Financial Control Board Gives NYC's Finances A Thumbs-Up
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A state board said Tuesday it believes New York City's finances are in good shape.
As WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reported, Mayor Bill de Blasio proudly declared to the Financial Control Board that his progressive government is fiscally sound, and the panel agreed that its oversight powers aren't needed.
One of the biggest budget wild cards was union contracts. When de Blasio took office in January, nearly 300,000 city employees were working on expired labor deals.
Financial Control Board Gives NYC's Finances A Thumbs-Up
"If we can get half of them done in the first year, it would be an extraordinary measure of success," de Blasio told the board.
The city is ahead of that pace now that 60 percent of city workers are covered, de Blasio said.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer also praised the city's fiscal future.
"It would be easy for a new administration to identify new sources of revenue and spend, spend, spend," Stringer said.
But that did not happen.
"We intend to continue to show that a vigorous and progressive program of helping every kind of New Yorker can go hand in hand with a fiscally prudent approach," de Blasio said.
The state created the Financial Control Board in 1975 when the city was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
When the crisis was over, the board gave up its power, but every year it meets to look over the city's balance sheet.
Though one board member raised concerns about the city's plan to pay for retiree health benefits down the road, the panel agreed the books look good.
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