Bloomy’s $57 billion budget

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed his $57.1 billion preliminary budget for the 2008 fiscal year, he boasted about the city’s promising financial situation including the lowest unemployment rate in history and vowed to deliver $1 billion in property tax relief to city residents this year.
“If conditions permit, we’ll propose extending that tax cut into the future,” Bloomberg said. “But, with slower job growth and other indications of uncertainty on the horizon, it’s wiser to take a wait-and-see approach.”
While City Councilmember David Weprin, who is chair of the Council’s Finance Committee, said he was very excited about the Mayor’s preliminary budget, he seemed more hopeful about extending the cuts beyond this year.
“At the very minimum I would like to see it continued,” Weprin said. “It’s a permanent tax cut until we change it.”
Bloomberg also proposed eliminating the city’s portion of the sales tax on clothing and footwear with an estimated saving of nearly $140 million and providing $110 million in tax breaks in order to attract and keep small businesses throughout the five boroughs.
In addition to the tax cuts, Bloomberg also talked about preparing for the future by putting $500 million into a Retiree Health Benefits Trust Fund and using $1.4 billion to close the expected budget deficit in 2009 to make sure that the city maintains its current financial position.
Bloomberg also talked about how since he first took over as mayor, he has made educational funding his top priority and he plans to continue to increase funding to city schools.
“We’re now spending $3.5 billion more a year in city tax dollars on our schools than we did in 2002,” Bloomberg said during his weekly radio address. “Now, we’ll add $2.2 billion more to that during the next four years. We’re also planning a $28.4 billion investment in new and renovated schools between now and 2017, so that our students have the classrooms, gyms, libraries, and labs they need for a first-rate education.”
Weprin said he did not see anything in the preliminary budget that jumped out and concerned him, and he was excited about cultural institutions, the Administration for Child Services and the Parks Department receiving extra funding, but there would likely be more discussions.
“I think we’re going to argue about how to spend some of the money because there is a significant amount of money to spend,” Weprin said.