Size of Budget Spending Increases Up for Debate

Just how much is spending increasing in the city under the new budget? It depends on whom you ask.

Mayor Bloomberg and his aides have emphasized that spending this fiscal year is almost flat, with a slight increase coming in below the rate of inflation, but budget experts say spending is much higher. That's because the administration and outside observers are not comparing the same figures.

When city officials talk about spending increases, they are referring exclusively to the spending of city funds, and excluding revenues from the state and federal government from the equation. As a result, the city can trumpet a hard line on spending, though overall spending in the city may be going up at a higher rate.

Budget officials at the Citizens Budget Commission and the city's Independent Budget Office said yesterday that their calculations show overall spending increasing somewhere between 3.6% and 3.7% during this fiscal year, which started yesterday.

"The real question is, which is the more meaningful number?" the research director at the Citizens Budget Commission, Charles Brecher, said. "I think to reflect the scale of city activities, the all-funds spending is more meaningful."

As an example, Mr. Brecher noted that the city's Department of Education gets much of its funding from the state, but the amount it spends from year to year is of interest to many New Yorkers, no matter where the funds come from.

When the mayor announced a budget deal with Speaker Christine Quinn last week, he talked about city-funded spending.

"We are putting the lid on city-funded spending," he said. "It's been kept virtually flat for the next year compared to this."

The new budget includes a 1.6% increase in spending of city funds, which is lower than the projected annual rate of inflation, 2.7%, he said.

A spokesman for the mayor, Stuart Loeser, said that through the budget there is a clear distinction between city taxpayer-funded spending and money that comes from Washington or elsewhere. He said there is also a clear distinction between the city's controllable spending and its mandated costs.

The city's $59.1 billion budget contains $44.05 billion in city funds, according to the official.

Even with the new spending figures, Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said: "It's fair to say that this is the lowest spending increase Bloomberg has enacted."

"You can tell he is starting to think about these future budget deficits, something he has not done in previous years," she said.