It’s official: According to Mayor Giuliani’s latest fiscal plan, the next mayor will face a budget gap of $2.7 billion – which, if it actually materializes, will be $400 million more than the one Giuliani inherited from David Dinkins.
So much for the long term. Unfortunately, the short term doesn’t look so hot, either.
New York’s budget is still balanced, technically. But subtract last year’s leftover surplus, and the city would be running an operating deficit of $400 million, growing to $2.4 billion in the fiscal year that begins July 1. By the time Giuliani’s successor puts together his first fiscal plan, there won’t be much surplus left to work with.
The main culprit: city operations spending, which is up roughly 25 percent over the last four years and would grow another 4 percent next year under Giuliani’s plan….
At an absolute minimum, New York will still be locked into a trend of spending a half-billion or so more dollars than it collects in revenue every year – despite imposing the heaviest tax burden of any major city in the country.
E.J. McMahon, Manhattan Institute New York Post, May 1, 2001