be
denied until a proper audit of the agency’s
culture and operations was done. State
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released an
MTA audit roughly six months ago calling
for greater oversight of the agency’s
contracts.
“We are not going to keep handing
over money unless the money is going to
be used well,” said de Blasio. A proper
audit of the MTA’s culture and operations
would need to be done before the
mayor could agree to “fork over” money
to agency, whose board members are
nominated by the governor.
The mayor did note that he would
he would be willing to spend on things
like $147 million in wages and benefits
for uniform workers, $33 million to aid
resiliency efforts at Rockaway Beach
and Vision Zero, specifically $98 billion
for 4th avenue in Brooklyn to make
the thoroughfare safer for pedestrians,
cyclists and drivers. The city as also set
aside roughly $6 billion in reserves.
“The budget presented today holds the
line on new spending programs, which
is a welcome and positive change, said
the Citizens Budget Commission President
Andrew Rein. “However, it misses
the opportunity to further improve the
City’s preparedness for looming risks—
including potential cuts in State aid or
weaknesses in the economy.”
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