By Sarina Trangle
Queens’ elected officials raved about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s executive budget, but it was greeted less graciously in accounting offices.
De Blasio unveiled his $73.9 billion financial proposal last week, highlighting savings in a new contract expected to be ratified by the United Federation of Teachers as well as the $300 million he secured from the state for universal pre-kindergarten next year.
Queens legislators were quick to praise the plan for avoiding the so-called budget dance initiated by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, where the administration proposed steep cuts and the City Council spent months negotiating their restoration.
But Monday the mayor and city Comptroller Scott Stringer released a statement explaining that $725 million in retroactive pay agreed to in the tentative UFT deal had to be consolidated in the upcoming 2015-16 budget plan rather than spread across four fiscal years as initially planned.
The amendment was required to ensure de Blasio’s budget complied with the generally accepted accounting principles that state law mandates must be followed.
Moody’s Investors Services evaluated the budget as “credit negative.” The rating agency countered de Blasio’s estimations that the terms agreed to by the UFT would save the city $3.4 billion in health care costs and bolster the health stabilization fund by $1 billion if extrapolated to the more than 150 other city unions still without a contract, saying the move would triple the city’s forecasted budget gap by fiscal year 2018.
The analysis did not temper many elected officials’ enthusiasm for the budget.
Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) said there has never been a UFT contract during his tenure on the Council. Borough President Melinda Katz said the comptroller’s intervention shows the checks and balances of city government function.
Van Bramer singled out $20 million allocated for arts education in schools as a “significant investment.”
The Queens library system’s $83,371,862 expense budget remains on par with its prior year’s funding, Katz said.
The executive capital budget currently sets aside $875,600 for projects in borough libraries, compared to $11,944,401 written into the executive budget last year. But the libraries’ capital allocations grew to $41,096,401 before the budget was adopted, indicating the borough president and Council members have successfully altered allotments.
Individual lawmakers and the borough president often direct discretionary capital funds toward library work as well.
Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) said he, his colleagues and Katz would work to ensure the library doesn’t get less capital funding because of concerns about its president’s compensation, second job and oversight of capital projects.
“You can’t throw the baby out with the bath water in this situation,” he said. “We can’t go back on that social contract.”
Queens Delegation Chairman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) said he expected a non-contentious negotiation season, noting the borough’s lawmakers seemed to have most priorities addressed. Adequately and more equitably funding the district attorneys’ offices remained a discussion, he said.
Industrial Business Zones are facing a nearly halved budget of $578,203 for organizations charged with administering the program, according to Jean Tanler, coordinator with the Maspeth Industrial Business Association. The cuts could be particularly harsh for the Ridgewood IBZ, which was created last year.
“The IBZs are home to hundreds of thousands of stable, quality jobs,” Tanler wrote in an e-mail. “Nurturing the growth of high-quality industrial and manufacturing jobs in New York City is key to achieving the mayor’s goal of closing the gap.”
Similarly, Katz said she would be pushing for funding to extend the Rockaway ferry beyond its current October deadline, eyeballing a total of $5 million to $8 million per year.
Perhaps the biggest battle will be over member items, or discretionary funding primarily directed to neighborhood nonprofits and community organizations.
Every Council member interviewed said access to these funds was critical. But De Blasio said during a budget briefing that he sought to curtail the practice and considered this a “respectful disagreement.”
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
