De Blasio, City Council Agree On 2017 City Budget
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council have reached an agreement on an $82.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2017.
De Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito sealed the deal Wednesday with the traditional budget handshake at City Hall.
By law, the new budget must be in place by July 1, and the Wednesday agreement was the earliest since 2001. Negotiations had noticeably few sticking points and were settled with little of the public back-and-forth that often marks budget talks.
The budget deal that contains no new taxes and significantly expands spending on a variety of social services, including programs for the homeless, jails and unemployed youths.
"This budget is not only on time, it's the earliest agreement since 2001," said de Blasio, "because the administration and council worked together to produce tangible, timely results for New Yorkers."
The mayor agreed to several council proposals.
An additional $39 million a year is being dedicated for summer youth jobs, allowing the program to grow from 50,000 to 60,000 slots this summer. More than $21 million is being dedicated to libraries, allowing them to stay open six days a week. And the deal includes $22 million in funding a year for all the city's five district attorneys.
The budget's biggest new spending item is a $700 million influx of funding to the city's money-losing system of 11 public hospitals and a variety of clinics and home health care facilities that serves 1.2 million residents, many of whom are uninsured or on Medicaid. The budget also increases funding for the upkeep of the city's public housing system, which is home to more than 400,000 residents, more than the populations of New Orleans and Cleveland.
As the city's economy continues to boom, the budget did not need to include any new taxes or layoffs. But officials stressed that the city is being mindful of a possible economic slowdown and touted that the deal puts away more than $5 billion in reserves.
"This is a budget that New York City should be proud of,'' said Mark-Viverito as she was surrounded by dozens of her colleagues at a news conference with the mayor to announce the deal.
The negotiations in the weeks ahead of the deal lacked any real friction and were absent the drama of the last two years, when the City Council pushed the city to hire 1,000 new police officers. De Blasio initially balked but agreed last June.
The deal now goes to the full City Council for a vote, and it's expected to be approved.
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