Mayor Joseph Delfino reports from Albany that the State Conference of Mayors received grim news on the state revenues last week. The state is looking at revenues off $3 billion this year, and project revenues to be down $6 billion in 2002. The Mayor, member of the Executive Committee of the Conference of Mayors, said the Mayors asked the governor’s office not to cut revenue sharing for the state’s cities in 02-03 budget.
After a meeting of the New York State Conference of Mayors Executive Committee, Mayor Delfino delivered the somber news to the White Plains Common Council last Thursday.
WHITE PLAINS MAN IN ALBANY: Mayor Joseph Delfino is a member of the Executive Committee of the NYS Conference of Mayors. He met with them in Albany last week.
WPCNR PHOTO.
The Mayor said the Conference had gone to Albany to pre-lobby the Governor’s budget experts on the 2002-03 New York State Budget. Their mission: to inform the Governor of the impact of any budget cuts before they were presented with the state version of what cities should or should not receive in 02-03 spending.
Mayor Delfino reporting last Thursday evening to the Common Counci, said that the Mayors were told “not to ask for anything,” in 02-03. Delfino and members of the Conference of Mayors Executive Committee were briefed on the dwindling New York State revenue situation after September 11 by John Cahill, Deputy to the Governor, and Cathy Duncan, First Deputy Director of the Budget.
$9 Billion in the hole.
Delfino says the Mayors were advised the state was estimating a $3 billion reduction in state revenues this year and a $6 billion reduction in 2002.
The Mayors advised Cahill and Duncan, that the cities needed the governor to “keep revenue sharing where it is,” according to Delfino, and he had an admonishion for the Common Council.
“We’re (White Plains) going to have to be very creative next year in our budget,” the Mayor told the Common Council Thursday evening. “We also told the governor’s people that we do not want any more mandates that force cities to put policies in place without money to pay for them.”
Fiscally responsible White Plains is shortchanged, while profligate cities cry for aid and get it.
The Mayor groused about how White Plains contributes $67 million in sales taxes to the state, and only receives back $4.7 million in revenue sharing from the state: “Look around us. You have some cities that do not spend responsibly and ask the state ‘please help us.’ White Plains does a good job, and we shouldn’t have to be penalized. The last time we received an increase in revenue sharing was 1991.”
John Dolce, Commissioner of Public Safety, echoed this sentiment last month during a capital projects meeting, pointing out how his department lost a grant for new radio equipment because his department was told it did not need the aid as much as other police departments.
More militant attitude among Mayors
The Mayor said the mood among his fellow Mayors on the Executive Committee was of deep concern that cities were not receiving their fair share of aid. “We had one Mayor from Long Island threatening to start a political party for the cities to run candidates to get more money for cities. That’s how people are thinking and it’s frightening.”
He said several Mayors he spoke to said their cities were already being hard hit, naming Utica, Binghamton, Buffalo and Rochester as facing severe budget problems.
State unemployment up
The state Chief Economist, Stephen Kagann reports soft employment figures last week. According to Kagann’s analysis, in November 2001, private employment was off 92,200 or 1.3 percent from last year with the largest decline in New York City of 83,700 jobs, off 2.6% from 2000. Including government sector jobs, total state employment declined 75,100 or .9%.
Statewide, manufacturing has lost 5.4% of its jobs since the middle of the year 2000. Manufacturing layoffs have been the key to the larger upstate regions losses.
The Albany region gained .3%, Dutchess County declined . Small losses were registered in the North Country (-0.3%), the Mohawk Valley(-0.4%), Central New York(-0.7%), and Western New York (-0.7%). Losses were more severe in Rochester (-1.8%) and Binghamton (-2.3%).
The Executive Committee of the New York State Conference of Mayors includes Mayor Delfino of White Plains, Ellen Polimeni of Canandaigua, Eugene Murray of Rockville Centre, Gerald Jennings, Albany, Joseph Griffo, Rome, Michael Bloomberg, New York, Richard Bucci, Binghamton, Alan Cohen, Ithaca, Susan Goetschius, Wellsville, William Johnson, Jr., Rochester, Thomas Nyquist, New Paltz, Frank Pagano, Fredonia, Alice Roth, Tonawanda, Ernest Strada, Westbury and Gary Vegliante, West Hampton Dunes.