Comptroller: City can handle financial challenges in future

Real Estate Weekly, Jan 23, 2002 by Elaine Misonznik

Speaking at the Institute of Real Estate Management's monthly meeting on Jan. 15, New York City comptroller William C. Thompson assured the audience that New York will be able to survive the financial difficulties that lie ahead. Although the city currently has a large budget deficit and faces the challenge of rebuilding Lower Manhattan, proposed reductions in government spending and federal and state aid packages should help us recover by 2004.

"What we have found ourselves in is a very challenging situation, not unlike the one we experienced in the 1970's," Thompson said. "But this is not the same city as it was in the 1970's. We have the ability to deal with a fiscal crisis."

Thompson praised the plan of new Mayor Michael Bloomberg to cut spending at each of the City's agencies by 20%, stressing that the cutbacks will not affect the quality of service, but will take place gradually through attrition. He also advocated such measures as bond refinancing on the City's capital gap and redistribution of federal aid money to take care of New York's most urgent needs, not just Downtown.

"What we are looking at is two very difficult years ahead," Thompson said. "We can do that if we look at the way corporations do financing. But the one thing we have to be careful about is not sacrificing long-term benefits in exchange for short-term capital gains."

Thompson also noted that he would like to see the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan take place as soon as possible, including a new transportation hub that would provide New Jersey and Uptown residents with easy access to Downtown.

"We have to rebuild as quickly as possible, but we need to do it in an intelligent fashion," he said. "We should increase the use of water ferries by improving and rebuilding the piers. We should rebuild the Path train station. And we should rebuild the complex in a way that would provide public transportation, electric and other services for us for the next 100 years, not only for the short-term future."

One thing Thompson vehemently opposes, however, is the idea of increasing taxes to help the City recover.

"We can't retreat back to that if we want to keep businesses in New York," he said. "We have learned that that [approach] doesn't work already."