By Hadassa Kalatizadeh
A new analysis from a fiscal watchdog group claims City Hall is obscuring the scope of NYC’s budget crisis.
As reported by the NY Post, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s budget is counting on $1 billion in recurring savings from the Big Apple’s labor unions — but these concessions have not yet been agreed to. The Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) said that the city hasn’t even publicly presented a plan with which to reach this goal. “I look at this as a fake part of the budget. This $1 billion in labor savings is a fiction until they come up with a plan,” said Andrew Rein, head of the budget watchdog group. “Fictional savings in the budget is masking the depth of the problem.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio has listed the $1 billion in savings, which is not yet a reality, to keep the city’s explosive budget deficits in check, not just this year but for the next four years. For 2022, the labor savings keeps the $92.3 billion budget from dipping into the red, says the CBC. If the labor cuts don’t materialize, in 2023, City Hall’s deficit will expand to $5.3 billion, instead of the $4.3 billion currently projected. Without the $1 Billion gimmick, the budget for 2024 and 2025 similarly jump, and those budget gaps may surpass $5 billion, as per CBC’s analysis.
Amid the pandemic, which obliterated NYC’s revenue stemming from property taxes, Mayor Bill de Blasio has come under pressure to cut costs and payrolls to balance the budget. For months the mayor has been pining for Federal aid, which has been stalled. So, his administration’s simple solution was to defer $722 million in labor costs from the 2021 budget to 2022, which municipal unions agreed to in exchange for short-term promises from the mayor to stop laying off city employees.
The city’s fiscal woes are far from over, with heavy declines in property tax revenues to continue, and receipts slated to plunge by roughly $2.5 billion in 2022 alone. Critics have said that the plan is just a way to hold over the city’s fiscal problems for the year, until the mayor’s term ends.
“In the face of declining tax revenues and billions in unplanned spending to fight the pandemic, we balanced the budget, remained focused on saving taxpayer dollars, and reduced the City’s payroll without laying off a single employee,” said City Hall spokesman Mitch Schwartz, in a statement. “All the while, we’re expanding our vaccination efforts and proving that we’re going to rebuild this city with a recovery for all of us.”
