THERE’S going to be one overriding issue weighing down Mayor Bloomberg’s third term, and it’s going to affect every nook of his government.
Get ready for Monumental Budget Crisis, Part Two.
You’d hardly know it from the campaign, where the issue was largely ignored, but the city faces a $5 billion budget shortfall in fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1.
The mayor managed to get through the 9/11 budget crisis with an extraordinary loan to pay operating expenses and by raising every tax in sight.
But he paid the political price.
By February 2003, his popularity rating was a dismal 32 percent.
And this time, Albany is in far worse shape than eight years ago. Sweeping state cutbacks, which are inevitable, will certainly expand the city’s deficit ever further.
And $4 billion in federal stimulus funds that flowed to the city will start running out in 2011.
A source cast doubt on Bloomberg’s pledge not to raise taxes next year.
“That’s going to be difficult to pull off, but not impossible,” said the source.
Bloomberg has ducked questions about possible layoffs, but they’re certainly in the cards if municipal unions don’t provide added relief on ballooning health-care and pension costs.
The cooperative City Council, on which the mayor has depended to push through legislation, won’t be as compliant with the addition of new members.
Add it all up and it’s not a pretty picture for a mayor looking to solidify an eight-year legacy with exciting new initiatives and bold government strokes.
Still, Bloomberg retains enormous power and he’s demonstrated an ability to recover from the political abyss, with popularity ratings now at a respectable 61 percent.
A staff shake-up is already in the planning stages, with at least a half-dozen commissioners expected to be invited to leave.
“I doubt it’ll be a full-scale housekeeping,” said one person in a position to know.
The new faces will inject a dose of fresh thinking into the administration, which has seen limited turnover. Bloomberg also has something going for him no other third-term mayor ever had or could hope for: He’s the city’s wealthiest individual.
The benefits that accrue with that lofty status are numerous, seen and unseen.
Critics lambasted Bloomberg when he said he needed a third term to help guide the city through difficult economic times.
Now he gets to do it. Be careful what you wish for.