Comptroller: City can handle financial challenges in future.Speaking at the Institute of Real Estate Management's monthly meeting on Jan. 15, New York City comptroller The Office of Comptroller of New York City is the chief fiscal officer and chief auditing officer of the city. The comptroller is elected, citywide, to a four-year term and can hold office for two consecutive terms. William C. Thompson assured the audience that New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of will be able to survive the financial difficulties that lie ahead. Although the city currently has a large budget deficit and faces the challenge of rebuilding Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York. Lower Manhattan is generally defined as the area delineated on the north by Chambers Street, on the west by the Hudson River (North , proposed reductions in government spending Government spending or government expenditure consists of government purchases, which can be financed by seigniorage, taxes, or government borrowing. It is considered to be one of the major components of gross domestic product. and federal and state aid packages should help us recover by 2004. "What we have found ourselves in is a very challenging situation, not unlike the one we experienced in the 1970's," Thompson said. "But this is not the same city as it was in the 1970's. We have the ability to deal with a fiscal crisis." Thompson praised the plan of new Mayor Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born 14 February 1942) is an American businessman, and the founder of Bloomberg L.P., currently serving as the Mayor of New York City. He was a general partner at Salomon Brothers before founding the financial software service company in 1981. to cut spending at each of the City's agencies by 20%, stressing that the cutbacks will not affect the quality of service, but will take place gradually through attrition. He also advocated such measures as bond refinancing on the City's capital gap and redistribution of federal aid money to take care of New York's most urgent needs, not just Downtown. "What we are looking at is two very difficult years ahead," Thompson said. "We can do that if we look at the way corporations do financing. But the one thing we have to be careful about is not sacrificing long-term benefits in exchange for short-term capital gains Short-term capital gain A profit on the sale of a security or mutual fund share that has been held for one year or less. A short-term capital gain is taxed as ordinary income. ." Thompson also noted that he would like to see the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan take place as soon as possible, including a new transportation hub Transportation hub is a location where traffic is exchanged across several modes of transport. These modes may include any of railway, tramway, rapid transit, bus, automobile, truck, airplane, spacecraft, ship, ferry, pedestrian or any other kind of transportation. that would provide New Jersey and Uptown residents with easy access to Downtown. "We have to rebuild as quickly as possible, but we need to do it in an intelligent fashion," he said. "We should increase the use of water ferries by improving and rebuilding the piers. We should rebuild the Path train station. And we should rebuild the complex in a way that would provide public transportation, electric and other services for us for the next 100 years, not only for the short-term future." One thing Thompson vehemently opposes, however, is the idea of increasing taxes to help the City recover. "We can't retreat back to that if we want to keep businesses in New York," he said. "We have learned that that [approach] doesn't work already." |
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