Mayor Says He’ll Leave de Blasio No Deficit
By KATE TAYLOR and DAVID W. CHEN
The financial picture that New York City’s next mayor will face just got a little brighter.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Thursday that he was leaving his successor, Bill de Blasio, with a balanced budget for the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1 — a rosier outlook than the $2 billion deficit that his administration had projected in June. The change is due to a combination of savings and greater-than-projected tax revenues, the mayor said.
“It doesn’t make the next mayor’s job easy,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference at City Hall. “But it reduces the pain.”
The announcement, which had been widely expected by budget experts, comes as Mr. Bloomberg is trying, despite his policy differences from Mayor-elect de Blasio, to preside over what he has called “a world-class transition.” Mr. Bloomberg said that it was the first time “in modern memory” that a mayor had left his successor a balanced budget for the coming year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/nyregion/mayor-says-hell-leave-de-blasio-no-deficit.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytmetro&_r=0