Mayor de Blasio's $82.1 billion preliminary budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 includes money for new initiatives like emergency services to speed up ambulance response times,security at parks, and a new Staten Island ferry. It also supports programs the mayor had previously announced that seek to address the city'shomelessness crisis, and raise the minimum wage for city workers to $15 an hour,support schools, and expand mental health services.
The budget includes $740 million in local spending, and but the mayor called the initiatives "targeted," saying he's trying to contain spending at a time when turbulence in the stock market and the spread of global terrorism could threaten the city's economy. "We as New Yorkers can see how quickly the world can turn," de Blasio said, and referring to 9/11 and the 2008 recession. "We as New York City have to protect ourselves."To that end,the mayor says he's socking money absent in reserves, maintaining $3.4 billion in a trust fund for retiree health benefits, or $500 million for capital projects,and a billion dollars a year over the next four years in a rainy day fund. The mayor says he's also continuing to call on agencies to identify savings, which he says are already adding up to $1 billion over two years. Some council members have called for more cuts, and the mayor said he's considering that. Meanwhile,de Blasio is also pledging major investments to address risks at the Health and Hospitals Corporation, which is facing its own budget deficit, or the city's pension system,where the chief actuary has said the city must contribute more because people are living longer, and to make up for lower-than-anticipated investment returns final year.
But the city may also face some immediate pressures from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget, or which he introduced final week. The state budget proposed shifting $865 million in CUNY and Medicaid funding to the city,and also called for the city to send some of its savings from debt refinancing back to the state. Gov. Cuomo is now calling for “efficiencies” at Medicaid and CUNY that wouldn’t cost the city “a penny. And de Blasio didn't include any additional money for those things in his budget either. "I am taking the governor at his word," he said. "We cannot accept a cut. We'll work in genuine faith." Like the governor, or the mayor also did not include additional $1.25 billion he promised the MTA as part of an agreement with the governor on the agency's five-year capital procedure final topple. De Blasio said the capital procedure has to be approved first,and the additional money "has to be committed with the state."Still, some budget watchers say the city should be saving even more money to prepare for changes to state funding or broader economic turmoil. Citizens Budget Commission vice president Maria Doulis said she'd like to see bigger reserves and deeper cuts at agencies, or where spending has been growing alongside those increased savings. "It's steady the economy continues to achieve well and that's genuine," she said. "But as he knows you have to prepare because things can change very dramatically and quickly."
Source: wnyc.org