Take The City And Run

From 2005 NYC Voter Guide:

QUESTION 4. Balanced Budget and Other City Fiscal Requirements

These changes to the City Charter, as proposed by the New York City Charter Revision Commission, would establish as Charter requirements the following fiscal mandates that, in general, now apply to the City through a State law enacted in response to the City’s 1975 fiscal crisis. The changes would add these mandates to the City Charter so that they would continue to apply after the State law expires. The changes would:

• Require that the City annually prepare a budget balanced in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and end each year not showing a deficit in accordance with those principles;
• Require that the Mayor annually prepare a four-year City financial plan, to be based on reasonable assumptions and modified on at least a quarterly basis, and that the plan provide for payment of the City’s debts and a general reserve of at least $100 million to cover shortfalls;
• Impose additional conditions on the Charter’s current restrictions on short-term debt (which may be issued by the City to fund a projected deficit or in anticipation of the receipt of funds from taxes, revenues, and bonds). These conditions generally limit the duration and amount of the short-term debt; and
• Impose additional conditions on the annual audit of the City’s accounts that is currently required by the Charter. These conditions relate to application of generally accepted auditing standards and access by auditors to records so that the audit may be issued within four months after the close of the City fiscal year.

Shall the proposed changes be adopted?

NOTE: QUESTIONS MAY BE NUMBERED DIFFERENTLY ON THE BALLOT

The main criticism of this proposal is that perhaps it does not do enough. It’s taking only part of the rules currently in place on the state level — set to expire in 2008 — and incorporating them at the local level. So what about the rest? Probably best to keep on keeping on and take what we can get while we can get it. If the other rules are needed, we can only trust that they will follow in kind.

Recommendation: VOTE YES ON PROPOSAL 4