Briefing on Mayor Bloomberg’s Preliminary FY 2014 NYC Budget, and a Forward-Looking Budget Agenda

March 5, 2013. Part I of the budget briefing on Mayor Bloomberg’s Preliminary FY 2014 NYC Budget makes the following points:

  1. Unemployment remains very high in this historically weak “recovery.” NYC job growth better than the U.S., but considerable hardships persist.
  2. NYC tax revenues have rebounded, but federal and state aid share declined.
  3. State budget choices and pressures continue to squeeze NYC.
  4. City-funded expenditures projected to increase 3.4% in FY 2014, with increases in debt service and health insurance. Most agency budgets are cut.
  5. Over the past five years, in the midst of the Great Recession and its aftermath, NYC inflation-adjusted spending on Human Services has fallen by 8%.

In Part II, a forward-looking, 4-part NYC budget agenda is presented:

•             Combat poverty to reduce the city’s pronounced income polarization;

•             Use city resources to more strategically invest in human and physical capital;

•             Enhance overall progressivity of the city tax structure; and

•             Work with the city workforce to enhance service delivery and to improve productivity to help settle expired collective bargaining contracts.

Briefing on Mayor Bloomberg’s Preliminary FY 2014 NYC Budget, and a Forward-Looking Budget Agenda

March 5, 2013. Part I of the budget briefing on Mayor Bloomberg’s Preliminary FY 2014 NYC Budget makes the following points:

  1. Unemployment remains very high in this historically weak “recovery.” NYC job growth better than the U.S., but considerable hardships persist.
  2. NYC tax revenues have rebounded, but federal and state aid share declined.
  3. State budget choices and pressures continue to squeeze NYC.
  4. City-funded expenditures projected to increase 3.4% in FY 2014, with increases in debt service and health insurance. Most agency budgets are cut.
  5. Over the past five years, in the midst of the Great Recession and its aftermath, NYC inflation-adjusted spending on Human Services has fallen by 8%.

In Part II, a forward-looking, 4-part NYC budget agenda is presented:

•             Combat poverty to reduce the city’s pronounced income polarization;

•             Use city resources to more strategically invest in human and physical capital;

•             Enhance overall progressivity of the city tax structure; and

•             Work with the city workforce to enhance service delivery and to improve productivity to help settle expired collective bargaining contracts.