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A Budget for a Strong and Stable Economic Future
By Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Over the last seven years, our disciplined fiscal management has revitalized the financial condition of New York City. By making tough decisions, we've turned around a City that that suffered chronic budgetary shortfalls to one that is now in a position of stability and strength.

Last week, I released the City's Executive Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2002, which builds on our past successes to further secure the long-term economic future of New York. But we need to be mindful that with the national economy slowing, the City must remain dedicated to exercising fiscal restraint.

The Executive Budget reflects my administration's fiscal priorities of reducing spending year-to-year, with a decrease of 2.8%. The Budget further reflects our success in reducing taxes by $3.2 billion since 1994, and funds an additional $494 million in tax cuts which increase to $1.3 billion by 2005.

The Budget projects a surplus of $2.76 billion in FY2001 and contains a Budget Stabilization Account for FY2002, to assist in the event that the City is faced with an economic slowdown.

One of the reasons why the City is setting records for high job growth and low unemployment is the tax-cutting we've done every year. The responsible cutting of taxes helps to reinvigorate the economy, stimulate job development and keeps government spending in check.

Among the new tax cuts we're proposing is a reduction of the Personal Income Tax Surcharge by an additional 25%, from an average of 10.5 percent to an average of 7 percent. The cut would put an extra $80 to $120 in the pockets of taxpayers effective July 1.

The Executive Budget also calls for the elimination of the Commercial Rent Tax; the extension of Co-op/Condo Property Tax Relief; the extension of the Lower Manhattan Revitalization Program; and the elimination of the sales tax on clothing and footwear.

With national economic growth slowing, the City must be especially vigilant in maintaining its hard-won fiscal discipline and that means having the courage to make hard choices. People's safety comes first, and education comes next. That is why over the course of my administration we've increased the number of police officers by 12%, teachers by 12.8%, but we've reduced full-time government staff in all other areas by 17.2%.

Because the renaissance of our City is built on crime reduction, a priority in this budget is to build on a series of innovative crime reduction strategies, such as "Operation Condor" that led to New York becoming the safest large city in America for the past five years. We've had great success in reducing the total number of shooting incidents in our City by 75%, but we want to continue to build on our success. That is why we have funded a new initiative, "Operation Gun Stop," which rewards citizens who provide information on illegal gun possession and weapons trafficking. We are also continuing the funding for the Citywide Narcotics Initiative, a program that fights drug trafficking crime in neighborhoods citywide; and we are increasing our advertising campaign for the Police Officer Recruitment Program to attract qualified individuals to the NYPD.

New York City's education budget has grown dramatically during my administration, from 25.6% of the City's total budget to 31% -- the highest ever. Likewise the annual operating budget for our City's schools has increased from $8 billion to close to $12 billion, while student-teacher ratios are at an all-time low. The Executive Budget provides for a number of programs designed to meet the educational needs of our children, including "Project Science" and "Project English" which offers intensive weekend instruction in those subjects. Summer school will be expanded to 50,000 more students, and we are creating libraries in all 21,000 K-8 classrooms.

In this last year of my administration, I feel confident that with this fiscally responsible budget - and the many creative initiatives that we've implemented over the last seven-and-a-half years - the City will remain on track toward a strong and stable economic future.