Bloomberg Says He Loves $760 Million He's Spent On CityTime Boondoggle

Even as he releases a list of teachers he plans to lay off at the end of the school year, closes twenty senior citizen centers, closes additional firehouses and slashes the city budget to the core - all in the service of saving the city money, of course - Mayor Bloomberg says the $760 million+ he's spent on the CityTime payroll project was worth it:

The scandal-plagued CityTime payroll project is now "way ahead of schedule," Mayor Bloomberg boasted Monday.

Hizzoner's claim came as he defended computerizing city operations despite software problems.

"We said it'd be done by June," the mayor said. "Last time I checked in two weeks ago, we're way ahead of schedule."

The $700 million system to put 175,000 city workers on electronic timesheets instead of paper is years overdue, cost more than 10 times its initial budget, and has led to seven arrests for what prosecutors call an $80 million fraud.

Bloomberg said the corruption was an outrage, but that it wouldn't deter him from pushing New York government into the computer era.

"We're going to take on more and more of these projects," the mayor said. "What a shame it would be if we walked away because we're afraid of a bad story."

Bloomberg spoke at a new consolidated data center in Brooklyn's MetroTech complex, where 40 agencies will host their email, databases and other computer tasks in gleaming new racks of equipment over the next four years.

The center will replace aging computer centers scattered among city offices, which Bloomberg said will save $100million over five years while also improving safety and security.

What's the problem if the project is years overdue, cost 10 times the original budget, and saw seven people associated with it arrested for stealing $80 million dollars - it's STILL a wonderful idea and dammit, he'd do it again!

Oh, and by the way - the city's broke, so we're laying off lots of teachers.