The Citizens Budget Commission has offered its take on New York City’s budget for fiscal year 2012, which started last Friday.
According to Maria Doulis, the budget was
a missed opportunity … to address the City’s fiscal problems in a lasting way – one that would … greatly reduce the need to propose other cuts in the future.
New York City’s finances suffer from a structural problem: spending growth is consistently projected to outpace revenue growth, resulting in repeated budget gaps.
While the 2012 budget is now balanced, the financial plan shows a gap of $4.8 billion in fiscal year 2013.
Driving the City’s spending growth are three items: health insurance, pension contributions and debt service. Spending on these items totaled $11 billion in 2005 and is expected to reach $23.1 billion in 2015.
While these expenses will double, the rest of the budget is projected to grow only 25 percent during this period. As a result, spending on the “big three” as a share of the budget will grow from 22 percent to 33 percent of total revenues between 2005 and 2015.
As these items claim a larger slice of the pie, less is available for other priorities. And that means service cuts will continue unless the City changes course.
The CBC offers solutions here. Cost-sharing with workers and retirees on healthcare costs, for example, could save $2 billion by 2015.
You may also like
Hospital Lobby’s TV Campaign Spreads Misinformation About Medicaid
As New York's health-care industry agitates for more money from the state budget, two of its most influential lobbying groups are airing TV ads that make alarmist and inaccurate claims about Medicaid. Read More
Hochul’s ‘Pay and Resolve’ Push for Hospitals Triggers Déjà Vu
Two years ago last week, I wrote in the Daily News about how then-Governor Andrew Cuomo was pushing a costly change to insurance law on behalf of a hospital group that had supported his campaign through a fund-rai Read More
The Looming Collapse of a Long-Term Care Insurer Raises Questions for DFS
As the Hochul administration presses for the creation of a "guaranty fund" to bail out failed health insurers, the state is quietly moving to seize a small company that could be the fund's first target. Read More
Hochul puts Medicaid spending on a steeper slope
Governor Hochul is releasing the brakes on Medicaid, allowing state spending on the safety-net health plan to increase more than twice as fast as it typically did during the Cuomo administration.
Read More
Hochul’s agenda mostly sidesteps health care
Governor Hochul gave health care surprisingly little attention in her State of the State speech on Tuesday – a sign that taking on dysfunction in one-sixth of the state's economy ranks low on her list of priorities. Read More
Federal omnibus deal has big implications for New York Medicaid
The big spending bill heading for a vote in Washington this week would scramble the outlook for Medicaid in next year's state budget, mostly for the better.
The $1.7 trillion federa Read More
New York’s Medicaid costs are soaring at double-digit rates
New York's already high Medicaid spending is growing at a double-digit rate for the second year in a row, recently released state figures show.
After dipping during the first year o Read More
Budget’s Historic Spending Hike Shown in Financial Plan Update
Amidst spiking inflation, a market downturn and recession fears, state spending will soar to new heights under the April budget deal, as per (Plan) that the Governor’s budget office quietly i Read More
Enjoying our work? Sign up for email alerts on our latest news and research.