Bloomberg Releases Budget Revisions

Police and fire departments face cuts, pension funds may create fiscal problems

Clark Merrefield

Mayor Michael Bloomberg released a revised financial outlook for the city budget Nov. 6 that is grim for pensions and some social service agencies, but largely maintains the city’s vital functions.

Five months after the City Council passed a budget for Fiscal Year 2009 and roughly a month after global credit markets seized, the city is down $285 million in tax revenue this year from its original forecast, and is down $1.3 billion for fiscal year 2010.

By October of this year, the mayor said tax revenues had started to “fall off a cliff.”

“I will work day and night to help New Yorkers as we address the fallout from the global financial meltdown,” Bloomberg said.

The assets of the city’s pension fund are particularly vulnerable to recessions and market swings since they are invested in publicly traded stocks. Once pension benefits are locked in, they cannot be taken away by legislation or any other means.

The market value of the city’s pension fund has dropped $9 billion this year and is expected to be down $22 billion next year. Bloomberg called Comptroller Bill Thompson’s estimate of 8 percent growth in those investments over the next eight fiscal years a “very high target.”

The city will pay out a combined $16.2 billion in pension and health benefits in 2016, up from $11.2 billion this year. To cover losses, the city may have to contribute $8.4 billion more than expected through 2016.

The mayor will also seek to repeal a 7 percent property tax cut that was extended in June, and not give a $400 rebate to homeowners.

Bloomberg said the police and fire departments can expect some funding reductions, though he added it is a top priority for the city to avoid the economic and social upheaval that followed the financial crisis of the 1970s.

The police department will cancel its thousand-member January 2009 class, and the fire department will reduce the length of its training academy from 23 to 18 weeks, though no fire houses will be closed.

The city will also cut 3,000 jobs from its workforce by 2010 and numerous vacant positions in the Administration for Children’s Services and vacant civilian positions in the police department will not be filled.

The mayor needs approval from the City Council to re-up the property tax. But he indicated that he expects cooperation, saying that agency cuts and revamped tax rates are apolitical and crucial to the city’s economic health.

“Basically these are not partisan issues,” Bloomberg said.

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