New York City ended fiscal 2010 on June 30 with a $5 million general fund surplus, according to the comprehensive annual financial report released Friday by the city comptroller’s office.
“This past fiscal year saw New York City’s economy begin to crawl out of recession,” Comptroller John Liu said in a release. “However, no matter how well the city performs, our economic growth will be tied to the performance of the nation as a whole.”
With revenues of $62.81 billion and expenditures of $62.81 billion, the city posted a general fund surplus for its 30th consecutive year. The city’s economy shrank in 2010 overall compared to fiscal 2009, but in the second half of the year the economy began to recover, albeit slowly, the report said.
“While the financial crisis has abated and the financial system has stabilized, the banking system remains troubled and the economic recovery has lost momentum,” the report said. “For both the U.S. and New York City, the comptroller’s office foresees a weak and halting recovery, with the unemployment rate not returning to acceptable levels for several more years.”
In September, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered agency heads to find $800 million of cuts in the current fiscal year and $1.2 billion in fiscal 2012 to begin to close a projected $3 billion gap next year.
In another sign of the slow economic recovery, construction spending is expected to drop $3.3 billion in calendar 2010 to $23.7 billion, according to a report released last week by the New York Building Congress, a trade group. In 2008, construction spending reached $31 billion. The group projects that construction spending will rise to $25.8 billion next year and to $28.6 billion in calendar 2012.
The CAFR also summarized the city’s debt issuance in fiscal 2010. The city issued $5.42 billion of general obligation bonds in the fiscal year, $3.42 billion of which was new money. GO refundings of $2 billion will generate an estimated $182.1 million of net present-value savings. Most of the new-money bonds — $2.75 billion — were issued as taxable Build America Bonds. The city had $41.56 billion of GO debt outstanding as of June 30.
The New York City Transitional Finance Authority sold $5.35 billion of bonds secured by income and sales taxes, of which $3.57 billion was new money and $1.7 billion was refunding. The refundings were projected to save $81 million at net present value. The new-money bonds included $1.73 billion of BABs and $250 million of taxable qualified school construction bonds.
The New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority sold $3.14 billion of bonds, including $2.55 billion of new money.
