Bloomberg Calls for 250 Layoffs, 1500 by Attrition, New York City $500M over Budget

The New York City government continues to squelch spending. Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to cut more than 250 jobs in city government by the end of June 2012, which will save $500 million dollars. The cutbacks will continue with nearly 1,500 additional employees over the next fiscal year.

The Department of Cultural of Affairs will be the hardest hit by the cutbacks, losing 109 employees before the end of the year. The Fire Department will lose 44 non-uniform employees and the Police Department will not lose any employees.

The city is also hoping to trash the Department of Sanitation by dumping, in 2013, 254 union spots and another 50 civilian ones through attrition, according to the New York Daily News Recent cutbacks have had a positive effect on the budget deficit. The city projects that the 2013 budget deficit will be reduced to $2 billion from 4.6 billion, according to the published report. As part of the budget through 2013, schools will reduce spending by $301 million, and the police department will reduce their costs by $74.6 million. The departmental budget reductions were paired with $1 billion in revenue generated from taxi medallion sales.

Even with a billion dollars in new taxi-medallion revenue and the savings items released today, we still need to fill a $2 billion hole, and the national economic picture remains volatile and highly uncertain, Mark LaVorgna, the mayor's spokesman, told the News.