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New York City may need to layoff as many as 22,000 city employees to cover a billion dollar budget gap due to the pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said today.
De Blasio opened his Wednesday presser addressing “tough” news discussing the potential option of furloughs and layoffs as the city addresses its revenue shortfall.
“We are dealing with the greatest economic crisis this city has known in almost 90 years,” on top of the healthcare crisis, he said.
The city estimates a minimum of $9 billion of lost revenue, with the possibility that it may be more.
In a matter of days the city has to pass the budget. They have adjusted it down to an $87 billion budget — down from a $95 billion-plus budget in February.
De Blasio said it’s getting to the point where the city will have to make “very very difficult choices”
He continued: “The last resort would be layoff and furloughs,” of city workers, he said, adding he doesn’t want to do it but “we are running out of options here, that is the blunt truth.”
When asked which agencies would see layoffs the mayor said, “If we get to that level” it would “literally be every single agency, and the mayor’s office.”
He added that the city is in deep conversations with labor unions trying to find better alternatives.