MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL ANNOUNCE BUDGET DEAL; SCHOOL CUTS NOT RESTORED; LABOR RESERVE INCREASED

 There is a budget deal between the Mayor and the City Council. Some details that may be of interest from Gotham Gazette:

Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Friday announced their first budget agreement, a $101 billion spending deal for the 2023 fiscal year beginning July 1, reflecting an increase of about $2.3 billion over the budget that was adopted in June of last year. 

 School budget cuts are included:

The mayor conceded to several Council demands for new or additional funding in certain areas while moving ahead on some of his priorities that the Council opposed, like cuts to school budgets based on dropping student enrollment...

Further down:

Asked about those cuts -- which amount to roughly $215 million in the coming fiscal year -- at Friday’s budget agreement announcement, the mayor described them as necessary right-sizing. “We're not cutting, we are adjusting the amount based on the student population,” he said, though they will be felt by individual schools as budget cuts.

The mayor also pointed to the recent state approval of an extension of mayoral control of city schools that he was granted for two years, which came with mandates to reduce class sizes by 2027. The Adams administration is estimating that it will cost the city about $20 billion in capital funds and $500 million in expense funding, though those numbers have yet to be vetted and the mayor’s pushback against the new mandates has been refuted by state lawmakers, especially Senator John Liu, the chair of the Senate’s New York City Education Committee, who has pointed to additional state education aid on its way to the city.

There are higher than expected tax revenues coming in so the city was able to increase reserves to record levels:

Given the city’s strong fiscal position, both the mayor and the Council were able to invest in a variety of priorities and there were few fights to be had. The mayor conceded to several Council demands for new or additional funding in certain areas while moving ahead on some of his priorities that the Council opposed, like cuts to school budgets based on dropping student enrollment, and the Council beat back the mayor’s push for more funding at the NYPD and Department of Correction.

Record level Wall Street profits boosted the city’s personal income tax collections, with the city forecasting $3 billion in additional revenue for the current fiscal year and $1.5 billion more in the 2023 fiscal year compared to revenue predictions from April when the executive budget was released. The budget reflects $2.7 billion in savings across the current and next fiscal year, and projects another $4 billion in savings through fiscal year 2026.

With additional revenue, the mayor and Council added another $750 million each to the city’s rainy day fund and the Retiree Health Benefits Trust fund, and $500 million to the general reserves. Those additions bring city reserves to $8.3 billion, with $1.9 billion total in the rainy day fund, $4.5 billion in the RHBT, $1.6 billion in the general reserve, and $250 million in the capital stabilization reserve.

That's $8.3 billion in reserve if you missed it.

As for labor reserves:

The budget deal also sets aside an additional $3 billion over the course of four years in the labor reserve, bringing it to $4.7 billion as the city moves to negotiating expired labor contracts for the municipal workforce that are likely to prove costly.

We covered this in April:

According to the Citizens Budget Commission official we cited the other day, "Raises totaling 3% annually for city employees would cost about $1.5 billion in the first year, increasing to $4.3 billion in the third year."

This is a four-year total in the labor reserve.

I think we should look at Governor Hochul's budgeting for the state Civil Service Employees Association raises, which although not at all binding on NYC, puts us in the neighborhood where Mayor Adams is going on municipal contracts. This is from the Albany Times Union:

Workers in the union are proposed a five-year deal from April 2021 to March 2026. It includes 2 percent raises the first two years and then 3 percent annual raises the final three years of the tentative contract.

That's not going to be anywhere near keeping up with the 8.6% U.S. annual inflation rate announced today but at least we now have the information on what the city is budgeting for raises and what the state is planning for its workers.

For those who think we would be better off under the Republicans, Senator Rick Scott has a plan to privatize much of government operations if the Republicans win back power. 

My plan is for the UFT and AFT to be an organized force like the unions are in the United Kingdom. This is from the BBC:

Thousands of railway workers will walk out in a three-day national strike later this month which threatens major summer travel disruption across the UK.

The RMT Union said it will "shut down" the country's railway network on 21, 23 and 25 June after talks over pay and redundancies fell through.

But the Transport Secretary accused RMT of "jumping the gun" and said strikes could put off people using trains.

The action is being dubbed the "biggest rail strike in modern history".

More than 40,000 staff from Network Rail and 13 train operators are expected to take part.

On the first day of the planned strike on 21 June, London Underground RMT workers plan to walk out in a separate dispute over pensions and job losses, taking the total number of staff - along those from with Network Rail and the train companies - to more than 50,000.

Does the public support their right to strike? A poll on ITV's Good Morning Britain:

This is after 12 years of Conservative Party rule.

Okay, I am officially dreaming again thinking that unions could have that kind of pull here but a credible threat of a job action is the only way workers will come close to keeping up with the cost of living.