New York City closed its $2 billion budget gap, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday afternoon in releasing the last quarterly budget of his 12 years in office.
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio will take office on Jan. 1. According to Bloomberg, it marks the first time in “documented city history” that an incoming administration will inherit a balanced budget.
Bloomberg, in a statement, cited cost-cutting among city agencies and the city’s continued economic growth in balancing the $72.7 billion budget for fiscal year 2015, which commences July 1.
According to Bloomberg, the budget includes funding to settle all expired labor contracts by funding raises for employees, starting this year for some unions.
The administration has a standing offer to all city labor unions since June 2010 for new contracts that include three years of no base salary increases after the expiration of any union’s 2010 round of bargaining; 1.25% raises for two consecutive years thereafter; and an mandatory employee contributions toward health care premiums -- 10% for individuals, 20%.
Now, more than 90 percent of City employees and retirees pay zero towards their health care premium and the city covers the entire cost.
But city Comptroller John Liu, who ran successfully in the Democratic primary for mayor this year, said the mayor’s math does not add up. The pro-union Liu criticized Bloomberg for not including retroactive back pay for city workers.
“The facts are clear, not only will the next administration not inherit a balanced budget but it will also be greeted on Day 1 with a fiscal mess of historic proportions 300,000 employees working with expired contracts,” Liu said in a statement immediately following Bloomberg’s. “Mayor Bloomberg’s final budget modification continues to conceal huge fiscal risks and rely on one-shots like selling city property and depleting the retiree health benefit trust. His budget may seem balanced on paper, but the fiscal reality points to multi-billion-dollar budget gaps on the fiscal horizon.”
Moody’s Investors Service rates the city’s general obligation bonds Aa2, while Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s rate them AA.
