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Article: Minding the gaps: New York's budget.(American Survey)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 7, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK
EVERY year, New Yorkers witness a quaint ritual. First, both the city and (usually belatedly) the state hammer out their budgets for the coming fiscal year. Invariably, these have a big hole in them: early last year, for instance, the city faced a budget gap of $2.7 billion for fiscal 1996, and the state faced a shortfall of $4.5 billion. Each year the two New Yorks then go through a series of manoeuvres to close the gaps: cutting services, coming up with "one-shot" savings, and using sleights of refinancing to defer spending to the future. So another, usually bigger, "structural deficit" looms the following year. And the next year. And so, endlessly, on.
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