Shortly before 10:30 p.m. Thursday, New York City had a budget for fiscal 2013 in place, on time for the 11th straight year.
The new fiscal year begins Sunday. Comptroller John Liu was expected to certify the budget on Friday as part of his mandate in the city charter.
The City Council passed a $68.5 billion spending plan by a 50-to-1 vote, three days after a compromise between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and council leaders saved after-school and child-care programs, teacher jobs and 20 firehouses.
It calls for no tax increases, but critics say it relies too much on one-shot measures.
“What a government or person spends money on speaks volumes about that person or that entity and what they hold dear and what is important to them,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
Charles Barron of Brooklyn, two days after his one-sided loss to Hakeem Jeffries in a Democratic congressional primary, cast the lone dissenting vote.
Liu warned of a $2.5 billion budget gap that looms for fiscal 2014.
“The comptroller’s office will continue to do its part to ease the city’s budget strains by actively navigating the bond market for further refinancing savings as well as aggressively auditing city agencies for recoverable cost overruns,” Liu said, citing the CityTime payroll system scandal and the mishandled 911 call system upgrade.
“The city must also do more to proactively implement economic policies that boost employment, increase revenues and reduce expenses,” said Liu, whose office proposed a capital acceleration plan to advance projects already approved, along with fixing the city’s personal income tax by cutting local income taxes for many residents.
Also Thursday, the council, voting 46 to 5, overrode Bloomberg’s veto of the so-called living wage bill, which requires most companies doing at least $1 million of business with the city to pay its employees $10 per hour with benefits, and $11.50 without.
Bloomberg has said he might sue over the measure.
“I don’t understand why the mayor would sue, but if he sues we’ll defend the bill, and if we defend the bill we will win,” Quinn, normally a Bloomberg ally, told reporters late Thursday night.
Additionally, the council, by a 47-to-4 vote, overrode a veto of the Responsible Banking Act, a bill creating a board to evaluate banks looking to contract with the city. Another override protected a measure intended to clarify collective bargaining rules for contract disputes between the city and its union workers.
Moody’s Investors Service rates the city’s general obligation bonds Aa2, while Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s each assign equivalent AA ratings.
