Mayor May Be Leaving Budget Gap with Rising NYPD/FDNY OT

Overtime costs for cops and firefighters are on the rise and City Controller William Thompson doesn't think that the mayor's budget is sufficiently accounting for it. Today Thompson is presenting his report on the budget to City Council and beforehand told reporters, "The city routinely and severely underestimates how much annual overtime will accumulate, and inevitably this widens the budget gap that will need to be closed." Thompson said that the mayor's office is undershooting the OT spending by more than $140 million in a year that saw the city pay out more in overtime than recent ones that saw the blackout, the RNC Convention and sending troops to assist Hurricane Katrina damage respectively. A spokesman for the mayor said that no matter the estimates, the city's budget will be balanced just like any other. Over the weekend, Thompson also compared Mayor Bloomberg's recent comments about the futility of taxing the rich to former President Bush's "trickle-down philosophy."