By Alex Davidson
The Police Department will hire 300 more traffic agents instead of laying off officers to raise funds by handing out more tickets, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday in a budget address.
His new budget plan focused more on hoped increases in state and outside aid rather than deep service cuts.
Bloomberg said he hopes the traffic agents will raise some $69 million by issuing 1.7 more parking summonses in congested areas to raise revenues for the city that is attempting to close a $3.4 billion gap in next year’s $44.1 billion budget. The fiscal year budget for next year begins July 1.
“We have reduced city spending by $2.6 billion,” he said of budget cuts implemented so far. “I don’t know that anybody has cut that amount from any municipal government.”
Bloomberg said he is seeking about $1.7 billion in state monies for budget relief, primarily from a commuter tax and education funds. He said the new budget could be balanced and the gap narrowed if increased state aid, higher city fees and small service cuts all come through.
The Republican mayor who came to office with years of experience as billionaire entrepreneur said the commuter tax would raise $1 billion by charging suburban commuters city income tax. The mayor also is banking on $400 million in federal and state aid that the city may never fully receive.
“I think, realistically, some things will go wrong, but not everything,” Bloomberg said.
Gov. George Pataki, a fellow Republican, is proposing deep cuts in the state budget that would jeopardize the numbers Bloomberg presented and could force the mayor to re-evaluate his dependence on state aid.
The mayor said he is also counting on concessions from the city’s labor unions to help him save $600 million.
Both the commuter tax and labor concessions are considered unlikely to materialize because of the governor and Legislature’s opposition to tax increases and recent strike threats from city unions.
Among planned increases for city services, Bloomberg hopes to raise the marriage license fee from $25 to $39, sanitation fines from $50 to $100, and fire insurance premiums from 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent.
Reach reporter Alex Davidson by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 1-718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
