Here is the Murdoch Street Journal on what he will announce today:
After proposing to slash more than 16,000 government-funded child-care slots, Mayor Michael Bloomberg will release a new budget proposal Friday reversing those plans.
The mayor is also expected to show that the city anticipates business-tax revenue in the next fiscal year to exceed levels prior to the global financial meltdown.
But parents and educators hoping for good news on plans to lay off thousands of teachers may be disappointed: The new budget proposal is essentially the same on that front as a preliminary proposal the mayor released in February, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.
The mayor's presentation comes one day later than expected because of President Barack Obama's trip Thursday to the site of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. The final budget, due June 30, must be negotiated with the City Council.
Mr. Bloomberg is expected to lay the blame for any cuts at the feet of the state and federal governments.
"While the city's economy and fiscal situation continue to improve, Albany and Washington continue to face serious challenges and their cuts are real and will have a serious impact on our budget," Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said in a prepared statement.
Deflecting any criticism Wall Street might face for city budget woes, the mayor plans to highlight a rise in projected business-tax revenue to $5.75 billion in the fiscal year beginning July 1, compared with $5.41 billion in fiscal year 2008, before the financial-sector collapse.
Business-tax revenue this fiscal year is expected to be $5.2 billion.
So tax revenue is up, business tax revenue is expected to exceed the level it was at before the financial collapse, but he is STILL going ahead with the layoffs.
You know, $300 million could float down from the sky during the press conference with a bow wrapped around it that says "To Be Used To Save Teacher Jobs" and Bloomberg would STILL lay teachers off.
He is doing this as a political act.
This is about seniority and LIFO and the union.
This is not about the budget.
This has never been about the budget.
If this was really about saving $300 million dollars, then Bloomberg wouldn't be spending $550 million next year on technology upgrades for schools.
He would delay $300 million of that spending a year and save the teachers.
But he doesn't want to do that.
He wants to have a political fight with teachers instead.
City taxpayer funded spending -- the dollars controlled by the Mayor -- on schools this year: $11.6 billion
ReplyDeleteCity spending on schools for the coming year -- the year with the layoffs: $13.6 billion.
A $2 billion increase from the Mayor.
State and Federal money for NYC schools drops.
So who is to blame for the shortfall again?
Mr. La Vorgna, if indeed you are Mr. La Vorgna - you never address this point about the layoffs: the mayor says he needs to lay off teachers in order to save $300 million, but he is spending $550 million on DOE technology contracts in the next fiscal year
ReplyDeleteWhat's more important to the mayor - computers or teachers?
Judging by his budget, clearly computers.
Because if he really thought teachers were more important, he would delay $300 million of the tech spending for a year and use that to save 4,278 teachers.
But he has CHOSEN not to do that.
He has chosen to spend the money on computers and tech consultant contracts instead.
Your argument that the state and the feds have cut the city's money is NOT relevant to the argument. Sorry, the money is available if the mayor would pull it out of the tech expenditures.
Given the scandals involving Willard Lanham and Project Connect ($3.6 million stolen), the Turkish computer consultants Juan Gonzalez has been reporting in the Daily News (who are marking up labor costs by 600% and passing that cost onto the city taxpayers) or the CityTime mess (which is $700 million over budget and saw six people arrested for stealing over $80 million from the city - $26 million of which was recovered), I would think the mayor would want to be more cautious about who he hands outside consultant contracts to and how much he spends on them.
But he isn't, not at all. He's doubling down on the expenditures and laying off teachers instead.
That was the point of my blog post.
That is the shame of this budget.
Does it suck that Cuomo cut all that money out of the budget and the fed matching funds were lost?
You bet.
But it sucks even more that Bloomberg has decided to continue to spend $550 million on computer upgrades to schools while cutting 4,278 teachers in order to save $300 million.