You are reading

Mayor and His Staff to Take One Week Unpaid Leave to Tackle Budget Crisis

Mayor Bill de Blasio holds at a press briefing at City Hall Wednesday (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Sept. 16, 2020 By Michael Dorgan 

Mayor Bill de Blasio and his entire office staff will take one week of unpaid leave in order to help tackle the city’s fiscal crisis amid the coronavirus shutdown.

The mayor said that the mandatory furloughs – which will affect nearly 500 employees – will save the city nearly $1 million.

The city is estimated to lose around $9 billion in tax revenue because of the coronavirus shutdown and the furloughs will apply to everyone in the mayor’s administration including the office of his wife Chirlane McCray. De Blasio said he will work without pay during his time off.

“This is a painful step, but it shows just how committed we are to responsible budgeting and leading the city through these challenging times,” de Blasio said at a press briefing Wednesday.

“It was not a decision I made lightly,” he added. “It is the right thing to do at this moment in history.”

Employees will have to take a week of unpaid leave during a six-month period beginning in October, de Blasio said, as he tries to balance the city’s books.

The mayor has pleaded for a bailout from the federal government to help the city get through the crisis but without success. He has a strained relationship with President Donald Trump.

De Blasio is also trying to get the state to give it the authority to borrow money to cover the shortfall.

The mayor has warned that he may lay off 22,000 municipal employees if the city doesn’t get either federal assistance or the state doesn’t give him emergency authority to borrow $5 billion to pay for operating expenses.

“We need our partners in the state government to give New York City long term borrowing authority,” de Blasio said.

“We have to keep making tough choices to move the city forward, to keep our budget balanced,” he said.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Queens man sentenced to 7 years in prison for 2021 attempted kidnapping in Richmond Hill: DA

A Fresh Meadows man was sentenced to seven years in prison for attempting to kidnap a 5-year-old boy in Richmond Hill in July 2021, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Tuesday.

James McGonagle, 27, of Parsons Boulevard, pleaded guilty in Queens Supreme Court in November to attempted kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child for grabbing the child off a sidewalk before his mother and siblings thwarted the abduction.

Lawmakers secure federal funding to combat flooding in Queens after impact of Hurricane Ida and other storms

U.S. Congresswomen Grace Meng and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, announced on Jan. 7 that President Joe Biden has signed their legislation into law to address severe flooding in Queens.

The measure aims to mitigate future disasters like those caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida in September 2021, which inundated the borough with record-shattering rainfall.

Op-ed | New York’s ground lease co-ops: Our families can’t wait any longer 

Jan. 14, 2025 By Michael Tang 

Last December brought a long-awaited victory for New York City. Our City Council adopted the historic City of Yes housing plan, paving the way for more than 80,000 new homes by 2040 with the promise of affordability. As a longtime resident of Flushing, Queens, I naturally welcomed the news – it’s a much-needed reprieve for New Yorkers as housing costs continue to soar in the midst of an unparalleled housing crisis. But entering 2025 on the heels of this win, we residents at  Murray Hill Cooperative remain at risk — our lives are virtually unchanged because we belong to the last class of unprotected “tenants” as ground lease co-op residents. Without legislative action, more than 25,000 New Yorkers face the threat of losing their homes — homes that we own — to landowners seeking to raise our ground rent to astronomical rates.