Borrowing authority was last granted to the city after 9/11, when the city was given permission to borrow $2.5 billion.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, who chairs the Financial Control Board and the state Legislature, have been reluctant to support borrowing.

The Citizens Budget Commission has proposed a number of steps to make savings and raise revenue, including introducing “a small, temporary tax increase” to balance the budget.

Both Cuomo and de Blasio are on the same page with tax hikes, however, fearing that an increase in taxes could drive high-income residents out of the state.

The MTA has placed a $12 billion, all-or-nothing bet on a bailout from the federal government.

But budget watchdogs and some of the transit agency’s own board members are pushing the MTA to look beyond Washington for salvation from a pandemic-driven economic crisis that’s alternately been described by officials as a “fiscal tsunami” and a “five-alarm fire.”

”Absent a miracle in the next few weeks, the MTA is not going to get the $12 billion of funding it needs,” said Denise Richardson, vice president of research at the nonprofit Citizens Budget Commission. “So, what’s the plan?”

“As we get ready for in-person learning, we’ll stop at nothing to ensure principals, teachers, and school staff have the protections they need to stay safe and prepare for the school year,” said Miranda Barbot, spokesperson for the DOE, in an email. “While we continue to navigate the realities of a pandemic, there will be positive cases—we are putting people’s health above everything else by quickly identifying and isolating positive cases, which is a leading effort to prevent transmission.”

While the DOE didn’t explicitly state what happens to the P.S. X811 building during the 24-hour closure, in the spring before schools shut down they cleaned buildings and contact-traced among school communities where cases were reported.

Barbot said the 19 confirmed cases come out of 15,000 DOE employees who have been tested so far, as teachers came back to classrooms this week to prepare for the September 21st first day of school. The DOE has some 146,000 employees total, according to the Citizens Budget Commission.

Any authority for New York City to borrow for operating budget gaps related to COVID-19 should come only with oversight from a reactivated New York State Fiscal Control Board, the watchdog Citizens Budget Commission said.

City leaders have better options to balance this year’s budget, according to CBC President Andrew Rein. “Borrowing should be a last resort, but ultimately could be a reasonable choice if revenues prove significantly lower than currently projected," he said.

In June, the city projected a two-year revenue loss of $9.6 billion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and while it passed a budget in the summer for the current 2021 fiscal year that city lawmakers and the mayor said bridged the gap, the city projects a $4.2 billion budget gap for the 2022 fiscal year.

Instead of property tax hikes, the mayor said he's pushing state leaders to allow the city to borrow about $5 billion that would be used over two fiscal years and paid back over a 30-year term. But groups like the Citizens Budget Commission have said the city should be allowed to borrow for operating expenses only as a last resort and then only with strict oversight and tight conditions.

In his 2018 race against former Rep. Dan Donovan, Rose used an ad to accuse the mayor of acting “like Staten Island doesn’t even exist,” and expressed the need to “get rid of all the leadership in D.C.,” which hasn’t happened in Rose’s first term.

As part of her own campaign, Malliotakis has attempted to link Rose to de Blasio, particularly on the issue of funding for the NYPD.

According to the Citizens Budget Commission, 92% of NYPD funding comes from city coffers. The congressional seat Rose and Malliotakis are running for is a part of the federal government.

Pushed by the City Council, de Blasio did finally put several billion dollars in reserve, but when the pandemic hit and city revenue projections plunged by $9 billion, it was quickly exhausted in this year’s budget.

Upon taking office, the mayor also abandoned his predecessor Michael Bloomberg’s practice of relentlessly forcing agencies to find savings, such as by cutting needless positions and outdated programs. Eventually de Blasio resumed it, but with far less intensity.

“When I was in city government, you found stuff,” said Andrew Rein, a former executive deputy commissioner in Bloomberg’s Department of Health and today the president of the Citizens Budget Commission. “Three years after we started doing this, we’d still find savings, rocks I didn’t realize we hadn’t turned over.”

Under de Blasio, the city budget has increased by $20 billion. The city’s workforce has grown by 33,720, according to figures from the Independent Budget Office. With his fiscal house in ruin because of Covid-19, de Blasio has pledged to cut 22,000 city jobs by Oct. 1 if he does not receive $5 billion in borrowing authority from the state.

“A lot of it is civilian positions, but for the most part it’s unclear what the driving force is,” said Maria Doulis, vice president of the Citizens Budget Commission. “How he implements these layoffs will signify where his priorities are.”

As the mayor considers these drastic cuts, questions remain as to where the headcount growth came from and which agencies will bear the brunt of the mayor’s chopping block.

Borrowing carries with it a dangerous risk for the city and future generations of New Yorkers. The city borrowed $1.5 billion from bond markets after finding itself in a $6 billion hole following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and it is still paying back that money nearly 20 years later. De Blasio's initial request aimed to pay off $7 billion over 30 years.

Then there is the issue of de Blasio budgetary practices. Since taking office in 2014, the mayor has grown the city budget by $20 billion and added 32,000 municipal jobs. Some budget experts, including those at the Citizens Budget Commission, have called on the mayor to find $5 billion in savings in his newly adopted budget before taking drastic borrowing steps. Before saddling the city with generations of debt, they argue, his team should renegotiate costly labor contracts, cut thousands in administrative staffing positions and use attrition to help reduce the city payroll.

As New York City faces a $9 billion budget deficit with no immediate hope that federal aid will come in the near future, Mayor Bill de Blasio has asked the state legislature to allow it to borrow billions of dollars to contend with the fiscal crisis. Without it, the mayor has said as many as 22,000 city employees may need to be laid off to fill in the budget gap.

Some fiscal watchdogs, such as the Citizens Budget Commission, have opposed borrowing, saying that it will likely burden the city with debt in the future. Leaders at nonprofits that signed on in support of the measure said that the immediate influx of funding will be necessary, however, to help the city’s most vulnerable residents.

The Citizens Budget Commission announced last month that it will study Ulurp in-depth in light of the fight over the Industry City rezoning proposal. A central issue in that debate is the City Council’s tradition of voting along with the wishes of the local Council member on land-use issues. Sunset Park’s representative, Carlos Menchaca, opposes the rezoning of the 35-acre campus, while three of his colleagues have spoken in favor of it.

Suburban demand is likely to increase as companies continue to have employees work remotely. With many city attractions closed, and packed urban spaces less appealing, many buyers are looking for amenities the city lacks.

As more people decamp for the suburbs, winnowing tax revenues may impact the city budget and such critical services as police and sanitation, Maria Doulis, vice president of strategy and operations at the nonpartisan fiscal organization, Citizens Budget Commission, told the Times.