By Chelsea Bagley, USCM Intern (compiled from press dispatches)
July 14, 2003

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Gifford A. Miller reached an agreement June 25 on a $44 billion budget that began July 1 for FY 2004. After months of warnings of program cuts, the new agreement will close a $6.4 billion budget shortfall, allowing Bloomberg to upkeep many city funded programs while reducing the amount of cuts to what analysts have been calling the worst financial crisis for the city since the 1970's.

"This year's budget preserves what is most vital to our city. We met challenges head on and have been able to maintain the quality of life while maintaining the city's fiscal integrity," Bloomberg said.

Still reeling from the effects of 9-11 combined with the downturn of the economy and receiving little or no aid from the Federal government has kept New York City in a state of financial crisis. It has been the responsibility of the City Council and Mayor Bloomberg to make an effort to find funding for the essential programs and make cuts and sacrifices to save other necessary programs.

On June 25, for Bloomberg to win the approval of the City Council, he had to abandon the $115 billion in cuts he had planned and an additional $90 billion that he had backed away from earlier this year. The final budget agreement included $90 million in additional City Council restorations and $100 million in funds for schools, libraries, roads and bridges. The deal also saved the regular maintenance of city parks, regular bi-weekly household trash pickup, 11 child health care clinics that would have closed, weekend meals for the elderly and scholarships to The City University of New York.

Some of the cuts that are still set to take place are $22.9 million from the library book budget, $12 million in support for museums and $8 million in elimination of six fire engine companies. In the 1970's the city lost 16 fire companies along with some 2,000 firefighters and many of the fire departments fire code violation inspection teams.

According to the New York City Office of the Mayor website, Bloomberg addressed the largest budget shortfall in the city's history in July 2002 by reducing the first of four agency reduction programs. This plan resulted in an overall reduction of $3 billion in city spending. With the release of Bloomberg's first FY 2004 budget plan in November 2002, Bloomberg relied mostly on cuts and increases in income, property and sales taxes and substantial assistance from State government. The city council passed a property tax increase in December 2002 that aided to reduce the FY 2004 budget shortfall.

Other factors that assisted in reducing the shortfall were the $2.7 billion that the State Government gave and Federal assistance for Medicaid, $230 million, and $650 million from The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). From the Albany contribution $474 million went to education aid and grants, $763 million in taxing authority and $73 million to revenue sharing.

The money will be allocated to the following organizations; Educating Our Children, $8 million to the Department of Education; Keeping New York Clean, $11 million for the Department of Sanitation to maintain bi-weekly garbage pick up; Keeping New York Green, $12.5 million for the Parks Department for park maintenance, hiring seasonal staff aides and playground associates; Engaging Our Children, $12.5 million for the Department of Youth and Community Development for summer youth jobs.

According to a June 27 New York Times article, the programs that have significantly benefited most from this deal have been education and the Police Department. Bloomberg said that the fire department will also be receiving money for new and better equipment to help their efforts in maintaining the quality of life that New Yorkers can and should expect.