NYC-WTC_000230744

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

They budget their words Mike & Mark stingy on detailsforfixing looming deficit By JOEL SIEGEL people and causing a reaction in ington will help, and he wants “There is no question that if O DAIO NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT a democracy where people Albany to reimpose a longtime you are going to have a serious i g With nine days remaining in perhaps the most im­ would be up in arms and lobby­ tax on commuters that provided shortfall, the only way to make ' portant mayoral race in a generation, one of the larg­ est issues facing New York has become the one issue ing and denouncing,” he said. “And. being candid,” he add­ more than $400 million a year before it was jettisoned. it up is by doing something with , pension and salaries.” Bloom- :5 the candidates will not touch. ed, “you have 11 days until the election. To go through the pro­ City workers eyed berg said. But he begged off when asked z 1 Public Advocate Mark Green ’ way that city semces'will not be Bloomberg opposes reviving grams and the numbers now is the tax, saying it would hurt the for details. and billionaire Michael Bloom­ affected.” not just possible." “I’m trying to be very realistic. berg are tight-lipped when it Lack of specifics city’s business climate, and he The broad remedies Green said it’s unrealistic to think which is a very difficult thing to comes to the precise ways they Green, a Democrat, and .and Bloomberg have sketched Washington will provide budget do, you know, in the public envi­

s would close a projected budget (Z5 deficit that is expected to bal­ Bloomberg, a Republican, make 'range from seeking unspecified aid. ronment,” he said, “Once you loon to at least $4 billion next no attempt to minimize the bud- savings from city agencies to ob- Both candidates also speak are in office ... it is somewhat year, measures that could affect get problem. taining relief from state and fed- hopefully of winning productivi­ easier. It is easier for a mayor to the lives of every New Yorker. But both candidates refuse to era] budget mandates. ty savings from municipal work­ do it — negotiate things and “I think most of those things go beyond generalities to detail Green said he is hopeful Wash- ers. __ ______ „___ then make them public.” you have to negotiate, and the . how they would achieve the ------------ —--------------- last place you want to do that is huge savings needed. Neither on the front page of the Daily has detailed what services he News,” Bloomberg said. would seek to reduce or elimi- ' Said Green, “It would be real­ nate. And neither has specified ly self-defeating to discuss con­ what sacrifices he would ask of ' o H tingencies which voters will re­ gard as inevitabilities. That is just the way it is.” municipal employees. Both candidates have agreed they would take the relatively ow H The city was bracing for tough pain-free step of imposing hir­ tn 1^ times even before the Sept. 11 ing freezes on municipal work- KJ 'terrorist attacks. The collapse of I ers. but both have also yanked K) the twin towers has accelerated some of the most painful and po- , 0© and deepened the economic tail­ litically problematic remedies S off the table, closing the door. Ki o spin by wiping out tens of thou­ sands of jobs and billions of dol- for example, to hiking taxes on , O businesses and city residents. o O ■ lars in projected tax revenues. The resulting deficits — a Hevesi, who lost to Green in, o the Democratic primary, de­ I $1 billion gap in the $40 billion city budget, a $4 billion chasm' fends the lack of specifics. o For one thing, he says, no one; for fiscal 2003 -—threaten to cre­ ate the worst fiscal crisis since knows the magnitude of the; co the city’s brush with bankruptcy problem. The exact extent of the i co in the mid-1970s shortfalls will depend, in part, “It’s a very serious crisis, one on what if any budgetary assis­ co that can turn into a calamity if it tance Albany and Washington K> is mismanaged," said City Con­ will provide. CO troller Alan Hevesi, a Green sup­ “If you were to be precise now, porter and adyiser^“Th^e is no you would be scaring a lot of

NYC-WTC_000230744