City budget's a wrap, with $52.6 billion tab

Mayor and Speaker Quinn make nice over spending plan that goes to Council

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

By HEIDI J. SHRAGER

ADVANCE STAFF WRITER

With the sun setting on both the current fiscal year and the steps of City Hall yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn sealed the $52.9 billion 2007 budget with a kiss and a hug, signaling the transparency and collaborative relationship both have promised to bring to the annual high-stakes fiscal wrangling.

"It is clear that we share a lot of the same priorities, and that we both understand that balancing long- and short-term interests is absolutely essential for protecting our city's future," said Bloomberg in the joint announcement with Ms. Quinn, as nearly the entire 51-member Council stood smiling on the steps above them.

The budget is expected to be voted on and passed by the Council tomorrow, a day before Friday's deadline, and two days before the 2007 fiscal year begins, on July 1.

The agreed-upon final number is $233 million higher than that released by Bloomberg in May, and doesn't include the $3.5 billion surplus from the current year -- fueled by an unexpected revenue windfall, mostly from real estate taxes. That surplus will be used primarily to balance the 2007 budget.

Nor does the final figure include $1.8 billion the mayor is using -- in an unprecedented act of fiscal prudence -- to retire debt early, set up a retiree health benefits trust fund, pay for capital projects up front rather than with borrowed money, and other long-term savings.

Taking that money off the table won Council support even though it simultaneously limited its bargaining power. Of a spending wish list that totaled more than $800 million, the mayor ultimately granted $233 million, repeating his warning that the city faces multibillion-dollar deficits in 2008 and beyond as Wall Street profits fall and the housing market cools.

RESTORED CUTS

Still, the higher budget number reflects Bloomberg's agreement to restore cuts to cultural institutions, libraries and social services.

He also has granted a small number of Council requests for new citywide initiatives, including 2,000 more seats for full-day universal pre-kindergarten; 18,000 bulletproof vests for police officers, and efforts to fight hunger and child abuse throughout the city.

Bloomberg also is sticking to his original budget promises for a $400 property tax rebate for the third year in a row, school construction that will yield 66,000 more classroom seats, infrastructure investments in the former home port site, and an extra 1,200 police officers on the streets.

Finally, in a sign that Bloomberg is taking seriously Ms. Quinn's demands that the Council have a more powerful role in the budget process, the mayor agreed for the first time to protect three Council spending initiatives from annual cuts in the so-called "budget dance."

In that yearly tradition, the mayor slashes funds for valued citywide services, such as libraries, while expecting the Council to fight for -- and win -- their restoration. Council members then unwittingly end up with less time and leverage to ask for new initiatives.

Those permanently funded initiatives are $40 million, to keep libraries open five days a week; $10 million for the city summer jobs program, and between $3 million and $4 million for trash collection four days a week from neighborhood wire garbage receptacles in the outer boroughs.

"We're sending a message that those programs will not, as a matter of course, be cut every year," said Ms. Quinn, adding that the mayor's step moves the city "toward a budget process that is more thoughtful and does a better job protecting the needs of our taxpayers."

SPENDING DEBATE

The agreement caps negotiations not only between the mayor and the Council but among individual Council members in deciding which of their requests are forwarded to the mayor. They have spent the last several weeks debating their own spending initiatives, asking for upwards of $400 million as a group.

Councilman Michael McMahon (D-North Shore), for instance, asked for -- and got -- funding for the wire basket garbage collection, which the mayor made permanent.

Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) successfully fought for $2 million in funds to hire more inspectors and plan examiners within the Department of Buildings, and $1.4 million for citywide colonoscopy screenings for uninsured patients.

And Councilman Andrew Lanza (R-South Shore) requested -- but did not get -- $2 million more for the Health Department to study elevated cancer rates in the city and $1 million to fund the Department of Education's ability to notify parents of convicted sex offenders in their neighborhoods. Lanza said he was confident the city would pursue those initiatives anyway.

Oddo, McMahon and Lanza all praised Ms. Quinn's performance in advancing the Council's priorities.

"Speaker Quinn has a lot to be proud of," said Oddo, noting that she jumped into a budget fight having been in office for only six months. "It's not an easy process."

Ms. Quinn was not able to win the $12.9 million she had asked in additional funding for district attorneys' offices. Nor was she granted new tax relief she had proposed in April for the working poor and small businesses.

Most agreed that the process was calmer than perhaps it has ever been. To conclude his remarks, Bloomberg turned to Ms. Quinn and added, "It is a pleasure working with you, and I look forward to standing here next to you for three more budgets."

Close Window