Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The city's relationship with its wealthiest residents' most profitable corporations
Speaker 2: also has to change so that we can bring this
Speaker 2: city back to firm financial footing. You know, as the mayor,
Speaker 2: I am legally required to balance the budget of this
Speaker 2: fiscal year and the next. That is something we are
Speaker 2: fully going to do. In order to do so, we
Speaker 2: have to deal with these structural problems.
Speaker 3: That was New York City Marizona and mom Donnie speaking
Speaker 3: with Bloomberg just a few weeks ago, warning of the
Speaker 3: city's twelve point six billion dollar budget gap over the
Speaker 3: next two years. Mark Levin he is New York City Control,
Speaker 3: where he joins us now on set to discuss market's.
Speaker 1: Great to see you, Great to see both of you.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: So let's start exactly there, the budget gap. I mean,
Speaker 3: when you take a look at how that possibly could
Speaker 3: be fixed, is there any hope of fixing that from
Speaker 3: the revenue side or is it going to be cutting costs?
Speaker 1: You know, our revenues are pretty good right now, partly
Speaker 1: because the finance industry is doing so well, but more
Speaker 1: than that, commercial real estate's doing the best it's been
Speaker 1: for twenty years. The problem is that we have some
Speaker 1: expenses that are growing very fast that have not been
Speaker 1: accounted for in the budget. And when we took a
Speaker 1: look at the books, what we've seen is a very
Speaker 1: big gap, which is something we haven't seen in New
Speaker 1: York City since at this scale, since the financial crisis.
Speaker 1: How are we going to solve it? It's going to
Speaker 1: require help on many fronts. We're going to definitely need
Speaker 1: to find efficiencies within the city government. We're going to
Speaker 1: need some help from Albany. I hope I'll be going
Speaker 1: there Wednesday to plead that case. I think we can
Speaker 1: get through this, But this is beyond what we have
Speaker 1: seen in a budget cycle in probably fifteen years.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about what you're seeing when it comes to
Speaker 3: cost because taking a look at some of them, it
Speaker 3: seems like there's sources that are constantly under budget, and
Speaker 3: if you want to call it that, over time for
Speaker 3: uniform officers for example, comes to mind. But where are
Speaker 3: you seeing the biggest growth when it comes to that
Speaker 3: side of the ledger?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that we have an equivalent of a Section
Speaker 1: eight housing voucher in New York City. It's got a
Speaker 1: weird acronym. It's called City Steps. We're one of the
Speaker 1: only places in the country that has a local version
Speaker 1: of this great program. Guys, is growing by four percent
Speaker 1: a month, and I think your audience understands exponentials, and
Speaker 1: so it's doubling every eighteen months, and we projected it'll
Speaker 1: be over three billion dollars next year.
Speaker 4: Butiam, I'm back up. Section eight to me means something
Speaker 4: different than I'm sure what you're talking about, because I
Speaker 4: think of mash and corporal Clinger. Right, you're talking about
Speaker 4: housing value, money that we pay people to afford to
Speaker 4: be able to live here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a voucher you can use to rent
Speaker 1: housing in a private building, right, so not public housing.
Speaker 1: You can go to a home you can find throughout
Speaker 1: New York City. Section eights a limited supply from the
Speaker 1: federal government. We have a local version. Great program. It's
Speaker 1: growing out an astounding pace.
Speaker 4: What we just give we give out more and more.
Speaker 1: You're saying, yes, we've expanded the qualifications. It's designed for
Speaker 1: people who are in homeless shelters or in danger of homelessness,
Speaker 1: to help them get out of the shelter.
Speaker 4: Who wants them to get out of New York City.
Speaker 1: I mean, why have.
Speaker 4: In the most expensive city in America? Why are we
Speaker 4: putting people up here? Why not move them to places
Speaker 4: that are cheaper to live.
Speaker 1: Well, we want them to be New Yorkers. This is
Speaker 1: part of our city, in our community, and they have
Speaker 1: family ties here and more. And we can do this,
Speaker 1: but we're not budgeting for it, and it's blown a
Speaker 1: hole in our budget. That is billions of dollars. Raining
Speaker 1: in or updating programs like that is going to be
Speaker 1: key to getting out of this hole.
Speaker 3: Well, you mentioned, for example, the performance of Wall Street.
Speaker 3: You think about how well Wall Street did, how well
Speaker 3: the stock market did over the past year. Would you
Speaker 3: expect that to shrink the deficit when we get those
Speaker 3: updated numbers. Are some of the costs that you're talking
Speaker 3: about that are growing exponentially going to just have that
Speaker 3: come out in the wall?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was. New York City's economy on
Speaker 1: the whole is doing very well. Also, real estate taxes
Speaker 1: are producing more revenue than we expected, sales tax again,
Speaker 1: personal income tax, and we do expect to further revise
Speaker 1: those numbers because the bonus season we had. One Wall
Speaker 1: Street person told me it's the second best they've seen
Speaker 1: in their entire career this year for December of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. But even factoring that in, we're going to
Speaker 1: be left with a whole And so while we want
Speaker 1: to keep the economy going, we want to grow New
Speaker 1: York City's economy. That is the ultimate solution to our
Speaker 1: budget problems, and I'm going to be a voice for
Speaker 1: that as comptroller. We have a complete freeze on hiring
Speaker 1: in New York and the private sector in New York.
Speaker 1: In New York City, with the exception of home healthcare AIDS,
Speaker 1: it's all come to a screeching halt over the past year.
Speaker 1: We've got to get that going as well. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to be a voice for getting jobs growing again.
Speaker 1: Because it's going to drive tax revenue. That won't be enough.
Speaker 1: We're also going to have to have some efficiencies in
Speaker 1: government and a little helpful almoney.
Speaker 3: There is the line of thinking out there that mayor
Speaker 3: Mom Donnie might be exaggering the scope of the budget
Speaker 3: problems to really make his case for tax hike, which
Speaker 3: is popular which his base of supporters, and then very
Speaker 3: unpopular with people outside his base. I mean, what do
Speaker 3: you make of some of.
Speaker 1: That we have a real gap, and I'd rather have
Speaker 1: a mayor who embraces it so we can fix it
Speaker 1: then a mayor who just tries to keep kicking the
Speaker 1: can down the road. So I think this is good news. Look,
Speaker 1: I think that we've got to get our fiscal house
Speaker 1: in order. I do think we need more help from Albany.
Speaker 1: Everything needs to be on the table. I would think
Speaker 1: potentially including tax increases, but you hear me talking about
Speaker 1: some other priorities. This is what I'm pushing for. I
Speaker 1: think this is solvable. This is I don't use the
Speaker 1: word crisis. I think this is a challenge that we
Speaker 1: can solve with smart policy.
Speaker 4: I just wonder, you know, even if you agree that
Speaker 4: you know, pre K should be free and in a
Speaker 4: good wealthy society, it probably should be. Even if you
Speaker 4: agree that local transportation should be free, which is I
Speaker 4: guess a nice to have, even if you want to
Speaker 4: continue to pass out and ever growing at four percent
Speaker 4: a month amount of housing vouchers for people to live here,
Speaker 4: isn't it when you're in a budget deficit like this time,
Speaker 4: to stop just giving away so much money.
Speaker 1: Look, we are definitely going to need a little more
Speaker 1: discipline in New York City's budget. You've heard me talk
Speaker 1: about one of the programs, and there's many others. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean we can't do bold things. And in the
Speaker 1: case of childcare, I really do think New York City
Speaker 1: needs I think every place should have it. The Governor
Speaker 1: put about a billion on the table to help us
Speaker 1: start on that, and we can begin to phase in
Speaker 1: a program like that. It's going to take several years
Speaker 1: just building it out logistically, but this is going to
Speaker 1: be a tougher budget, and I think we can confront
Speaker 1: that still try to be creative on addressing affordability and more. Look,
Speaker 1: some of what we need to do is not about
Speaker 1: the budget. We got to build more housing. We need
Speaker 1: a half million more units in New York City. That's
Speaker 1: going to require, in part, unleashing private sector development as well.
Speaker 1: It's not only about what the public sector can do.
Speaker 4: We need a partnership and we also need probably better
Speaker 4: transportation from outside in so that we don't build all
Speaker 4: that housing on this tiny island right there is just
Speaker 4: and has been a core case about building this new
Speaker 4: tunnel project. Have you thought about just naming Penn Station
Speaker 4: or the Empire State Building after President Trump and trying
Speaker 4: to get money like that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be honest, I would take that trade because
Speaker 1: we desperately need to invest in this infrastructure, and we
Speaker 1: could also rename it after this guy's out of office,
Speaker 1: whatever it takes. We need regional transportation infrastructure, and every
Speaker 1: single commuter train stop should have residential density around it.
Speaker 1: That would also help alleviate the housing affordability crisis within
Speaker 1: the five brols of New York City.