New York – Cuomo to Bloomberg Stop Whining about Budge Cuts

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    New York – Gov. Cuomo told Mayor Bloomberg to quit his whining yesterday as Hizzoner railed against “outrageous” state cuts that he said would force him to go ahead with plans to lay off thousands of teachers under the hard-times budget pact approved over the weekend by state leaders.

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    The mayor warned the $10 billion gap-closing plan would almost certainly spur city-government layoffs by slashing hundreds of millions of dollars in state aid without providing relief from burdensome state-mandated expenses.

    “Proportionately, the cuts inflicted on New York City are an outrage,” Bloomberg said. “We are the jewel of the financial crown in New York state. If we don’t keep making investments and improving the quality of this city, then we aren’t going to provide the monies the rest of the state depends on.”

    To that, Cuomo’s spokesman shot back that the final deal would restore to the city tens of millions of dollars in state aid and contended that City Hall had enough cash to cover much of the remaining shortfall.

    “The city Department of Education has a surplus of over $300 million, and the city revenue position has improved so they have much less pressure on their overall budget,” Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said.

    The mayor said the restorations were “certainly not enough to avoid layoffs” and insisted the city had “no extra money.” Earlier, Bloomberg had warned that state budget cuts would force him to fire more than 4,600 teachers.

    Bloomberg and Cuomo also renewed their spat over the elimination of the city’s $302 million share of aid and incentives for municipalities, or AIM. The money was suspended last year by then-Gov. David Paterson and killed outright this year by Cuomo while giving smaller cities a mere cut.

    “We got cut 100 percent,” Bloomberg complained. “Everyone else got cut 3 percent.”

    The governor was having none of that, either.

    “AIM aid to the city was not cut 100 percent,” Vlasto said. “Prudent budgeting would not have counted that as an increase.”

    Many details about the $132.5 billion budget deal were still unclear as lawmakers and staff worked to iron out dozens of unsettled fights, including how communities would divide the $272 million restoration to Cuomo’s proposed $1.5 billion cut to education spending.

    “It’s shocking to see how the Senate Republicans just gave up and completely folded,” said one person familiar with the talks. “The Republicans under Dean Skelos folded like a cheap suit.”

    Read more in NY Post


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    6 Comments
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    sam46th
    sam46th
    13 years ago

    Its not shocking that the republicans folded, its shocking that we had Gov Patterson which you were unable to fold to such a yo yo. States always pass a budget without such a historic circuis last year. FYI this is what leadership skills mean.

    shimonyehuda
    shimonyehuda
    13 years ago

    bloomberg will use any excuse to increase his power

    sam46th
    sam46th
    13 years ago

    And after reading the news yesterday about the overtime pay for the blizzard workers I have to pitty on Bloomberg. I thought he prides himself with accountability.

    DRE53
    DRE53
    12 years ago

    finally, someone has the guts to stand up against Bloomberg

    12 years ago

    Mike, enjoy the taste of your own medicine, you have been cutting and cutting funds from our mosdos with no mercy, now the state is cutting from your educational institutions.

    benny45
    benny45
    12 years ago

    Good job Gov.Cuomo. I love him he’s the best governor we had in New York since Pataki.