Giuliani Campaign Press Release - Rudy Makes ¢ents Day Three: Mayor Giuliani Turned Deficit Into Surplus By Slashing City Spending

"You've got to push back against that impulse to just spend more money. … And the way you do that is by imposing across the board budget cuts, I did them anywhere from 5%, I think maybe the highest I did was 15, might have been 20 the first year that I was in office and had to close that $2.3 billion gap. … But what it did mean was we held down spending growth, sometimes we actually reduced spending for the first time just about in the history of the city, and what we did do, we reduced city government spending consistently over eight years as a percentage of GDP, and New York's economy grew twice as fast as the city budget and that hadn't happened … for a very, very long time."

Giuliani Faced Fiscal Crisis When He Took Office In 1994. "Of all the problems Giuliani will face, none will loom larger – or sooner – than the question of what to do about the city's finances." (Karen Rothmyer, "Giuliani Seen As Good For Business," Newsday, 11/4/93)

Mayor Giuliani Inherited $2.3 Billion Budget Deficit And Turned It Into Multi-Billion Dollar Surplus. (Steven Lee Myers, "A Deficit Revisited," The New York Times, 7/31/94; City Of New York Office Of The Comptroller, Fiscal Year 2001 Comprehensive Annual Report: Basic Financial Statements Part II-A, p. 14)

Giuliani Turned Budget From Crisis By Slashing Spending. "Facing a deficit projected to grow to $2.3 billion because of spending increases built in to the city's budget, Giuliani balanced the books by slashing discretionary spending, by relentlessly pushing for productivity gains from city workers, and by selling city assets. … By the time Giuliani had finished, he'd cut enough city fat not only to offset the billions in automatic spending increases but even to reduce total city spending by $680 million – the first time in nearly a half century that the city's budget shrank from one year to the next." (Steven Malanga, "Soundings: 'Dinkins Redux?'" City Journal, Autumn 2002)

Even After September 11th Attacks, Mayor Giuliani Took Action To Ensure He Turned Over Balanced Budget To Mayor Bloomberg. (New York State Financial Control Board, Staff Report Addressing The Structural Issues, 12/21/01)

Giuliani Reduced Real Per Capita Government Spending By Unprecedented 6.82%. (New York City Gross City Product Data 1990-2005, City Of New York Office Of Comptroller; City Of New York Office Of Management And Budget, The City Of New York Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2000 Message Of The Mayor, p.3; City Of New York Office Of Management And Budget, The City Of New York Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2002 Message Of The Mayor, p. 3; Comptroller of the City of New York, Comprehensive Annual Financial Report of the Comptroller for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2003, 10/31/03; U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Website, data.bls.gov, Accessed 5/3/07)

Giuliani Reduced Government Spending As Percentage Of City Economy Every Year Except 2001. (New York City Gross City Product Data 1990-2005, City Of New York Office Of Comptroller; City Of New York Office Of Management And Budget, The City Of New York Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2000 Message Of The Mayor, p.3; City Of New York Office Of Management And Budget, The City Of New York Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2002 Message Of The Mayor, p. 3)

New York's Economy Grew Nearly Twice As Fast As Government Spending Did. (New York City Gross City Product Data 1990-2005, City Of New York Office Of Comptroller; City Of New York Office Of Management And Budget, The City Of New York Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2000 Message Of The Mayor, p.3; City Of New York Office Of Management And Budget, The City Of New York Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2002 Message Of The Mayor, p. 3)