State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has warned that New York City’s budget deficit by 2027 could be double what City Hall currently estimates, and his arguments are depressingly strong.
DiNapoli’s office sees the deficit going as far as $13.9 billion in four years, compared to the City Office of Management and Budget estimate of $6.5 billion.
The key drivers behind the growing deficit are new contracts with the municipal unions, the migrant crisis, and the city’s still-lagging post-pandemic recovery.
Mayor Eric Adams’ first contract deal, with the relatively weak DC 37 union, hikes pay by more than 16% from 2022 through 2026.
However, this is likely less than other unions will demand.
The Office of Management and Budget assumes that President Joe Biden will deliver at least $1 billion in support for the city’s outlays on migrants, which will likely exceed $4 billion over the next two years.
However, DiNapoli’s office doesn’t see it, and Biden has not shown the least sign of ending the migrant crisis.
As a result, the city will likely see tens of thousands more newcomers in need of assistance.
Moreover, the Legislature doesn’t show any sign of covering the $1.3 billion a year in new costs it imposed on the city by mandating smaller classes for Department of Education schools.
Additionally, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget plan would make the city pay another half-billion a year to the MTA.
The future of the city’s economy is also a universal mystery. Even if the nation dodges recession this year, the return of office workers is a slow crawl at best.
The city hasn’t seen major job gains until the rest of the country is years into a boom, and nobody sees any national boom in the offing.
Another concern is that sky-high state income taxes, which the Legislature is itching to raise even more, have New York’s share of the nation’s gazillionaires falling fast.
It would have been nice if then-Mayor Bill de Blasio hadn’t spent every possible dollar of federal pandemic relief before he left office, among all the other time bombs he left for his successor.
Adams has found over $3 billion in savings over his first year. Sadly,
he’ll have to keep up that pace for the foreseeable future.
»Tom DiNapoli warns New York City against budget deficit«
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