With the temperature in the city rising many New Yorkers across the city hope to take refuge in one of the city’s many parks this holiday weekend.
Yet, with the states budget in limbo Mayor Bloomberg has proposed cutting the Parks Department budge by 9.4 percent. This cut leaves city parks with a budget of $239 million causing layoffs and service cuts that include the possible closing of pools.
It's part of the city’s efforts to cut funds to many if not all city departments as Mayor Bloomberg wrestles with a $ 4.9 billion budget gap.
The mayor isn’t the only one wrestling with the budget. According to the New York Post, the State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has proposed a plan that could generate revenues and avoid the budget cuts that Governor David Patterson has proposed.
The plan proposed by Silver would raise the states “millionaire tax.” Last year Silver blazed a trail in the state senate, which imposed a tax on people earning over $200,000 a year. But due to a weak economy and Wall Street wrangling, the tax failed to raise the $4 billion that lawmakers had expected.
Silver’s new proposal will increase the already existing tax rate from 8.97 percent to 9.97, an increase of 11 percent from last year. The plan would replace the $2 billion borrowing plan proposed by Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch.
The new tax would target taxpayers who earn $1 million or more a year. This affects 75,000 people statewide. However, it stands to raise revenue for the state of New York in the amount of $1 billion dollars. Which could help keep city departments operating at normal capacity, especially during those warm summer days.
