Blas’ Viral Spending

Want to know why Washington balks at sending the city money? Read Julia Marsh’s Post story last week on the $2 million Mayor de Blasio just spent on new hires and pay hikes.

Even as he threatens layoffs and furloughs, de Blasio brought in or promoted at least 10 people, many with six-figure salaries, boosting payroll costs by $2 million.

ThriveNYC spokesman Joshua Goodman, for one, got a nice $45,000 raise (upping his pay to $175,000) when he became the Sanitation Department’s assistant commissioner for public affairs. Ashley Ross-Teel came on board as City Hall’s $160,000 chief content officer.

The mayor’s “unfettered spending” never stops, rails City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens). The city claims it’s in a hiring freeze, yet “we see nothing but high-paying hirings and promotions” — even as the mayor threatens layoffs. As Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) notes, many of the hires and raises surely could have waited.

A city spokeswoman argues that there’s an exception for COVID-19-related hirings, and some were slotted pre-crisis. Yet since 2014, de Blasio has bloated the city head count by more than 30,000, or 10 percent, putting it at 330,000. Couldn’t of them do the work assigned to the new folks?

No, $2 million isn’t much in a $90 billion budget. But de Blasio predicts a $6.6 billion drop in revenue for the fiscal year that starts June 1, thanks to the pandemic. So why boost staffing costs at all?

It’s all in keeping with de Blasio’s stunning lack of serious budget reforms in the face of a historic fiscal hit. Indeed, the plan he unveiled in April actually increases cityfunded spending rather than cut it, Independent Budget Office figures show.

De Blasio is also drawing on reserves — and hoping for billions from the feds. But if Congress sees he can’t even skip $2 million in discretionary spending, why would it trust him with a dime more?