No long-term budget balance. No substantial human service innovations. Moreover, as Table 2 shows, enacted and proposed tax cuts do very little for average New Yorkers. The deficit has, in other words, been created by the Mayor and City Council s unnecessary tax cuts. In the new package the average New Yorker again gets very little.
Businesses are the chief beneficiaries.
Reflecting a familiar lack of irony or any sense of embarrassment, this Preliminary Budget, like last year s, ignores the opportunities in the new budget surplus and once again cuts essential human service programs. The only difference this year is that Mayor Giuliani acknowledged his cynical intent. We take things out of the budget, we put them back. In the Mayor s view, this keeps the Council from considering more serious budget matters. The cynicism is clear.