Yes, the virus is clearly on the upswing in other states. But the city can employ social distancing, mandatory masks and other measures to contain the virus. As The Post’s Johnny Oleksinski showed Wednesday, movie theaters can easily reopen safely.

This represents a paralysis and laziness on the part of government. Rather than give businesses specific guidelines, like how indoor eating could work, our “leaders” just leave us in a state of limbo — and hurt the economy even more.

Several reports this week — by the Citizens Budget Commission, the Partnership for New York City and more — highlight the lockdown’s huge economic toll. That’s a matter of life and death, too.

No matter what, the city has a long way to go. It needs to start recovering faster or the road back will grow even longer.

Uncertainty in the state's budget plan comes as legislators push for a constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature to have more influence in building budgets.

Assemblyman John McDonald, D-Cohoes, described the state’s approach as “sensitive” and noted that funds are being withheld for every sector and organization.

“It’s one of the few options the state has right now. The other option is to say here are the cuts,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a good cut here. There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.”

But the clock is ticking, and the longer New York waits to make budget decisions, the deeper the cuts will have to be, said David Friedfel, director of state studies for the Citizen Budget Commission - a fiscal watchdog group.

“It’s time to make the tough choices now and hopefully federal aid can mitigate that,” he said. “Without (the federal aid) the cuts we are looking at are really significant and will change the level of service the state is able to provide.

Howard Cure of Evercore Wealth Management and Maria Doulis of the Citizens Budget Commission examine variables related to the city's FY21 spending plan amid the coronavirus pandemic, a deep recession and civil unrest. Paul Burton hosts.

The CBC has noted that previous efforts to curtail overtime have failed — and a skeptical IBO projects that the administration will spend $400 million more on overtime than budgeted.

De Blasio Tuesday said he expected to meet the goal because many events that lead to overtime, such as parades, have been cancelled, and police coverage at ballgames has been curtailed. “There are a lot of things that are not happening in New York City for the foreseeable future,” he told reporters

But CBC President Andrew Rein pointed out the city is likely to face additional costs for both reopening schools amid the coronavirus crisis and for the extra day care working parents will need because of the planned staggered school schedule. The budget has no money for either.

Charles Brecher, senior adviser to the Citizens Budget Commission — a bipartisan New York fiscal watchdog group — said the MTA’s plan “doesn’t sound like enough.” He urged the agency to consider more meaningful measures, including postponing planned expansion projects and accessibility upgrades, right-sizing service levels to current demands, and working with unions to achieve major savings in labor costs.

“They’ve got to say to labor, if you want this system to survive, we’ve got to make it through this, and we’ve got to do it with some efficiencies,” Brecher said.

New York is facing a budget gap due in part to the coronavirus pandemic. Dave Friedfel, Director of State Studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, shared his latest analysis of New York’s budget situation.

Two new reports from New York City nonpartisan budget watchdogs — the Independent Budget Office and the Citizens Budget Commission — argue that the city is overestimating just how much money it is saving through recently announced budget cuts.

"We're seeing money being shifted to state and federal lines, and renegotiations of labor contracts," says Maria Doulis, vice president for strategy, operations, and communications at the Citizens Budget Commission. But, she adds, the state is not committing to taking on those extra costs.

Doulis spoke with WNYC host Sean Carlson. Click above to listen to the full conversation.

Even if the MTA gets the new federal bailout it’s hoping for, it’s going to have to seriously retrench, warn the fiscal watchdogs of the Citizens Budget Commission.

That means revamping its $55 billion modernization plan as well as hikes to fares and tolls.

The agency wants another $4 billion from Congress, but its projected revenue shortfalls are now $8.4 billion to $12.6 billion through the end of 2021. And it also clearly won’t be collecting congestion-pricing fees this year, as once planned. Yet it faces new expenses for amped-up cleaning, as well as retrofitting of buses to protect drivers.

So the MTA faces some very tough decisions — as does its workforce.

It’s already got a hefty debt load, so fresh borrowing must be a last resort, the CBC warns. Fare and toll hikes will be needed, and the modernization plan scaled back.

The CBC lists five ideas: Get concessions to reduce overtime and fringe-benefit costs while boosting productivity. Put off longer-term capital projects. Boost tolls more than fares, to counteract the likely increase in traffic as virus-spooked commuters avoid mass transit. But still raise fares to cover half of costs, up from about a third now.

The MTA probably needs to do all of the above to avoid major service disruptions that would mean trouble for the whole city.

The Mayor himself echoed that proposition on May 10 to reporters who asked about property tax relief for struggling homeowners and landlords: “Especially since we don’t know what’s going to happen in Washington,” said de Blasio, “we right now are absolutely dependent on whatever resources we can get, and property tax is a part of it for sure.”

On the other hand, New York City fiscal watchdogs and reform groups say that the pandemic has made addressing inequities in the property tax system is more important than ever, and a growing chorus of landlords, tenants, and business owners are calling for property tax relief as the economic fallout knocks on their doors. “The time should not be wasted,” wrote Andrew Rein, executive director of Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit watchdog, in an email to Gotham Gazette. “The Commission’s report was a solid start to comprehensive reform.”

Yet another watchdog non-profit has declared a coming doomsday for the MTA. The latest numbers from the Citizens Budget Committee are so bad that there’s now talk of a fare hike, as the NY Post reported.

Through the whole meltdown, the one glimmer of hope has been the $15 billion of bonding power created once congestion pricing starts in January.

As New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority awaits a hoped-for second shot of federal rescue funds, calls have emerged for the mass-transit agency to focus internally.

According to the watchdog Citizens Budget Commission, prioritizing capital investments and other efficiencies can help the MTA through its COVID-19 related fiscal crisis, which Chairman Patrick Foye has likened to a "four-alarm fire."

The MTA may need to raise fares and tolls and completely reassess its “unrealistic” $55 billion modernization plan — even if it receives billions in federal bailouts, according to a new analysis.

With the agency facing a shortfall of between $8.4 billion and $12.6 billion through the end of 2021, an additional $3.9 billion from the feds, on top of $3.9 billion it already received, is still “likely to leave the MTA with a continuing problem,” the Citizens Budget Commission said Monday.

Bailout funding for 2021 “is not even under discussion in Washington,” the group noted.

To shore up its financial situation, the CBC said, the MTA must consider raising fares to cover 50 percent or more of the cost of a ride — as opposed to the current 36 percent — and increasing bridge and tunnel tolls to offset the absence of congestion pricing.