12/11/19: "City budget for dummies with Council Office of Financial Analysis"
Budget analyst Jonathan Silverstein, of the Council Office of Financial Analysis, lays out a 2020 "city budget for dummies," including: how COFA has come unleashed--and how it's still "hamstrung;" how the City Council's finance, budget, and analysis staffs differ in function; which 2020 budget changes came from outside forces vs. the mayor's choices; how pension law and past debt indulgences led to a projected 2020 deficit; the lasting effect of past lawsuit settlement underestimates; how the mayor touted "zero based budgeting," but we have "no way of verifying that;" "inefficient" hiring slow-downs as a legacy method of cost savings; and how the Law Dept. should "lawyer up," while it chafes at the Shakman bit. Length 6.2 minutes.