From The Mayor’s Desk...

From The Mayor’s Desk...

Working Together To Keep City’s Fiscal House In Order

Last Wednesday, our administration and the City Council reached an agreement on New York City’s $44 billion budget for fiscal year 2004. We all shared the sacrifices that made balancing the budget possible in such difficult financial times. We did it responsibly. We did it compassionately. And we did it together.

This year’s budget preserves what is most vital to our city. We faced the difficult challenges head-on and have been able to maintain our quality of life while meeting our legally mandated responsibility to balance the budget. We closed a $6.4 billion budget gap, the largest in the city’s history, while keeping our streets safe and clean, working to improve the education of our children, beginning the largest housing program in a generation, and protecting the City’s most vulnerable. We did this while cutting expenditures by more than $3 billion and maintaining the city’s ‘A’ bond rating. That’s a vote of confidence in our fiscal plan. It also will ensure that when the City borrows for big projects in the future, it gets to do so at an affordable rate.

The budget process, which is never easy, was particularly difficult this year in light of the weak national economy and the lingering effects of the attack of 9/11. But when difficult decisions had to be made, the City Council stood up and did what was right. And I’d like to thank Speaker Gifford Miller, and the entire City Council, for their courage, hard work and commitment on behalf of the people of New York City.

I’d also like to thank the State Legislature and the State Senate, particularly Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, for doing what was right for the City of New York. Their actions made it possible earlier this month for the Administration to restore some $90 million to the budget to fund such crucial services as twice-weekly garbage pickups and park and playground maintenance. And it set the stage for the budget agreement the Administration worked out with the Council last week.

That agreement shows what can be achieved when people work together. For example, the Council is now ready to work with the Administration to reduce the out-of-control tort judgments and settlements that taxpayers have been forced to pay because of slips and falls on city sidewalks. Now, landlords will have to assume more responsibility for maintaining sidewalks, and the City will only be responsible for its fair share of liability.

In finalizing this budget, there have been sacrifices and no one got everything he or she wanted. But in very difficult times, we’ve passed a budget that both keeps New York’s fiscal house in order and protects our quality of life.