Release # 021-01

 

Contact:

Sunny Mindel/Curt Ritter

(212) 788-2958

Provides Largest Ever Capital Plan for Cultural Institutions and Libraries

Proposes Largest Budget Ever for the Board of Education

Recommends an Additional $405 Million in Tax Cuts

Increases Spending for Public Safety Initiatives

Reduces Year-To-Year Spending by .2 %

The Plan reflects the Giuliani Administration's success in reducing taxes by $2.5 billion since 1994 and funds an additional $405 million in tax cuts which increases to $1.2 billion by 2005. The Plan projects a surplus for FY2001 of $2.2 billion and continues the policy of two year Budget Stabilization Accounts for FY2002 and FY2003, in the event that the City is faced with an economic slowdown.

"As a result of my Administration's accomplishments over the past seven years, New Yorkers today are more optimistic about the future of their City than ever before," said Mayor Giuliani. "Since 1994 we have shown New Yorkers that their government can function effectively and meet high goals by applying strict standards of accountability.

We have transformed New York City from the crime capital of the country into the safest large city in America. During the early 1990s we were a city in economic decline and known as the welfare capital of the country, but today New York City is a national leader in welfare reform, and we're creating jobs at a greater rate than the rest of the State and nation.

"As we enter the last year of my Administration, New York City is safer and cleaner, and our City's economy is stronger than it's ever been before. New York City now has a proven record of success for future Administrations to build upon, so that future generations of New Yorkers can experience the renaissance of our City for themselves," the Mayor concluded.

OUT-YEAR GAPS

In order to continue to reduce the out-year gaps, the City has imposed fiscal discipline on the rate of growth of City spending. Since taking office the Giuliani Administration has cumulatively reduced out-year gaps by 40.2%. In addition, the Plan contains a two year Budget Stabilization Account for FY2002 and FY2003, in the event that the City is faced with an economic slowdown.

LABOR POLICY

This Plan articulates a strategy in which the work force can be rewarded by providing for a Merit Pay Plan. Employees will receive increases based on merit as measured by performance evaluations, as was the case in the recently negotiated agreement with the school principals. Contract negotiations are currently underway with all of the City's major unions. Recently, agreements have been reached with the City unions, which provide improvements in health and pension benefits, as well as significant savings to the City.

JOB GROWTH

In 2000 New York City added 88,000 new private sector jobs, the largest single-year private sector job growth on record. During this Administration, the City has experienced the strongest seven-year job gain on record, with the creation of more than 449,500 new jobs since January 1994, 100,000 more new jobs than the 348,000 jobs the City lost in the early 1990s. In 2000 New York City's private sector employment recorded a growth of 2.5%, outpacing the rest of the country's employment, which grew at 2.1%, and the rest of the State, which grew at 2.0%. Since 1993 New York City has also outpaced the rest of the State with a job growth of 15.7%, while the rest of the State's job growth grew by 11.5%.

In addition, the City's unemployment rate averaged 5.7% in 2000, falling from 6.7% in 1999, to the lowest rate in more than 10 years. The City's unemployment rate is down more than four percentage points since December 1993, when unemployment was 10.2 percent.

TAX CUTS

Since 1994, the Mayor has reduced taxes by $2.5 billion. This Plan proposes an additional $405 million in tax cuts, which increases to $1.2 billion by 2005. This program is designed to help the City's economy continue to produce new private sector jobs.

Among the tax cuts proposed in this Financial Plan are:

• phase out of the Commercial Rent Tax;
  
• extension of Co-op and Condo Property Tax Relief;
  
• elimination of the $110 ceiling for the sales exemption on clothing and footwear;
  
• creation of resident S-Corp/PIT credit;
  
• repeal of the $2 flat fee tax on hotel rooms;
  
• introduction of a City earned-income tax credit; and
  
• reduction in business tax rates.

NEW PUBLIC SAFETY INITIATIVES

To further reduce crime and maintain New York City's status as the safest large city in America, the Plan calls for funding the following initiatives:

• Operation Discover - $4 million has been provided to expand the warrant squad, to track down criminals associated with the 26,000 outstanding felony warrants, in order to reduce recidivism.
  
  
• Parole Violator Taskforce - Create a Parole Violator Taskforce and expand the Joint Absconder Warrant Squad (JAWS), in order to apprehend every person who violates their conditions of parole.
  
  
• Property Crime Initiative - Create Property Crime Taskforce in precincts with the highest levels of property crime, which will continue to reduce property crimes such as burglary, grand larceny and auto theft.
  
  
• Operation Condor - $50 million has been provided to continue Operation Condor, and further reduce crime by providing an increase in the number of tours -- from more than 800 tours per day to approximately 1,000 tours per day.
  
  
• Expand Model Blocks Program to NYCHA Developments - This program will include 24-hour uniform patrol on housing grounds as well as the installation of closed-circuit video cameras in five housing developments.
  
  
• Improve Police-Community Relations and Officer Morale - Funds will be provided to conduct a survey of neighborhood residents, and utilize the results to improve police-community relations, and to improve the physical condition of police precinct facilities.
  
  
• Organize Major International Conference on Emergency Management - This conference will enable the City and other municipalities worldwide to share successful strategies.
  
  
• Improve Emergency Response - $4 million has been provided to purchase 2,000 automatic external defibrillators and place them in public buildings throughout the City. The Plan will also create a new 311 non-emergency system to handle non-emergency calls, freeing the current 911 system for real emergency calls. This plan will also provide $30 million to purchase new police vehicles.
  
  
• Construction of DNA Laboratory - This Plan provides $162 million to construct a state-of-the-art DNA laboratory that will improve the ability to convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent with near 100% accuracy. The Plan also provides $16 million in funding to utilize the latest technology in DNA testing to combat crime.
  
  
• Expand COMPSTAT - This plan provides resources to introduce sophisticated statistical analysis into the Fire Department, Department of Transportation, Department of Juvenile Justice, Department of Probation and other agencies.

EDUCATION INITIATIVES

The Plan will enable the City to continue to meet the educational needs of New York City's children by budgeting $13.4 billion for the Board of Education (BOE), its largest Capital Plan ever. The Plan also calls for funding of several educational initiatives, among them:

• Build a New System Based on Accountability, Competition and Choice -
  • This Plan provides incentives for a community school district to offer school choice; provides for more private management of failing public schools; and helps enable charter schools to compete on a level playing field.
  
  
• Improving School Facilities and Reducing BOE Bureaucracy - This Plan will:
  
  • Accelerate $359 million in funding for the construction of 12 new school buildings;
    
  • Accelerate $300 million in funding for school building repair and reconstruction;
    
  • Sell 110 Livingston Street and move BOE headquarters to a new building in downtown Brooklyn with a new, high-standards high school;
    
  • Provide $100 million in public/private partnerships to expand Take the Field to all 51 school fields in need of repair; and,
    
  • Convert 114 remaining coal-burning boilers in schools to gas or electric.

  
  

• Enhancing Instruction
  
  • $25 million will be provided to fund Project Science. This program will provide 40 intensive weeks of weekend science instruction for 45,300 under-performing eighth grade and high school students.
    
  • $9 million will be provided to fund Project English. This program will provide 20 intensive weeks of weekend English classes for 38,600 students.
    
  • $23 million will be provided to expand Summer School to include 50,000 more students, for a total of 320,000 students.
    
  • $31.5 million will be provided to establish classroom libraries in all 21,000 K-8 classrooms.
    
    

• Making Our Schools Safe, Orderly And Drug-Free
  
  • $12.3 million will be provided to hire 800 additional School Safety Officers and an additional 400 Crossing Guards.
    
  • $3.5 million will be provided to fund three Second Opportunity Schools
    
  • $19 million will be provided to establish in-school suspension centers for 40,000 students.

NEW HEALTH AND WELFARE INITIATIVES

• Children - This Plan calls for the City to: make the Administration for Children Services a charter agency; develop a new foster parent recruitment drive; and increase foster care rates.
• Health - Provide bonuses to schools for enrolling children in health insurance programs; and fund two major medical research studies, on heart disease and prostate cancer, to help improve the health of New Yorkers.
• Welfare - Place 125,000 welfare recipients in jobs by December 2001; direct over $120 million in Federal TANF and Welfare-To-Work funds to employment and support programs for families; and establish a new Employment Center to serve special groups, including substance abusers and people with disabilities.

NEW HOUSING INITIATIVES

• This Plan provides a $1.2 billion public/private partnership to rehabilitate and preserve housing by: completing the return of 1,100 vacant City-owned units to the private sector; transferring deteriorating buildings to new landlords to prevent them from falling into City ownership; and expanding the ANCHOR program to create new mixed use residential/commercial developments. This will include a total of 3,067 units and 875,000 square feet of commercial space.
  
  
• This funding is contingent on reforms of the Buildings Department and the City Building Code; rezoning land for residential development; and passing legislation aimed at removing organized crime from the construction industry.

CAPITAL EXPENDITURES

The Fiscal Year preliminary Capital Plan provides a total of $51.9 billion in capital funding over the next ten years. The Capital Plan demonstrates the Mayor's continued commitment to strengthening the City's economy by emphasizing infrastructure rehabilitation.

MAJOR CULTURAL EXPANSIONS

The City will be a partner in a number of world-class cultural construction projects that will enhance our position as the Cultural Capital of the World and help attract even more tourists than the record 34 million who visited the City this year. This Plan provides the largest capital plan for cultural institutions in the City's history. These projects will significantly improve the City's cultural base, strengthen the City's economy and provide lasting cultural monuments for generations to come.

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