Tweet
Posted: Wednesday, 31 October 2007 6:08AM
Mayor Bloomberg Imposes Hiring Freeze on NYC Agencies
NEW YORK (AP) -- All city agencies are under an immediate hiring freeze and were ordered by City Hall on Tuesday to make cuts as the city faces future budget deficits and slowdowns in tax revenues.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's budget director, Mark Page, told agency heads in a memo that they must cut expenses by 2.5 percent this fiscal year and five percent the following year, for a citywide projected total of $1.5 billion in budget relief over those two years.
Since the budget was approved for this fiscal year, which began July 1, ``major economic analysts have lowered their national growth forecasts for 2008 significantly and believe that the housing market declines will continue beyond this year,'' Page said.
Locally, he added, the large commercial real estate sales that have recently padded city budgets with giant windfalls in transaction taxes ``have largely disappeared.''
``This slowing of the national economy and the local real estate market has a direct impact on the amount of the city's tax receipts,'' he said.
The city enjoyed its highest-ever surplus of $4.4 billion in fiscal 2007, allowing Bloomberg to include a $1.3 billion tax relief package in the $59 billion 2008 budget. But even as he did that, he warned that the good times were likely to stop rolling soon, because of slowdowns in some tax revenues and other one-time surprise sources.
Page said Tuesday that the city faces budget deficits topping $14 billion over the next three years.
The last time the city ordered a hiring freeze was in October of 2002, amid a post-Sept. 11 economic slowdown.
Diana Fortuna, president of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission, said Tuesday that Bloomberg's pre-emptive actions were smart.
"The mayor's trying to get ahead of the problem so we don't have a situation like we did in 2002,'' Fortuna said. ``The numbers are smaller now, but if you don't act quickly they'll get there.''
Agencies must submit their budget-slimming plans by Nov. 19, and will be under a hiring freeze until those plans are approved, Page said.
``The only hiring that will move forward during this period will be for positions immediately impacting public health and safety,'' Page said.
The freeze will most likely remain in effect until Bloomberg updates his budget plan early next year.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Audio Content and Graphic Content © MMVII WCBS-AM 880.
http://www.wcbs880.com/Mayor-Bloombe...-Agenc/1155358
YOU GUYS THINK THIS MEANS SMALLER ACADEMY CLASS?
Mayor Bloomberg Imposes Hiring Freeze on NYC Agencies
NEW YORK (AP) -- All city agencies are under an immediate hiring freeze and were ordered by City Hall on Tuesday to make cuts as the city faces future budget deficits and slowdowns in tax revenues.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's budget director, Mark Page, told agency heads in a memo that they must cut expenses by 2.5 percent this fiscal year and five percent the following year, for a citywide projected total of $1.5 billion in budget relief over those two years.
Since the budget was approved for this fiscal year, which began July 1, ``major economic analysts have lowered their national growth forecasts for 2008 significantly and believe that the housing market declines will continue beyond this year,'' Page said.
Locally, he added, the large commercial real estate sales that have recently padded city budgets with giant windfalls in transaction taxes ``have largely disappeared.''
``This slowing of the national economy and the local real estate market has a direct impact on the amount of the city's tax receipts,'' he said.
The city enjoyed its highest-ever surplus of $4.4 billion in fiscal 2007, allowing Bloomberg to include a $1.3 billion tax relief package in the $59 billion 2008 budget. But even as he did that, he warned that the good times were likely to stop rolling soon, because of slowdowns in some tax revenues and other one-time surprise sources.
Page said Tuesday that the city faces budget deficits topping $14 billion over the next three years.
The last time the city ordered a hiring freeze was in October of 2002, amid a post-Sept. 11 economic slowdown.
Diana Fortuna, president of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission, said Tuesday that Bloomberg's pre-emptive actions were smart.
"The mayor's trying to get ahead of the problem so we don't have a situation like we did in 2002,'' Fortuna said. ``The numbers are smaller now, but if you don't act quickly they'll get there.''
Agencies must submit their budget-slimming plans by Nov. 19, and will be under a hiring freeze until those plans are approved, Page said.
``The only hiring that will move forward during this period will be for positions immediately impacting public health and safety,'' Page said.
The freeze will most likely remain in effect until Bloomberg updates his budget plan early next year.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Audio Content and Graphic Content © MMVII WCBS-AM 880.
http://www.wcbs880.com/Mayor-Bloombe...-Agenc/1155358
YOU GUYS THINK THIS MEANS SMALLER ACADEMY CLASS?
Comment