NYC Faces $9B Deficit, Could Cut 22K City Jobs: Mayor

NEW YORK CITY — About 22,000 city workers could lose their jobs this fall as New York prepares to slash further a wartime budget to cope with a $9 billion deficit, more than $1 billion more than initially estimated.

"We have only a few days left before we have to pass the city budget," said de Blasio. "We are running out of options here, that is the blunt truth."

All city agencies, including the Mayor's office, will see layoffs, said de Blasio, disappointed that neither federal nor state government came through with a stimulus package or permission to borrow.

The U.S. Senate allocated just $1.4 billion to New York City in the $2.2 trillion recovery package passed in March and Gov. Andrew Cuomo nixed last month de Blasio's pleas for borrowing power, arguing the move was "fiscally questionable."

Cuomo reiterated his hesitancy Wednesday and said his decision would rely on federal stimulus and the economic recovery that could accompany the city's reopening.

"A state could never allow a locality to go bankrupt," Cuomo said Wednesday. "That's why we're very diligent about the decisions that are made because ultimately we'd have to take over."

While the city will work with labor unions to find ways to save money through the collective bargaining, without a large influx of cash, New York will likely need to cut a big new notch in its belt, de Blasio said.

"We need a billion dollars," de Blasio said. "It's just pure math."

The mayor stood firm on his pledge to redirect cash away from the NYPD toward other city agencies but noted it wasn't a money-saving move since the budget would continue to fund its safety protocols.

"That reprioritization has to happen," de Blasio said. "I want to see reprioritization to our young people but I want to keep us safe."

De Blasio's initially proposed a $95.3 billion budget in January that did not account for the mass unemployment spurred by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's stay-in-place order.

His second, "wartime" executive budget was cut down to $89.3 billion to make room for an estimated $7.4 billion in lost tax revenue, did not align with a report from the Independent Budget Office report that New York City would lose an estimated 475,000 jobs and up to $9.7 billion.