Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s final proposed budget left a lot of questions unanswered and angered several of the candidates running to replace him.
Term-limited, Bloomberg submitted his $70.1 billion fiscal year 2014 budget to the City Council, where it is sure to be hotly debated. Though the plan, which balances the budget as required by law, contains no layoffs, it does call for the closure of 20 firehouses. It also hinges on a few question marks, such as the city’s ability to reach a deal on teacher evaluations before a new February deadline, the outcome of ongoing Medicaid negotiations, the uncertain surrounding Sandy recovery efforts and the fate of Bloomberg’s taxi plan.
The Mayor blamed the United Federation of Teachers, the teachers union, for failing to agree to an evaluation system with the city by the Jan. 17 deadline that Gov. Andrew Cuomo imposed. $250 million in school aid is being withheld from the city. His budget plans for the possible reduction, through attrition, of 1,800 schoolteachers if the deadline isn’t met. Council Speaker Christine Quinn disagreed with Bloomberg, however, and vowed to fight the spending cuts.
“The Council has serious concerns about the negative consequences reflected as a result of the absence of a deal on teacher evaluations. A further failure to strike a deal would be potentially devastating to our city’s students,” she said in a statement. “The Council is also concerned that the proposed budget would again result in the closure of 20 fire houses, along with cuts to after-school programs, among other areas. As we have said before, we are fully committed to protecting the essential services that New Yorkers depend on.”
In Queens, elected officials like Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and Councilman Eric Ulrich have fought firehouse closures. Unlike mayoral candidates Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, William Thompson and Comptroller John Liu, they did not release statements criticizing the budget.
Liu was highly critical of Bloomberg’s proposal.
“In order to make up the budget shortfall resulting from City Hall’s failed negotiating strategy on teacher evaluations, the Mayor has decided to scapegoat our City’s public school teachers,” said Liu, a former Flushing councilman, in a release. “The real fault, however, lies with his own misguided ideology, which could cost our children over $720 million this year alone. He should look to the DOE’s runaway consultant spending rather than make cuts to the classroom.”
Bloomberg said rebounding profits on Wall Street, a growth in private-sector employment and a record 52 million tourists last year are signs of improvement in the city’s economy. But he said the lingering effects of Sandy and the administration’s failure to broker a deal with the teachers’ union on an evaluation plan have hurt the city’s finances. Without a new evaluation system in place, the city stands to lose $724 million in state education aid over the next two years, Bloomberg argued.
By Ross Barkan