The NYPD spent $327 million on school safety this fiscal year, according to a report released Friday by the Citizens Budget Commission. The cost of the program is mostly borne by the Department of Education, and nixing it from the NYPD's spending plan would theoretically just shift it back where it came from.

Sean Campion, a senior research associate for the watchdog Citizens Budget Commission, called the ferry-service pullback a step in the right direction.

“The changes will make ferry service more cost-effective to operate while ensuring that it remains a viable transit option,” Campion said. “In the coming months, EDC should continue to identify ways to make its ferry operations more efficient, such as implementing dynamic fare pricing and delaying the launch of costly planned expansions.”

The Citizens Budget Commission supports cuts on fiscal grounds; multiple City Council members back cuts for political and fiscal reasons.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s favorite white elephant had turned into a real drag on the city even before the pandemic hit, reports the Citizens Budget Commission: The cost of subsidizing NYC Ferry has pushed the city’s Economic Development Corp. into the red.

The mayor’s $89.3 billion budget proposal put forward in mid-April includes modest spending reductions, but they are by no means exhaustive and in some cases are focused in precisely the wrong direction. “The two-year, $2.7 billion savings program totals less than 2 percent of the budget and relies primarily on underspending, spending delays and re-estimates instead of program efficiencies,” Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan, nonprofit budget watchdog group, observed when the plan was unveiled.

Mr. de Blasio last week asked Albany to let him borrow $7 billion, though the Citizens Budget Commission raised concerns. “Borrowing for operating expenses is a risky proposition and needs to be done with caution, if at all, because now you are really rolling the dice on future revenues,” replied Mr. Cuomo.

That’s true for all big cities, of course, but especially for expensive ones like San Francisco and New York. In New York’s case, the impact on the tax base could be dire. New York City’s taxes are the highest by far — from 46% to 90% above other U.S. cities, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. Facing the loss of nearly half a million jobs and $10 billion in tax revenue following COVID19, New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio has instituted a “wartime budget” with some $2 billion in cuts.

Property owners say they can't help. A broad-based coalition that includes real estate groups like the Real Estate Board of New York, hotels, hospitality establishments and civil rights groups wants the city to freeze taxes. While the property tax rate has remained unchanged since early in the Bloomberg administration, figures from the Citizens Budget Commission show that property taxes have increased by almost $10 billion under de Blasio, or 47%, because values have increased, leading to higher assessments. (New construction has been a secondary cause.)

Stringer and the Citizens Budget Commission also oppose further borrowing. Stringer estimated that under the Albany proposal, the city could pay up to $550 million annually over 20 years, or about $11 billion overall.

“Borrowing for operating expenses is a risky proposition and needs to be done with caution, if at all, because now you are really rolling the dice on future revenues,” Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said at a news conference Thursday.

Andrew Rein, the president of the independent financial watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission, said the bill should be deferred until Mr. de Blasio and his budget team come up with more ways to cut the existing budget.

“Borrowing at this stage in the crisis would relieve city leaders from their responsibility to make the hard choices necessary now to manage the city budget in this time,” he wrote in a letter sent to state lawmakers on Tuesday.

But as our Sally Goldenberg and Joe Anuta report, fiscal watchdogs are calling for the city to cut its own spending before resorting to borrowing. City Comptroller Scott Stringer estimated that borrowing to cover $7 billion in expenses now would ultimately cost the city nearly $11 billion over the next two decades. “The city has not come close to what it needs to do to control spending to get its fiscal house in order,” said Andrew Rein, head of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Mr. de Blasio is already relying heavily on reserve funds to balance the budget. The city is drawing $2.6 billion from the retiree health benefit trust, $900 million from general reserves and $250 million from the capital stabilization reserve to balance the 2021 budget, according to the Independent Budget Office.

Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscally conservative watchdog, said the city could still find additional savings in its budget. Getting permission to borrow could lead city officials to avoid “making the hard choices today,” he said.

“Borrowing, it seems painless, but it’s not at all,” he said. “Basically what you do is make future New Yorkers pay for your bills. It’s pretty clear to us that the city should not go there yet. There is a lot more that it could do.”