Mayor Bill de Blasio is continuing to grow the city budget, despite concerns about an economic slowdown, to fund his immediate priorities and legacy projects that would extend beyond his time in office.

The mayor on Thursday laid out a $92.5 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which takes effect July 1, and a record-breaking $117 billion spending plan for capital projects over the next decade.

In delivering his plan at City Hall, de Blasio emphasized the $916 million in cuts and savings he achieved by requiring, for the first time since taking office, that city agencies trim their budgets and identify new sources of revenue. That money, which will be applied to the current and upcoming spending plans, pales in comparison to the growth he has overseen.

Personal income taxes are expected to bring in $13.1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, up from $12.7 billion this year. But the mortgage recording tax is projected to dip from more than $1 billion to $958 million — a nearly 11 percent drop that signals the ongoing softening of the high-end residential market that fuels much of the city’s economy.

“This administration, as the mayor has said, has focused strategically on spending more on programs that [the mayor] thinks are important,” Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, said in an interview. “But he hasn’t funded those with reorganizing or eliminating programs that he thinks are less important or can be more efficient.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $92.5 billion proposal continues a steady increase in spending since he took office

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday released a $92.5 billion executive budget for the coming fiscal year—one that continues a steady increase in government spending since he took office, even as he promised belt-tightening.

The fiscal year 2020 budget is $300 million more than his preliminary budget released in February, despite city agencies making hundreds of millions in mandatory cuts that the mayor ordered. The City Council must approve a budget before the fiscal year starts July 1.

Despite the cuts, the budget isn’t much different than in previous years, said Andrew Rein, the president of the good government group Citizens Budget Commission. “It’s a stay-the-course budget, which doesn’t do what we need to do to prepare for what might be rocky times ahead,” he said.

The city should have about $10 billion in reserves in case of a recession, Mr. Rein said. The mayor has built up the city’s reserves to more than $5.7 billion.

Many riders felt the system, which is overseen by the city’s economic development corporation, missed the boat by not having adequate service.

A report released last month warned of these issues, in part saying NYC Ferry ridership is “seasonal and leisure oriented.” One graphic showed NYC Ferry ridership varies more by season than any other ferry network in the area – peaking in the summer months, falling drastically in the winter and then spiking again when it gets warm.

The nonprofit behind the report, Citizens Budget Commission, also tweeted in response to yesterday’s delays, posting, “NYC Ferry is reporting delays due to high passenger volume: a reminder that its ridership is highly seasonal peaking during warm months. The high rate of leisure travel suggests the City can charge higher fares for occasional riders to offset costs.”

Recently, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer hammered the city’s oversight of the NYC Ferry and blocked the city’s purchase of 19 new vessels. The Citizens Budget Commission documented an alarming per-ride operating subsidy of $10.73.

Ferries support growth on our former industrial waterfront, strengthen our emergency preparedness and create jobs plus recreational and educational experiences. They reduce traffic congestion and enhance the city’s image as a place to live, work and visit so it’s imperative that we fix the problems.

The Citizens Budget Commission on Wednesday released its scorecard tracking economic development spending in the approved $175.5 billion spending plan.

The budget did include measures meant to increase transparency around the at-times opaque world of economic development efforts in the state, including provisions that create a database of deals and changes to the contracting process.

Separately, Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed to restore oversight powers to Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office for contracting at the State University of New York.

The Citizens Budget Commission is keeping its eyes on 61 bills that would expand the state’s economic development portfolio.

The fiscal watchdog maintains that New York shouldn’t be expanding existing programs or creating new ones without additional transparency and accountability measures to gauge the state’s economic development investments. The recently enacted state budget included funding for a “database of deals,” but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo beat back legislative efforts to include statutory language detailing how the new evaluation would work.

New York State recorded $76.5 billion of tax receipts for the 2019 fiscal year, a 4.7% year-over-year drop, according to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

DiNapoli reported Friday that March tax receipts came in $811.7 million higher than estimated following steep drops in December and January that forced Gov. Andrew Cuomo to adjust his budget proposal. Even with the strong finish to the fiscal year that ended March 31, New York’s total revenues were down $3.7 billion from 2018.

DiNapoli and Cuomo attributed December and January’s large PIT shortfall during a joint Feb. 4 press conference to negative effects of federal tax changes capping deductions for state and local taxes at $10,000. The grim numbers prompted calls from DiNapoli and the Citizen Budget Commission for New York to build up reserves in preparation for the next economic downturn. A $250 million deposit was made into the state’s Rainy Day Fund at the end of the fiscal year bringing its total reserves up to $2 billion, according to DiNapoli.

New York’s tax revenue fell by $3.7 billion, a 4.7% decline, in the 2019 fiscal year that ended March 31, according to the cash report released Friday by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. A drop was expected, but not to the degree it occured, setting off alarm bells as the state started to see apparent effects of New York taxpayer behavior resulting from the new federal tax code.

“When they made that adjustment in February, they said, we came in really low for January, but some of that money we think is gonna come in in April. And we don’t know if it’s going to or not,” said Dave Friedfel, director of state studies at Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit watchdog. “If it doesn’t, if they made a mistake in making that assumption, then suddenly the fiscal year 2020 budget could be in trouble only one month into the fiscal year.”

Should revenues come in below projections, the state could be in for tough times ahead.

“Depending on how that number comes in, if it’s significantly short, the state may need to tighten its belt a little bit further,” Friedfel said, noting that at minimum it would put a damper on conversations around increasing capital spending as the rest of the legislative session progresses. Cuomo and legislative leaders passed the new state budget without adding new capital expenditure plans, though many were carried over from prior plans.

A pipeline crossing New York Harbor could bring financial relief to the city’s 334 NYCHA complexes, according to a top tenant leader.

Daniel Barber, head of the Citywide Council of Presidents of NYCHA tenants’ associations, announced on Wednesday that he’s officially getting behind the controversial Northeast Supply Enhancement natural gas project.

"I’m in favor of natural gas infrastructure that will broaden NYCHA’s access to cleaner, more efficient and reliable fuel sources. Projects like NESE create more overall system reliability and increase access for low income communities to a cleaner fuel source. I urge the NYSDEC to approve the NESE project today,” Barber said.

A Citizens Budget Commission report found last year that converting oil heating systems to cheaper natural gas cut NYCHA’s utility costs by $48 million from 2013 to 2016, but that savings could be in jeopardy, Barber warned.

Thousands of NYCHA residents suffer though heatless winter nights thanks to the problem-plagued agency’s aging infrastructure.

Increasing subsidies plus an estimated $375 million to expand the New York City ferry fleet has budget watchdogs and some transit advocates pushing for tighter controls and higher fares on the NYC Ferry public system.

On Wednesday the New York City Council tabled a measure that would give the city Department of Transportation control of the ferry network, now operated by Hornblower under a contract with the city’s non-profit Economic Development Corporation. EDC staffers testified for two hours, as council members questioned whether the NYC Ferry benefits mainly higher-income commuters.

At $10.73 per ride, its operating subsidy is 10 times that of the New York City Transit (NYCT) system. Furthermore, NYC Ferry transports fewer people annually than the subway transports in one day,” the non-profit Citizens Budget Commission reported March 28.

“The ferry’s subsidies are high for two reasons: Its operating costs are high due to long routes and seasonal and leisure-oriented ridership, and its revenue is low because its fare is pegged to subway and bus fares,” wrote report author Sean Campion, a senior research analyst with the CBC. ”The recently announced expansion of NYC Ferry service will require even greater public subsidies — reaching as much as $24.75 per ride for the Coney Island route.”

The report came amid mounting criticism of the ferry system costs, which could total over $575 million at full build-out, according to the CBC report. On April 3, city Comptroller Scott Stringer weighed in with a call for the city to take direct control of NYC Ferry.

The numbers alone are daunting enough as Mitchell Katz strives to turn around New York City Health + Hospitals’ finances.

Reaching beyond, Katz is trying to change the culture at an $8 billion city unit long renowned for inefficiency, union pushback, scandals and management fiascoes.

Katz, H+H president and chief executive since January 2018, has been pitching his agenda before the City Council and at a variety of public sessions as the city embarks on NYC Care, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan for comprehensive health coverage.

“Part of why we fixed that is recognizing that the hole wasn’t coming from the coverage of low-income, uninsured people; it was subsidizing insurance plans, so we’re fixing that," he said at a Citizens Budget Commission breakfast.

Reducing empty space, combining offices and eliminating shuttle vans has saved $50 million, according to Katz, who admitted space redeployment has been more difficult than expected.

Few New York residents have probably heard of the State and Municipal Facilities Program, or SAM, but in recent years, it has been one of the top avenues by which state lawmakers “bring home the bacon,” providing many millions of dollars in funding for district projects. Otherwise known as “pork,” these projects include things like new or renovated parks, schools, libraries, and more, with far greater funding going to legislators based on their political power.

However, in this year’s recently-adopted state budget, there are no new appropriations for SAM. And SAM is also different because it is lump sum appropriation, with specific project funding decided outside the budget process by the governor and legislative leaders.

David Friedfel, the director of state studies for the Citizens Budget Commission, told Gotham Gazette “these lump sum appropriations are not a wise investment of state resources. The allocations are a product of political expediency instead of a thorough analysis of the state’s needs. It’s nice for the communities that receive these grants, but the state taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill.”

Surprisingly, in this year’s state budget, there were no new appropriations for SAM. However, Friedfel notes that state lawmakers “have not allocated all of the money previously appropriated so they may have decided to just spend down existing appropriations this year.” There still remains over $1.9 billion in SAM appropriations that have gone unspent since the program’s creation in 2013, and that money is carried over into the new fiscal year 2019-2020 budget that took effect April 1 of this year.