NY Budget Cut
...ayor is right to press for economic assistance from these groups to close the city's gap.” Over the last few months, Mayor Bloomberg has asked all New Yorkers to share the sacrifice required to respond to the deepening economic crisis. Many New Yorkers have. Property owners absorbed an 18.5 percent increase in real property taxes, passed last November to raise $1.7 billion. Almost half of this increase was borne by commercial property owners, rather than single family homeowners. Ordinary citizens and businesses are coping with an array of higher fees and diminished services. The federal government has contributed Federal Emergency Management Funds to assist the city's budget crisis. (Offerman, Gazette) Mayor Bloomberg is asking for help from three groups that have not offered any so far. The first group is the commuters that work in New York City but live somewhere else. The second group is New York States Leadership. The third group is the city’s Labor Unions. Commuters that work in NYC and live somewhere else account for almost one fourth of the city’s workforce, and usually hold higher paying jobs than the city residents. Since 1999 these commuters personal has not been counted towards the city’s personal income tax. Bloomberg thinks that the NYC commuters should help out with the cost of services that they use. Albany is a key factor in Bloomberg’s budget. He is counting on them for assistance and if he doesn’t get it, he is going to have to figure something out. For example, he would like the Metro Transit Authority to take over the private bus lines in New York City. He also says Medicaid cost containment is critical to assist not only New York City, but all other county governments in the state. In other words, he wants to limit payments to hospitals and nursing homes and restrict eligibility for long term care to most of the elderly. Some people don’t agree with Mayor Bloomberg’s budget proposal. Economically, the city has already taken steps to reduce spending. Most agencies have had their city funded spending reduced. So far, the city has been able to cut down their spending without a major effect on existing services. As the budget shows, that will become harder to do as the spending reductions grow in the programs and services areas the city can control. What the Mayor doesn’t know is that even under his proposal to cut an additional $695 million in agency spending, the total city spending would continue to grow. That is because some of they key factors of the budget are out of the city’s control. One of these key factors is Medicaid. According to the Independent Budget Office’s most recent estimate, Medicaid spending will rise by $330 million in 2004 and total $4.2 billion....