Heard about Bloomberg's hiring freeze. Smart enough to know the good times are over and existing tax revenues may be decreasing.
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Mayor Bloomberg orders a hiring freeze for all agencies
BY KATHLEEN LUCADAMO
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Wednesday, October 31st 2007, 4:00 AM
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Mayor Bloomberg calls for $1.5B cut from agencies in the next two years. And a $2.7 billion shortfall is projected for the fiscal year 2009.
Mayor Bloomberg calls for $1.5B cut from agencies in the next two years. And a $2.7 billion shortfall is projected for the fiscal year 2009.
Mayor Bloomberg swung his budget ax Tuesday, ordering all agencies to freeze hirings and devise a plan to slash $1.5 billion in spending over the next two years.
Noting that the national economy is slowing and the city's revenues are shrinking, Bloomberg told his agency heads to submit a hit list by Nov. 19 that would cut costs by 2.5% this year and 5% next year.
The city's Office of Management and Budget last week projected a $2.7 billion shortfall for fiscal year 2009, forcing the mayor to cough up a plan to plug that gap by January.
"Until your program is approved by OMB, the mayor has directed that all city-funded hiring be frozen," budget director Mark Page wrote in a memo to department bosses yesterday.
"The only hiring that will move forward during this period will be for positions immediately impacting public health and safety," he added. Officials said those positions would be determined on an agency-by-agency basis.
The freeze is not expected to affect teachers, firefighters and police, Page said, noting that most teachers are hired in the summer and fall. No police or fire graduations are imminent.
Once departments' hit lists are approved, they can start hiring as long as they cut back elsewhere, Page said. Still, he admitted, "It is very likely in achieving the targets, a reduction in workforce is going to be necessary."
Bloomberg and the City Council signed off on a $59 billion budget for fiscal year 2008, which stretches from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008.
But since it was adopted, economists have lowered their forecasts for national growth, citing problems in the housing market. The housing slump will spill over to the city, which is already generating fewer tax dollars from the sale of real estate, they predict.
Real estate woes coupled with a decline in Wall Street and hedge-fund profits are sure to leave the city and state with far less cash than it has enjoyed in the past few years.
"The mayor is right and responsible to say to his commissioners, 'Take a look at your budget, see if there are places in there where there is fat,'" City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.
Although the city annually orders agencies to identify cuts to close gaps, this is the first time it came with a hiring freeze since October 2002, city officials said.
The number of city-paid employees fell to 314,187 this year, down from 316,227 in January 2002, when Bloomberg first came to office, City Hall said.
Budget gaps will balloon to $4.8 billion in 2010 and $6.5 billion in 2011, the OMB projects.
State Controller Thomas DiNapoli also released a report yesterday warning that Wall Street bonuses won't be as high as last year and big corporations will likely cut jobs if their profits don't recover in the next few months.
klucadamo@nydailynews.com |
