New York Mayor Spells Out His ‘Doomsday’ Budget Plan

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Tuesday announced a $44.5-billion budget plan for the fiscal year starting in July, including a “doomsday” scenario that could result in 10,000 municipal workers being laid off.

Under the plan, designed to slash $1 billion from the city’s budget, some firehouses would be closed -- as would all of New York’s outdoor pools and recreation centers. After-school programs would be eliminated, and police staffing would shrink to its lowest level since 1993. Sanitation workers would be laid off, affecting street cleaning, garbage collection and snow removal.

The plan even calls for shutting two zoos.

“It’s not a scare tactic,” Bloomberg said at a news conference called to discuss the city’s looming $3.8-billion budget gap. “This is our insurance policy if we don’t get what we want.

“The cold reality is that we have to balance the budget,” he said.

Financial analysts said the mayor’s remarks were designed to send a strong message to New York Gov. George E. Pataki and the state Legislature that there could be dire consequences if additional funds for the city aren’t made available.

Bloomberg also made it clear to municipal unions Tuesday that there would be layoffs on top of the 4,500 previously announced job cuts unless leaders agree to concessions. Discussions so far, the mayor said, have yielded only $20 million in what he termed “real savings.”

“The bottom line is, we did not get the help we needed,” the mayor said. “In the end, it is Albany and the labor unions that we have to depend on.”

During his news conference, the mayor referred to the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, when New York teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.

Default was narrowly averted when some corporations prepaid taxes, the Ford administration agreed to loan guarantees -- stretching out some municipal debts -- and New York state and the unions lent a hand as well.

But now the state, facing its own budget gap of $11.5 billion, is in a far weaker position to help.

Bloomberg estimated that reinstitution of a commuter tax, which would require legislative approval, could bring $1.4 billion to the city. The mayor also suggested higher income taxes for wealthier New Yorkers.

While the city’s long-term economic future remains bright, Bloomberg said, the present contains a host of problems. Wall Street, which is a major source of tax revenues, has not recovered from the trauma of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and is suffering amid the current economic downturn. Tourism continues to lag, and some hotels are filling their rooms by cutting rates.

Last year, the city lost 117,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is 8.8% -- the highest in four years.

“The economy is not coming back,” Bloomberg said.

His office already has announced plans for budget cuts totaling $600 million for the 2003-2004 fiscal year -- including reducing the number of fire marshals by 25%, eliminating 767 school aides, closing 12 of 30 child health clinics and ending home weekend meals for 7,500 senior citizens.

“The challenges we face today, and the solutions we find, will define our city for generations to come,” Bloomberg said. “We must not pass the burden of spending today onto our children.”