Bill’s big bills

As New York City reels from the coronavirus wipeout of billions in expected tax revenue, state legislators this week rightly tabled a bill granting the city carte blanche to borrow $7 billion to pay operating expenses. Borrowing to cover those costs, history proves, causes long-term harm, and should be reserved as a last resort.

On the books, this year’s and next year’s budgets are balanced. But Mayor de Blasio insists that without billions in help from lenders or Washington, he’ll have to make deep cuts in city services.

As he wags the finger, he should turn toward the mirror.

Under de Blasio, city payroll climbed from 297,349 in 2014 to 333,859 this year, an eye-popping 36,510 new employees. That increase by itself is the size of the total payroll of the city of Chicago. The mayor says many of the new employees are universal pre-k teachers or cops. But nearly every city agency has grown under his watch.

The mayor’s office alone has grown 48% since he took office, swelling from 860 employees in 2014 to 1,369 in 2020. De Blasio’s created 14 entirely new city departments, ballooning an already-huge bureaucracy.

City employees earn an average $85,636 per year, well above the citywide $60,762 median income. Now, although one in five city residents have lost their jobs, employees in de Blasio’s office are slated for $2 million in increased pay in 2021.

Our response to de Blasio’s grandstanding is the same as our directive regarding overstuffed city spending: Cut it out.