‘Don’t spend it all, Blaz!’
Yang warns on stimulus cash
Mayoral contender Andrew Yang urged Mayor de Blasio on Monday to set aside a sizable chunk of the federal stimulus money coming to New York City — and warned that spending the cash quickly could send the city over “a very, very steep fiscal cliff.”
Yang, who’s consistently led the field of candidates in recent polls, was short on specifics when asked where the city should refrain from spending the cash relief, but did say that “there should have been a hiring freeze.”
He also suggested de Blasio could have done a better job finding savings and eliminating inefficiencies in city government as the pandemic’s fiscal fallout left a huge hole in city revenue streams.
“These things have not happened, and they should have happened,” Yang said Monday morning in City Hall Park. “What should not happen is that all of the difficult decisions get kicked down the road for the next administration.”
Yang wants de Blasio (inset) to set aside 70% of federal stimulus money for city budgets after he leaves office at the end of this year and suggested Hizzoner’s legacy would be tarnished if he doesn’t act in the city’s long-term financial interest.
He cited projections that the city could face shortfalls of up to $5 billion a year “for the next number of years” as support for an austere approach to how the stimulus is spent. He also hit de Blasio for adding approximately 30,000 new jobs to the city’s municipal workforce since coming to City Hall in 2014.
“It’s not clear that all these additional hires are on the front lines doing things that are going to help accelerate our recovery,” he said.
“I am here today to personally implore Mayor Bill de Blasio to take a multiyear approach to the federal stimulus money and see it as a recovery fund that should be spent over a number of years, not a number of months,” he said.
“Bill, this is going to define your legacy. If you spend all of this money and leave New Yorkers holding the bag one to two years from now, when the cuts come, we will know it was because you failed to take the tough decisions now.”
Team de Blasio begged to differ with Yang’s portrayal of the facts.
“Austerity is not the answer for our recovery, and a basic fact check would have helped Mr. Yang avoid confusion today.
“The stimulus is in fact sent to the city at 50% over two years.
“The president pushed forward this stimulus to drive economic recovery immediately after the mayor balanced the budget with billions in savings,” said de Blasio spokesman Bill Neidhardt.
“We furloughed nonunion employees and there is a strict 3-for-1 attrition to hiring policy for everything outside of health and public safety.
“Does Yang wish we left the city with fewer doctors during a pandemic?”