Mayor Bloomberg yesterday proposed a $65.6 billion budget for the coming fiscal year, characterized by a sharp increase in spending from city revenues and balanced by a bolt-from-the-blue $2.1 billion in unanticipated tax collections.
And that, together with a host of savings — including nearly 5,000 teacher layoffs and permanently closing 20 fire companies — means the city only needs $600 million to close what once figured to be a $4.6 billion shortfall, he said.
At which point the mayor turned to Albany for financial rescue, seeking restoration of $600-plus million in local aid that Bloomberg says Gov. Cuomo cut.
“If the state does not come through, then we’re going to have to share the pain across all agencies,” he said. “The cuts will be more painful than ever.”
But those claims ring hollow.
For one thing, Cuomo didn’t cut $600 million in local aid to the city. The money wasn’t in last year’s state budget, and Bloomberg’s claim on it is vaporous.
Second, the mayor’s budgeteers found enough local cash to fund a 12 percent hike in locally funded spending — from $44.8 billion to $49.9 billion. This stands in sharp contrast with Cuomo’s proposed 10 percent cut in state operating outlays.
It is true that Bloomberg has less discretion in spending decisions than is healthy. And he makes a strong case for relief from Albany-imposed program mandates that Albany won’t pay for.
Chief among them needs to be a modification of seniority-based teacher layoffs. As the city moves toward teacher layoffs, merit must count more than length of service.
Nothwithstanding Bloomberg’s $2.1 billion in found money — the Wall Street that so many New Yorkers love to hate has been pumping out tax revenue — the fact remains that thousands of layoffs will begin this summer.
And, again, it also remains that quality must come first in workforce reduction.
It must be kept in mind that the document Bloomberg made public yeterday is merely a starting point.
Yes, the mayor is proposing some drastic action.
But overall city spending during the Bloomberg years has leapt up by fully 57 percent, against an inflation rate of just 23 percent, and there is little in his proposal that fundamentally reverses that trend.
Even with the proposed teacher layoffs, the Department of Education’s budget stands to go up by more than $1.8 billion — having soared nearly 50 percent since he took office, largely on the basis of a 16,000-plus increase in the number of education employees and dramatically higher teacher salaries and benefits.
Tough times linger, but the document proposed by Bloomberg yesterday is hardly an austerity budget.
Claims to the contrary during the coming debate must be taken lightly.