Proposed Deeper Cuts To New York Services A Mere Beginning

On Thursday, the Financial Control Board of New York State warned that cuts that are proposed to services in New York City this year are only the beginning of much deeper and more extensive reductions to follow in upcoming years.

The board said that the proposed budget from Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor, shows that the city has to stop capital debt from rising and curb growing health care and pension costs or it can expect even steeper budget reductions in the years coming up.

Jeffrey Sommer, the executive director of the board, said that cuts are going to keep getting worse than those already made by the Mayor. The speed of the economy’s recovery is not fast enough to close the spending and deficit gaps in the city’s budget.

The proposals for this year include making up shortfalls in the budget by putting thousands of teachers in the city out of work as well as reducing library hours and closing some fire stations. The Financial Control Board warned New Yorkers that around $1 billion in additional budget cuts would be necessary in next years budget.

The boards report is prepared annually by a staff of analysts and economists and is supposed to be politically impartial but it does agree with both the Mayor’s and the governors agendas.

City Hall has stated that costs such as health care, pension contributions, debt service and court settlements and judgments are predicted to grow annually by eight percent.

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Posted by Mai Lee on Mar 25 2011. Filed under Business Financial News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.