As Mayor Michael Bloomberg sees it, city unions have a clear choice: make concessions at the negotiating table or face widespread layoffs. “They’ve got to understand that if they don’t do this the alternative is going to be fewer people, fewer of their members,” he said. With those words, Bloomberg ignited what is sure to [...]
Long Island Rep. Steve Israel, who was passed over for the New York Senate seat last week, is nothing if not a team player. On Thursday, Israel bit the bullet and headed into Kirsten Gillibrand’s Albany-area congressional district to help recruit Democratic candidates for a special election to succeed Gillibrand in the GOP-tilting district on [...]
Tucked into Gov. David A. Paterson’s budget proposal in December was a little-noticed measure authorizing the Battery Park City Authority to transfer up to $270 million in excess revenues to the state’s general fund. The move, intended to help close the state’s $15 billion deficit, would take effect March 1, according to state budget documents. [...]
Ronald Wingle felt vindicated this week when the state inspector general accused his former boss of using state workers as chauffeurs and furniture movers. Wingle and his wife Jane, of Albany, were the whistle-blowers who reported former Department of Health Commissioner Antonia Novello for allegedly using state workers to drive her to shopping malls, buy [...]
The city’s budget deficit is on the rise and Mayor Michael Bloomberg will say how he plans to close it Friday. The Bloomberg administration says the deficit has grown to $4 billion for this fiscal year, and blames falling tax revenues and the state’s budget. The mayor is expected to announce cutting more than 23,000 [...]
Some tense moments erupted inside City Hall Wednesday as protestors accused a Brooklyn council member of trying to block construction of an affordable housing complex in Bushwick. Community organizers accuse Councilwoman Diana Reyna of blocking the construction of section 8 apartments on a currently vacant Jefferson Street lot. Reyna says the process is being held [...]
City schools could slash as many as 15,000 jobs – mostly teachers – in the next year due to budget cuts, Chancellor Joel Klein told state lawmakers Wednesday. Klein said a $700 million aid cut in Gov. Paterson’s proposed fiscal 2010 budget, plus a $500 million cut in city funding, leave few options but to [...]
Tony Avella is hoping his fellow City Council members just say “neigh” to horse-drawn carriages. The Queens Democrat will make his pitch for a citywide ban at a public hearing tomorrow, when animal-rights activists will testify about allegedly inhumane conditions for carriage horses, both at work and during their off-time. In the past 18 months, [...]
Mayoral hopeful and city Congressman Anthony Weiner said today that the city could receive billions in federal aid from the $819 billion stimulus package passed by the House of Representatives. The congressman estimates that the money would go towards hiring 440 police officers, reducing medicaid costs, upgrading schools and repairing and enhancing the subway system [...]
Construction crews in Highbridge are hard at work building replacement parks around Yankee Stadium, but all of that work is costing the city big bucks. The city’s Independent Budget Office or IBO reports that it will now cost 67 percent more to build the parks than initially estimated. “When they first proposed this arrangement the [...]
