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Mayor Bloomberg fired off a stern warning yesterday that the next mayor will have to rein in spending because pension and health-care costs are breaking the bank and residents won’t stand for higher taxes.
As he released his final budget — a $69.8 billion spending plan — Bloomberg pointed out that health-care expenses are expected to jump a staggering 38 percent over the next four years while pensions are consuming $8.3 billion next year.
“The next mayor has to face the fact that our expenses keep going up and the public doesn’t want to pay any more,” Bloomberg declared as he explained the budget for fiscal year 2014 that begins July 1.
He insisted he wasn’t feeling nostalgic about delivering his last budget, but a bit of sentimentality seeped in nonetheless.
The mayor mentioned how he had stood at the same spot in City Hall’s Blue Room 27 or 28 times before delivering each of the city’s new budgets, plus emergency spending updates.
Then, it was all business.
“The news today is, I think, reasonably good, as good as it’s been in a long time,” the mayor began.
With the economy improving, there were no new taxes and no new cuts beyond those put forward in January to libraries, day care, cultural institutions and firehouses that the City Council was expected to restore.
A $1 billion income-tax windfall that materialized this year quickly vanished.
Agencies grabbed $327 million for “new needs,” including $57 million for welfare and $24 million for homeless services. Another $300 million plugged a hole left when revenue from the sales of new taxi medallions was pushed back to 2017 as a court battle continued to block the sales.
But there was no extra money for beefing up the NYPD, something every top mayoral candidate has said is necessary.
Bloomberg turned testy when a reporter asked if the 35,000-officer force was an “optimal” number.
“Of course, I believe it’s an optimal number,” he snapped. “I’ve been doing it. Do you really think I’m putting the city in danger?”
The deficit for fiscal 2015 — the first budget that would be overseen by the next mayor — was estimated at $2.2 billion.
When he took office in the aftermath of 9/11, Bloomberg was staring at a hole of almost $5 billion in a $42.5 billion budget.
Fiscal monitors and fellow elected officials gave the mayor high grades for his overall fiscal stewardship of the city.
But they questioned if he was being realistic by claiming that expired union contracts, some dating back five years, didn’t represent a major problem for the next mayor.
Bloomberg told reporters there was no way the city could come up with $7.8 billion for retroactive pay without raising taxes an unthinkable 25 to 50 percent.
That’s why, the mayor said, there’s no retro on the table. Contract talks have stalled for years.
Bloomberg passed on a chance to reflect on his years leading the nation’s largest city when asked if he felt wistful at his last budget presentation.
“I never look back,” he said.