LIU STATEMENT ON MAYOR'S EXECUTIVE BUDGET
City Comptroller John C. Liu stated the following regarding Mayor Bloomberg's FY 2014 Executive Budget:
"The Mayor's Executive Budget for FY 2014 contains some major unwarranted assumptions that risk opening yawning gaps. It assumes that the City will reap $1.5 billion over four years from a taxi medallion sale that for the foreseeable future is tied up in court. It budgets nothing more for municipal-worker pay raises, even as all City unions are working with expired contracts. In all, this represents a holding-pattern budget that gets Mayor Bloomberg out the door, even as it leaves a passel of problems for his successor."
"It's time to change how we approach the entire budget process, so we can create a budget that is truly for the people. We need to move beyond the yearly budget dance over what amounts to a small sliver of our discretionary budget. That means more tax breaks for small businesses while closing loopholes for big firms. It means more resources for schools, libraries, police, and affordable housing, while clawing back subsidies from companies that don't create promised jobs. It means doing more to create jobs for New Yorkers while cutting out the wasteful technology and consultants' contracts. And it means involving the public in the budgeting process, so we can build a better City together."
Background
Liu Proposes "The People's Budget': Time to Stop the Music and End the Annual Budget Dance; Offers Plan to Fund Education, Public Safety, and Restore 'The NYC Dream," April 10, 2013: http://comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2013_releases/pr13-04-052.shtm
Report: "The People's Budget" (.pdf): http://comptroller.nyc.gov/bureaus/opm/reports/2013/NYC-Comptroller-Liu-Peoples-Budget.pdf