The bond-rating agency Moody’s warned Monday that Mayor de Blasio’s new $73.9 billion budget would increase the city’s deficits in future years.
Moody’s said the budget was a “credit negative” because higher labor costs tied to the recently-settled teachers’ contract would boost the deficit by more than $5 billion between 2016 and 2018.
A City Hall spokeswoman emphasized that there had been “no change in the city’s credit rating whatsoever.”
In a separate move, officials shifted $725 million in funding reserved for the teachers’ contract into the current fiscal year after concerns were raised that their accounting methods ran afoul of state rules.
The unusual shift doesn’t affect the overall teachers’ contract or greatly impact the wider budget, officials said.
They also revealed for the first time that the total cost of the teachers’ contract to city taxpayers will be $8.9 billion through 2021.
Those costs are offset by $2.9 billion in health care savings – for a net cost of $6 billion, they said.