By Forum Staff
The federal government must step up and deliver relief to New York, City Comptroller Scott Stringer said Tuesday as he released his analysis of the City’s Fiscal Year 2021 Executive Budget.
The new analysis of the $89.3 billion budget spotlights the City’s overreliance on reserves and one-time savings, Stringer noted as he renewed his call for the federal government to pass need-based budget relief for New York and other hard-pressed state and local governments. The comptroller also continued his push for City agencies to identify more recurring savings and efficiencies to close the budget gap, protect the social safety net, and support city workers.
The comptroller’s office projects that more than 900,000 New Yorkers will lose their jobs by the end of the second quarter in June—one in five working New Yorkers; the unemployment rate is expected to reach 12 percent this year, higher than the Great Recession; job losses will be steepest in sectors with the greatest interaction with the public, such as hotels and restaurants, and the workers in those sectors are primarily low-wage earners and already among the most vulnerable and economically insecure New Yorkers.
Stringer’s analysis also shows that City tax revenues are projected to fall by $7.4 billion, leaving a budget gap totaling $8.7 billion over the remainder of this year and FY 2021.
And the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund, part of the CARES Act, was not allocated fairly, Stringer said. New York City, with over 170,000 confirmed cases, got just $8,500 per COVID-19patient in the initial federal relief package, while Montana, with 457 cases, got $2.7 million per case.
New York residents and businesses contribute more to the federal budget than they get back than any other state—$35.6 billion dollars more in 2019, according to the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government, Stringer added.
“This pandemic has laid bare the deep disparities that permeate our society. We’re learning the value of a dollar, and why our taxpayer money must be accounted for and directed toward fighting the systemic inequality that is contributing to worse health and economic outcomes for vulnerable communities,” the comptroller said. “Our analysis pulls back the curtain on our City’s budget and presents the reality of our economic outlook. We’re facing the deepest recession since the Great Depression, marked by historic and rapid job losses. In a crisis this severe, the federal government must step up and deliver relief to New York—the economic engine for the nation. Every year New York taxpayers put more into the federal coffers than New York receives in federal dollars, and it is unacceptable for Congress to be passing the buck—instead of passing robust local aid. And as a City, we need to comb through our budget for savings, because every penny counts, and every effort must be made to protect our most vulnerable. When we look back at this time, it must be said that government stood up for our city, marshaled all our resources, and did everything we could to save lives and get our economy back on track.”
Photo Courtesy of Comptroller Stringer’s Office
