“There had been momentum before Covid—and Covid really threw a wrench,” said Ana Champeny, deputy research director for the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit think tank. “If we had moved faster and it had been more of a priority and focus, maybe we could have done it.”

Sean Campion with the Citizens Budget Commission told Gothamist earlier this year that, with the ongoing expansion and continued service, the city will continue to subsidize ferry use at a high rate.

However, Andrew Rein, president of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission, said it’s unclear if services like NYCWell have produced desired results.

“I’m sure some money had a good effect on people, but there’s also no confidence that most of it had as great an impact as it could’ve because there were no goals, no evidence-based solutions, and still the money kept flowing,” Rein said

“He has not focused on management and efficiency. Over his term, his budget has grown tremendously and his workforce has grown, but he did not find savings,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission. “History should look at this as an expansive government mayor who grew his budget and grew his workforce and was then fortunate that the biggest federal bailout in history helped save New York from the recession he did not prepare for.”

“What she did in terms of strategic initatives at the SCA, and improving capital project scoring and contracting, is important experience,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission.

Every economic sector has suffered. But two major losses have created what Andrew Rein of the Citizens Budget Commission calls a “double whammy”—losses in tourism and hospitality, and an anemic return of higher-paid office workers, who in turn supported restaurants and other service jobs.

Before the Omicron wave began to hit, tourism had some hopeful signs. Broadway shows reopened and New York hotels during Thanksgiving week had the nation’s highest occupancy rate among the nation’s top 25 markets.

A 2019 report by the Citizens Budget Commission, the latest available report examining the NYC Ferry, found that for every $2.75 a rider spends to ride the ferry, the city pays $9.73. While the city has reduced the hours of ferry service, due to drops in use during the pandemic, and postponed an expansion to Staten Island, it’s still costly for the city to continue to subsidize, according to a recent report from the Citizens Budget Commission found.

“The City has not taken steps to adjust fares or routes, and they plan to go ahead with costly expansions, which will increase the need for subsidies going forward,” Sean Campion with the Citizen Budget Commission, wrote in a statement.

De Blasio’s final budget update leaves much uncertain

“We talk a lot about how much things have changed in really just the last 12 months,” said Patrick Orecki, director of state studies at the nonpartisan fiscal watchdog Citizens Budget Commission.

Although the new plan reduces the coming-year gaps to “only” $2.9 billion, $2.7 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively, the Citizens Budget Commission’s Andrew Rein points out that the shortfalls are actually $750 million greater each year because the plan includes “illusionary labor and attrition savings.”

Shortfalls include $1 billion in annual unspecified labor savings, “which is nothing more than a ruse used to understate the magnitude of the city’s gaps,” said Andrew Rein, president of the watchdog Citizens Budget Commission.

“While all hope the economy is strong and revenues continue to come in above projections, which is likely in the near term, the next administration will face substantial challenges,” Rein added.

The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal watchdog, acknowledged that there is “some good news” in the financial update, but noted that budget gaps going forward are likely about $750 million higher than stated “because the plan includes illusionary labor and attrition savings.”

“The budget essentially does not include money to pay for the next round of raises for City employees,” said CBC President Andrew Rein, in a statement. Hundreds of millions of dollars more will be needed per year if Adams comes to agreements with modest annual raises for municipal employees, as expected. Adams, a former police captain still part of a city union, received significant municipal and private sector labor support in his campaign.

Rein also noted that some ongoing programs are being funded with non-recurring funding sources, including the one-time infusion of cash from the federal government and the improved pension returns, therefore “creating both near- and mid-term fiscal cliffs.”

“Mayor de Blasio did not take the opportunity to use extraordinary levels of federal aid to help restructure the City’s budget and workforce to be fiscally sustainable with recurring City revenues,” Rein said. “Mayor-Elect Adams should proactively take steps to do so.”