The latest round in the feud, from Bloomberg’s spokesman Marc Lavorgna:
Albany wants to have it both ways: take credit for a budget with real cuts and take no responsibility for the consequences of those cuts.
Re: the comment that the “Department of Education has a surplus of over $300 million.” False. The Independent Budget Office, City Comptroller John Liu and the State Financial Control Board all agree we do not have extra funds and additional cuts would be needed without $600 million changes in the State budget, which did not occur.
Another fact: the Governor made a decision to eliminate the $300 million revenue sharing allocation for New York City that was included in last year’s budget, and in the State’s November financial plan. Including this funding in our City budget was not a hope and a prayer, it was part of the State law that passed last year. The Governor could have made a different decision, and presumably he thought this was the right one.
We disagree.
