NYC Magazine » New York State budget

MTA Gets Budget Cut, Won’t Raise Fares Till 2011

Igor Derysh — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:08:50 +0000

As the state cuts the budget for every state agency (except the legislature, of course), the fiscally irresponsible MTA will have $140 million less to waste next year.

The agency got its budget slashed by $140 million under the state deficit reduction plan in the legislature, $30 million more than they had expected. Despite the cuts, MTA head Jay Walder has said that he wont raise fares this year and wait until 2011 when the fare is scheduled to go up by another 7.5 percent.

Instead, the MTA is expected to cut services and continuing to ...continue reading

Paterson to Make Emergency Cuts

Igor Derysh — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:39:17 +0000

The state legislature has dragged its feet on budget cuts for more than a month and a half, despite the fact that New York is facing a complete economic collapse. Earlier this week, Governor David Paterson took matters into his own hands, going ahead with a plan that would allow him to make $1.6 billion in budget cuts and absorb any fallout by himself.

Seeing that Albany officials were much more worried about their jobs than fiscal responsibility, Paterson began to push for a plan that some have deemed truly courageous while others labeled as political suicide for ...continue reading

Bloomberg Wants Even More Budget Cuts

Igor Derysh — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:00:26 +0000

While New York Governor David Paterson tries to convince the state legislature to cut $3.2 billion from the state budget, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants to cut an additional $1.7 billion from the city budget.

Mayor Mike has said that he wants to cut $500 million from this years budget and $1.2 from next year’s.

His plan would involve cutting 1.5% of the education budget, 2% from the “uniformed services” (i.e. cops, firefighters), and 4% from everything else this year.

Next year, the education system would have its budget cut by an additional 4%, ...continue reading

Paterson, Senate Debate Budget Cuts

Igor Derysh — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:30 +0000

Despite New York State’s growing $3 billion deficit, state senate leaders did not respond to Governor David Paterson’s speech to a joint session of the legislature as he would have liked.

As New York faces an economic collapse similar to the one in California, state legislators are doing what they have always done, avoiding any unpopular yet necessary actions that could threaten their jobs, while the Governor avoids pushing too much and is all too willing to compromise.

New Yorkers have come to expect the state legislature to avoid any unpopular actions but many are starting to ...continue reading

Paterson Warns of State Going Broke

Igor Derysh — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:30:31 +0000

While the federal economy is showing mixed signals, New York Governor David Paterson is warning New Yorkers that the state will go broke in a month if the state legislature does not cut the $3+ billion from the budget that he suggested.

Of the $3.2 billion that Paterson asked the state legislature to cut, more than $1 billion will be cut from schools and hospitals. Here in New York City, Mayor Mike Bloomberg avoided having to cut the education budget and firing thousands of teachers when he was given federal aid from the stimulus packaged.

The legislature, particularly the State Senate which now ...continue reading