What a difference six years make.
That’s how long it’s been since the city’s last budget crunch, which Mayor Bloomberg resolved with a property-tax hike.
This time, we’re pleased to report, the mayor has his priorities firmly in order.
In response to the absence of more than $700 million in state money he’d expected from Gov. Spitzer‘s latest budget, Hizzoner this week told city agencies to cut their budgets for the coming year by 3 percent.
And that’s actually the third round of cuts the mayor’s ordered in just a few months: He ordered a 5 percent trim in next year’s outlays in January (later revised to 4.3), following a 2.7 percent cut for the current fiscal year.
“You can always make do with less,” he explained, echoing a lesson most New Yorkers are no doubt learning in the face of the city’s economic slowdown.
He might have said: You don’t spend what you don’t have.
Either way, howls of anguish are already rising from the usual suspects: “Schools are struggling to absorb this year’s $100 million cut, so how are they expected to take another significant cut on top of the $324 million cut previously proposed for next year?” whined UFT President Randi Weingarten.
Please.
The Department of Education budget stands at nearly $20.1 billion, up nearly 3 billion from only two years ago. Even with the mayor’s rollbacks, don’t expect school outlays to come anywhere close to declining next year.
Indeed, despite the crunch, Bloomberg seems committed to leaving in place his recent 7 percent real-estate tax cut – a smart move, especially in a time of looming recession.
Contrast his prudence to the reckless scheme recently embraced by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who wants to hike state income taxes by up to 3 percentage points for top wage-earners.
It’s such a harebrained plot that even Gov. Spitzer – not always the taxpayer’s best friend – is having none of it.
“I have said that we should not raise taxes,” the gov responded yesterday when asked about Silver’s plan. “That is something that we cannot afford to do . . . When I speak to executives and those who make the decisions about where to locate jobs, the idea that we would turn around at this moment and start raising taxes is the wrong way to go.”
Say it, Eliot.
And keep up the good work, Mike.
Good fiscal sense can be a rare commodity, but we know it when we see it.