City officials last night reached an agreement on a $70 billion budget that keeps spending relatively flat, restores about a quarter of the steep cut to the city housing authority, and banks on a windfall from selling taxi medallions.
Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn struck the deal on the spending plan for Fiscal Year 2014 — the last of their tenures — at City Hall.
The plan will be voted on by the full council later this week, and should take effect July 1.
Bloomberg boasted that the budget does not raise fines, fees or taxes — although property-tax bills will invariably increase because of a complicated funding formula established in Albany. The council is also likely to vote this week to shift some of the property-tax burden from one-, two- and three-family homeowners to utilities and commercial landowners.
“Our city’s commitment to sound fiscal management and pro-growth economic strategies pulled New York out of the recession faster than virtually any other place in this nation,” Bloomberg said in his 12th and final budget announcement.
In mitigating the most contentious issue of a surprisingly tame budget season, the council restored $58 million of a $205 million federal sequestration cut to the New York City Housing Authority.
That money will spare about 425 of the 500 workers who were set to be laid off, council budget officials said.
It is not enough, however, to guarantee 1,200 families will not lose their Section 8 vouchers for NYCHA apartments, the officials added.
The NYCHA restoration is being spent on keeping most of the agency’s senior and community centers open, or shifting them into the jurisdiction of other city agencies. The centers were on the chopping block.
“This is a win for public-housing residents who rely on those centers,” said Councilwoman Rosie Mendez (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Public Housing Committee.
“I think, long term, there is no win for public-housing residents because cuts keep coming.”
The council also restored cuts to child-care and after-school programs, and the city committed $250 million to capital projects for rebuilding communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
The budget assumes $300 million in revenue from the sale of taxi medallions, which was green-lighted this month after a long court battle over the mayor’s outer-borough taxi plan.
All told, his administration anticipates $1 billion over the next few years from those sales, assuming medallion values increase.
The budget includes no money for retroactive employee raises — though Quinn, who is running for mayor, has publicly said municipal workers deserve pay hikes.
The city’s entire workforce is currently operating under expired contracts.
“On his way out the door, Mayor Bloomberg shows us with this budget agreement that he has left the biggest question — expired labor contracts — for another mayor and another day,” City Comptroller John Liu, another mayoral contender, said.
“Explain to us again why he needed a third term. To pile up the mess?”
Bloomberg has blamed the stalemates on unions, which are clamoring for retroactive pay raises.
Spending plan
* Fiscal Year 2014 budget is $70 billion
* $300 million estimated to be raised through sale of taxi medallions
* $58 million restored to NYCHA, which had sustained a $205 million cut
* $250 million in capital projects for communities hurt by Sandy
* $60 million restored for earlychildhood education
* $2 billion budget gap for Fiscal Year 2015