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The Mayor and City Council agreed on a $59 billion budget that will use $4.4 billion in surpluses to offer tax breaks as well as more library hours and funding for CUNY. Highlights:
- A 7% across-the-board property tax cut, in addition to a $400 rebate
- No more city sales tax on clothing or shoe purchases over $110 (there's still state and commuter tax, of 4.375%)
- Libraries will be open one more day, up from five days a week to six
- $21 million to CUNY to retain and hire professors
- $1 billion for a new police academy (no word on a police contract that attracts recruits, though)
- Bulletproof vests for auxiliary police officers
- $200 million to "transit projects, bike paths, tree plantings and other environmental initiatives"
- $2.3 billion to reduce debt in 2009 and 2010
While Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn may have been double-kissy about the deal, Quinn did not get the $300 rebate for renters she had hoped for; still she said, "Sometimes you put ideas out there and it takes more than one budget cycle to get them implemented." The budget goes into effect July 1.
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I'm not a "law-and-order" sort of person, but it's unconscionable that there's no money earmarked to increase the starting salary of NYPD officers ($32,000), yet we're going to spend a billion dollars for a new academy.
why no renter's rebate??
i was looking forward to automatically adding $25/month to my tenants' rents at lease renewal..
booo
sincerely
-greedy landlord
"to retain and hiring professors"
boo.
to retain and hire professors = much better.
I agree with matukonyc. When Ray Kelly first became commissioner, he set out to upgrade recruitment. Recruits were required to have at least two years of college or military experience. This was to root out the Long-Island yo-yos (sorry for the generalization, yo-yos come from all over, moving on) that were very prevalent on the force, and that usually went out of their way to avoid doing anything. Kelly (and later Bratton) were able to do this because they were able to offer better starting salaries and employment packages.
As those packages have decreased, the requirements have had to be scaled-back. No more college requirment, no more military requirement. And as a result, you are seeing an increase in sloppy police work (witness the Puerto Rican Day Parade and the stroller-in-the-water incident where the cop wouldn't help because he was on "fixed duty.")
I know the contracts have been signed and the city would be foolish to reopen negotiations now, but if suddenly we're awash in cash (I'll believe it when I see it) then some money should have been earmarked for this.
Why the continued angst over the starting salaries of cops? Obviously the police don't have much of a recruitment problem. And nobody embarks on a career based on the first year salary. You make the decision based on likely future salary and benefits including pension. Even the police don't make much of an issue over it. If it was so important they would demand a change in their contract negotiations. But they don't because they know more money to the rookies means less to the veterans. It's the same principle as rookie salary caps in sports. Of course the union votes for it because it doesn't affect the guys in the union! It affects the guys in college.
Yay for additional CUNY funding!
-CUNY alumna
the police union agreed to these salaries, so no the mayor should not arbitrarily increase their wages. unlike fire which spread the increases through the ranks, the police instead gave salary priority to senior officers instead, thus the low starting salary... its not a budget issue, its selfishness on the part of the police union.
Let me get this straight: a $44.4B surplus, and only $200M for transit and environment?
Bring the MTA back under city control and fund NYC subways serious capital needs with the surplus.
And forget about hiking subway fares to $3 forever . . . drop them back to $1!
I was #8. Correct that to $4.4B, typo.
#5:
I don't have the figures in front of me, but recruitment is down in the NYPD's ranks. And it's not simply an issue of recruitment numbers, but of quality.
When NYC is paying $32,500 at the completion of the academy, and places like Nassau and Suffolk are paying up to $57,000 at the same level (in Suffolk), it will hurt the quality of officer that is put out on the streets. Additionally, people working in mid-level jobs, making $40-50K a year, who might consider a career in law enforcement, are dissauded from doing so by the financial loss they'd face.
I agree with #7, the union made some mistakes in negotiating with the city. However, with a surplus in the budget, now is the time for the city to step up. New York is the safest big city in the country -- but it could be even safer, and relations with the community could be better -- if the NYPD had the resources to recruit better.
As Bloomberg said (with regards to the congestion pricing initiative), I paraphrase, "If not now, with this surplus, then when?"