Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivering his final budget speech. (Photo: nyc.gov)

The city's professor-in-chief delivered his final budget speech at City Hall today and made it clear that he's rather happy with the job he's done balancing the city's books as he passes the baton.

"The news today is I think, reasonably good--as good as it's been in a long time," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters of the $69.8 billion plan. "The city is doing well. All the statistics: crime and school performance and tourists and number of jobs, all of these thing are going in the right direction."

Given his budget-balancing prowess, Mr. Bloomberg offered his advice and warned voters that any candidate promising the city's labor unions retroactive pay raises was putting the city's fiscal footing at risk.

All of the city's municipal unions are currently working on expired contracts as they wait for what they hope will be a more sympathetic administration to win.

"That's just not possible," Mr. Bloomberg said of the raises, warning that--while they might not bankrupt the city--taxes would have to be raised "dramatically" to compensate.

He also warned voters that budget priorities must be set.

"A chicken in every pot is just not realistic," Mr. Bloomberg said.

To help extend his legacy, the mayor said Thursday that he intends to propose a new round of budget cuts days before he leaves office, setting spending priorities on a budget that will begin after he's gone.

"We will be turning over a balanced budget to the next mayor and we're already starting to address the first budget he or she will have to prepare," said the mayor, who said the next mayor faces a projected $2.2-bllion gap.

"Hopefully the next administration will just have to implement it, but the work will be all done for them," he said. "We don't want the next administration to have any more difficulty in doing that than reality necessitates and we'll do everything we can to prepare so that they have less pain, and we'll all be the beneficiaries of that."

The sixth graders from St. Paul's Lutheran School in their Facebook plea to the White House. (Photo: Facebook)

A group of sixth graders from St. Paul's Lutheran School in Waverly, Iowa has turned to the internet to save their school trip to the White House. The children were scheduled to tour the White House on March 16, but their visit was cancelled yesterday along with all other tours of the presidential residence due to "staffing reductions" caused by the so-called "sequester" budget cuts that took effect last Friday after lawmakers failed to make a deficit reduction deal. In an effort to muster support and salvage their trip, the school posted a brief video on Facebook featuring a plea from the children.

"The White House is our house, please let us visit!" the sixth graders say in the clip.

According to Christi Line, the principal of St. Paul's Lutheran, the trip is a "big event" for the children, who are in their final year at the private, Christian school.

"This is our first White House trip and we'd hoped to make it an annual event," Ms. Line told Politicker in a phone call this evening. "This is a new capstone project that we have initiated this year for our sixth grade."

Ms. Line said a parent of one of the students was working to plan the tour. Requests for White House tours are generally processed through the requester's congressional representative. According to Ms. Line, the children were first told their request had been accepted and then cancelled this morning leading to widespread "disappointment" in the class.

"It was kind of a good news, bad news thing. we just found out that our tour had been approved and, of course, we were finding out at the same time that they were not doing White House tours now," said Ms. Line. "Students had been hoping that we would be accepted for a tour. Our trip was coming up in just a couple of weeks and we knew based on when we applied for that that we would find out sort of at the last minute with just a little time left. So, we had been waiting every day to hear."

Ms. Line said the Facebook plea was proposed by the parent who tried to plan the tour. She stressed it was simply an effort to salvage the tour for the children and "not a political statement." As of this writing, the White House Press Office has not responded to a request to respond to the children's video.

"We were absolutely adamant that this not be a political issue for us. This is not about politics for our students, this is just about wanting to have the opportunity to visit the White House. One of the reasons we chose Washington D.C. as opposed to Chicago or St. Louis or some place else for our capstone trip was that it's the kind of trip that not every family has the ability to take on their own," Ms. Line said.

Ms. Line described the D.C. trip as a chance for the students to "find out more about how the government works," to "extend their learning in the classroom about American history" and to learn more about "how they can live out their lives to make the world a better place." Though the sixth graders won't be able to visit the White House, Ms. Line said the school was not canceling the field trip and that the students would visit other landmarks, including the U.S. Capitol, where House Speaker John Boehner has vowed public tours will continue in spite of the "sequester" cuts.

"We will still go to D.C.," said Ms. Line. "We are not canceling our trip because the White House tour will not be accessible to us."

Update (3/7/13 6:57 P.M.): White House Press Secretary Jay Carney responded to the sixth graders' video in a briefing with reporters today and described the situation as "extremely unfortunate," but unavoidable.

(Photo: Getty)

Three members of New York City's congressional delegation have signed on to a letter vowing not to back any White House bargain to avoid the $85 billion in automatic budget cuts known as the sequester that includes cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Both parties have been at an impasse over the cuts with Democrats favoring debt reduction through tax increases and Republicans wanting spending cuts. President Barack Obama has repeatedly expressed a desire to make a deal ahead of the March 1 deadline that includes both tax increases and proposals to reduce the costs of social programs. Now, Congressmen Jerry Nadler, Jose Serrano and Nydia Velazquez have all signed the pledge promising not to back any deal including the compromises being called for by the White House.

"Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the great bedrocks of our middle class society and, together, constitute an essential safety net for millions of Americans," Mr. Nadler said. "I will fight like hell against any deficit plan that cuts these programs or fails to address our immediate jobs problem. It is unconscionable for Republicans to ask those who can least afford it – seniors, kids, our most vulnerable families – to sacrifice even more and shoulder a disproportionate burden. I do not support anydeal that cuts Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits."

The letter signed by the trio of New York City House members was originally authored by Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson and California Democratic Rep. Mark Takano. In the letter, they describe cuts to Medicare and Social Security as almost universally opposed by voters. With Mr. Nadler, Mr. Serrano and Ms. Valzquez on board at least 20 House members have signed the letter.

"We write to let you know that we will vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits--including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need," the letter says. "Finally, Americans agree that there is more that must be done to require the rich and giant corporations to pay their fair share. Indeed, it is their patriotic duty to do so. As you negotiate with Republicans, you deserve to know that millions of Americans and the below signed Members of Congress stand ready to fight for the principles listed above."

Several large progressive groups are pushing for more members of Congress to sign the letter including the Working Families Party, Moveon, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, CREDO Action and Social Security Works. They are also soliciting signatures from their membership to demonstrate support for the tough stance against cuts. This morning, the WFP sent out a letter to supporters urging them to sign on and noting "only three New York Representatives have signed the letter so far."

"We commend Representatives Nadler, Serrano and Velázquez for showing some backbone and standing up to protect New York's working families," Working Families Party founder Bill Lipton said in a statement. "After a decade where incomes have stagnated and sunk, New Yorkers cannot afford to have the benefits they have worked hard for cut back. We need to do more to protect our retirees and the most vulnerable, not less."

United participation from House Democrats is crucial to any potential budget bargain as a Tea Party bloc has committed to fighting tax increases. Because of this, a compromise would have to include participation from most Democrats and non-Tea Party Republicans. For his part, Mr. Serrano described the current climate is Washington as including an "obsession" with harmful cuts in his statement announcing his participation in the letter.

"Washington's current obsession with cuts must end. As the President has said, we cannot cut our way to prosperity. This is especially true of our safety net programs," said Mr. Serrano. "Cutting them unduly harms working families and retirees, provides no economic benefit and still asks nothing of the wealthy. I cannot support deficit reduction that targets these middle class mainstays."

Carolyn Maloney

New York City Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney was quite pleased with President Barack Obama's State of the Union address last night, but she's not optimistic about Congress heeding the president's call to to avoid the $85 billion in automatic spending cuts known as the "sequester" that are scheduled to go into effect March 1.

"I love his speech he came out swinging," Ms. Maloney told Politicker about the president's speech last night. 

Ms. Maloney also said "there's no question" President Obama's speech was an indication he will be more aggressive in pushing for his agenda in his second term than he was in his first.

"He sounded very F.D.R. with all his specific programs plans and visions," she said.

One of the central elements of the president's State of the Union address was  a push for Congress to avoid the sequester cuts by coming to a deficit reduction agreement ahead of the deadline. While Republicans have said they want spending cuts to focus on social programs and so-called entitlements, Democrats have focused on closing tax loopholes. President Obama urged his fellow Democrats to "embrace the need for modest reforms" in Medicare and other social programs, but he also expressed the need to get "rid of tax loopholes and deductions."

"I realize that tax reform and entitlement reform will not be easy.  The politics will be hard for both sides.  None of us will get 100 percent of what we want," President Obama said. "But the alternative will cost us jobs, hurt our economy, visit hardship on millions of hardworking Americans.  So let’s set party interests aside and work to pass a budget that replaces reckless cuts with smart savings and wise investments in our future."

Though Ms. Maloney said she "certainly hope[s] that there will be an agreement," she was decidedly pessimistic about the prospect her colleagues in Congress will be able to make a deal to dodge sequestration.

"It's in the interest of the country, it's in the interest of our economy to avoid these across-the-board, automatic cuts, but we seem far apart at this point," explained Ms. Maloney. "In order to move forward, you need compromise, and when the opposition party is saying they're not going to compromise, I don't see how you move forward."

Though she described the Republicans as "pretty dug in" on the budget fight, Ms. Maloney held out hope there may be a last minute deal as there was when Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell managed to come to an agreement to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" earlier this year.

"Maybe they change," Ms. Maloney said of the Republicans. "That's what happened with Biden and McConnell. Maybe Biden and McConnell will come in or the president comes in at the end, but right now, we're marching towards sequestration. I hope we can avert it or there will be an agreement, but they seem very divided."

For his part, Mr. McConnell indicated he won't be part of any at-the-buzzer dealmaking when asked about the looming sequester by The Hill yesterday.

"Read my lips: I am not interested in an eleventh-hour negotiation," he said.

Mayor Bloomberg (Photo: Getty)

Though he still has over 11 months left in office, term-limited Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented the final budget of his tenure today. In the process, Mr. Bloomberg drew some parting shots from the leading Democratic mayoral candidates hoping to succeed him.

The mayor's plan for the coming fiscal year features some potentially unpopular spending cuts including the possible reduction, through attrition, of 1,800 schoolteachers. Mr. Bloomberg blamed these cuts on an immediate "$250 million hit" caused by the "refusal" of the local chapter of the United Federation of Teachers union to reach an agreement on a teacher evaluation system in time for the January 17 imposed Governor Andrew Cuomo as a condition for state education aid. The city now faces a February deadline to reach an agreement on an evaluation system with the union.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn, an early leader in mayoral polls, told reporters she was particularly concerned with proposed firehouse closures.

“The Council has serious concerns about the negative consequences reflected as a result of the absence of a deal on teacher evaluations. A further failure to strike a deal would be potentially devastating to our city’s students," she said in a statement. “The Council is also concerned that the proposed budget would again result in the closure of 20 fire houses, along with cuts to after-school programs, among other areas. As we have said before, we are fully committed to protecting the essential services that New Yorkers depend on."

Ms. Quinn, though an ally of Mr. Bloomberg over the years, has clashed with him over budgetary matters before.

Comptroller John Liu, a more frequent critic of Mr. Bloomberg and another likely mayoral candidate, was even sharper in his critique of Mr. Bloomberg's preliminary budget and described the mayor's criticism of the teacher's union as scapegoating.

“In order to make up the budget shortfall resulting from City Hall’s failed negotiating strategy on teacher evaluations, the Mayor has decided to scapegoat our City’s public school teachers," Mr. Liu stated in a release. "The real fault, however, lies with his own misguided ideology, which could cost our children over $720 million this year alone. He should look to the DOE’s runaway consultant spending rather than make cuts to the classroom."

Bill Thompson, a former comptroller and the runner-up to Mr. Bloomberg in the mayoral election of 2009, was just as eager to rip the mayor. Like Mr. Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Mr. Thompson will be vying for the teacher's union's influential endorsement in the primary.

“The major deficits facing New York City are a direct result of the wrong fiscal policies pursued by the administration and its allies," Mr. Thompson said. "Mayor Bloomberg’s failure to work with labor unions and drop cooperation in favor of name-calling and vitriol has been harmful to our city; one need look no further than these budget problems."

Mr. de Blasio, who formally launched his campaign on Sunday, also unsuprisingly tore into Mr. Bloomberg for the school system cuts.

"This isn’t a legacy to be proud of. Every year the notices go out to parents, informing them that the early childhood education program or after school program they’ve built their lives around has been cut," he said. "Whether the services get restored or not, lives are upended and providers are left scrambling. That’s no way to run an education system. That’s no way to build a solid foundation for thousands of children.  Our children’s futures deserve more than yet another version of the budget dance.”

However, it was former Councilman Sal Albanese, who last held office in 1997 and is hoping to overcome the perception he's a long-shot, who may have released the most fiery statement of them all.

“You can't manage a city like a kingdom or its workforce like serfs. Early in his tenure, Mayor Bloomberg made significant progress in putting the city on solid financial footing," Mr. Albanese said. "But his demonization of city workers proved to be both bad politics and bad public policy. From police to taxi drivers to teachers, he has failed to negotiate fair contracts and tossed a billion dollars in revenue in the trash. He broke his promise to taxpayers and to his successor, who will have to devote precious time to uplifting a demoralized workforce and crafting meaningful long-term fixes to our budget woes."

(Photo: Getty)

Earlier today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented his last preliminary budget briefing and, well, the term-limited mayor reminisced a little about his last year in elected office.

"You know, there's almost nothing that I have done, including--" Mr. Bloomberg began after a reporter asked if he was going to miss preliminary budget announcements, pivoting to change his thought. "Yesterday, somebody said to me, 'Aren't you glad that's the last time you're going to have to testify in Albany?' No, I thought that was a unique opportunity to represent the city."

Mr. Bloomberg then looked more broadly at his record, as well as the country, and reflected on the honor of public service.

"I'd be hard-pressed to come up with anything that I've had to do in the last 11 years and almost 1 month that I didn't enjoy [and] look at as a challenge," he quickly added. "If I had to do it all over again, yeah, sometimes you'd bet on a different lottery number, you'd zig instead of zag. But fundamentally, I think this city is the most wonderful city in the world as I think this country is. And we've had a real opportunity to make a difference, whether it's infrastructure or education or providing services to those who aren't as lucky as other people and investing in all parts of the city. It's been great to do it."

The mayor seemed to realize that it was a little early for a farewell address and proceeded to point to the final year of his term, where he argued he'll get even more accomplished than in previous years.

"Incidentally, this is maybe the wrong speech because I've got 336 days to work as hard as I can. We're going to get an awful lot done in the next 336 days. I think it's fair to say that in all 3 terms that we've had, we've done more in the last year in the last year," he said. "And that continues. If you just think of the number of different things we're getting going here, we've got to get a few more things going which would be great. We're working on a new soccer stadium, as you know. We're working on this and we're working on that. ... We'll hopefully have started a lot of those projects. And then we'll leave it to our successors to do it."

Charlie Rangel (Photo: Getty)

Congressman Charlie Rangel sat down with a small group of reporters yesterday for a wide-ranging discussion at his office. One of the main topics was the brewing battle over the debt ceiling and Politicker asked the congressman for his take on the idea President Barack Obama can avoid a fight with congressional Republicans who won't raise the debt cap by having the Treasury Department mint a $1 trillion coin.

"I'm working on the design, one for the president and one for me," Mr. Rangel said with a smile.

We wondered whether that meant he wanted to see his portrait depicted on the coin.

"No, I want one of the coins," the congressman responded as the assembled reporters laughed. "The president gets one, he puts it in the treasury. I get one, I keep it. Makes sense to me."

Earlier in the conversation, Mr. Rangel criticized Republicans who have said they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts because he said they are solely focused on slashing "so-called entitlements" that are social programs for "vulnerable" portions of the population.

"They're still going to come back and talk about spending. Theres' a lot of money still left, but it appears as though the Republicans are targeting entitlements, entitlements, entitlements. I'll leave it up to you as to why, if you owe $16 trillion and you're trying to cut back spending that you would find out what part of the community is the least able to defend themselves against cuts," said Mr. Rangel.

He went on to describe Republicans' focus on cutting entitlements as being against the religious principles of many conservatives.

"It seems almost unchristian. Especially those who run around saying they're guided by, 'What would Jesus do?,' to pick Social Security, which is a supplement for pensions for the aged....To pick Medicaid, which you take when you have to be two things to be eligible; you have to be sick and you have to be poor," Mr. Rangel said. "Then, of course, the last thing is Medicare, which means that you have to be old and sick. Now, with all of the programs that we have, it seems as though that the ones that we're concentrating on are these three so-called entitlements."

Mr. Rangel also weighed in on the idea President Obama could also dodge the debt fight by unilaterally raising the ceiling using authority given to him by a provision in the 14th Amendment. President Obama has said his lawyers were "not persuaded" that this approach would be legal.

In Mr. Rangel's interpretation of the amendment, the president does indeed have the authority to unilaterally raise the borrowing ceiling. Though he said he doesn't "see how it could be unconstitutional" to bypass the debt debate with the 14th Amendment, Mr. Rangel said he would defer to President Obama and his lawyers on the issue.

"I'm not going to go against constitutional scholars," said the congressman. "But I'd be proud of the president if he found constitutional support that he believed in. I'd say, 'Right on.'"

Though President Obama has dismissed the idea he would use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling without an agreement from Congress, he has also said he doesn't plan to negotiate on the issue. Mr. Rangel said he's not sure what the president's ultimate strategy will be for raising the debt ceiling without congressional support, but he's looking forward to watching it all play out.

"He had said that he is not going to negotiate the debt ceiling, so I have no idea what that means, but I'm going to be a spectator to that one boy," Mr. Rangel said. "I'm going to have a front row seat."

Bill Thompson. (Photo: Getty)

Mayoral candidate and former comptroller Bill Thompson had harsh words for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn after a report from the Independent Budget Office highlighted issues with the city budget. The report noted "while projected budget gaps may currently appear modest—certainly when compared with gaps faced in some recent years—the next Mayor and City Council are likely to face significant budget challenges," a situation Mr. Thompson described as Mr. Bloomberg and Ms. Quinn rather literally passing the buck.

"Today’s Independent Budget Office report once again confirms that Mayor Bloomberg and his partner in the budget, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, continue to kick the fiscal can down the road and push tough economic decisions into the next mayor’s term," said Mr. Thompson in his statement.

The main issue highlighted by the IBO report is contracts "the lack of current contracts with nearly every union in the city."

"The contract with the teachers’ union expired in October 2009, while contracts with the union for principals and other school administrators and District Council 37, the city’s largest public employee union, expired in March 2010. Contracts with other large unions expired a year or more ago," the report says. "There is little money set aside in the budget plan to fund contract settlements covering these past years."

Because of this, Mr. Thompson described the relatively small budget shortfalls for the next two years as a "mere illusion."

"The real deficit is the cost of every non-negotiated labor contract, and Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn have failed to account for this hidden cost," Mr. Thompson said. "Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn have allowed the contracts of virtually every unionized city worker to expire and neglected to put aside any money for future contract settlements."

The IBO's report also criticized the mayor for assuming there will be revenues from his plan to sell taxi medallions and federal aid for the recovery from Hurricane Sandy. Based on his experience as city comptroller, Mr. Thompson described the overall budgetary situation as "bewildering."

"The report also highlights the administration counting on 'questionable' and 'risky' revenue assumptions," said Mr. Thompson. "As our city’s former comptroller, this lack of planning and preparation is bewildering to , to continue it would be irresponsible."

(Photo: Getty)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, known for single-handedly protecting constituents from burning flames, blizzard obstructions and crime, is currently attempting to live on a limited budget to better understand how food stamp recipients live their day-to-day lives. It may be the so-called "super mayor's" most difficult feat yet. Why? "Caffeine withdrawal."

"You make tough choices," Mr. Booker explained after his first day under the self-imposed budgetary restrictions. "The tough choice I have to live with this week is that I used my money to buy a lot of different things, but not caffeine. So I'm going to go this week without coffee, without Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, which is going to be the first week of my life I can ever actually remember doing that."

Mr. Booker actually made a prior attempt to go a few days without diet cola last year.

“Yes, but doesn’t ‘coke zero’ rhyme with ‘my hero’?” he tweeted at one point, for example.

This time, his caffeine-free diet began to affect him on day two.

"And today it hit me – the first stages of caffeine withdrawal," Mr.  Booker wrote on LinkedIn today. "Not being able to stop and drop a few dollars for a Venti coffee or Diet Mountain Dew is really raising my consciousness about the food choices I often take for granted."

In an interview about the experience Mr. Booker cradled his limited Mountain Dew supply and described his fear of suffering withdrawal.

"I may have to be hospitalized with caffeine withdrawal. I can look at buying coffee and making coffee at home, but I just don't know how much it costs," he said. He then cradled a bottle of Mountain Dew. "I was told to hide this because I shouldn't be endorsing products but I mean, these are my friends."

Watch Mr. Booker discuss his caffeine craving below:

Mayor Bloomberg at his press conference.

In order to keep the city's fiscal house in order in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled new cuts and streams of revenue over the weekend. Among the changes, school-lunch fees will increase from $1.50 to $2.50, while city libraries will see their funding axed to the tune of $8.3 million. Asked about it during a press conference today in the hard-hit Howard Beach neighborhood in Queens, Mr. Bloomberg defended the budgetary measures.

"It's easy to say, 'I don't like A, B and C,'"  he argued. "Well, what things would they like us to raise taxes [on]? The issue here is that we're trying to find some balance so that everybody shares a little bit in the pain, everybody contributes; we're all in this together. And do it such that people can afford [it]. It's not asking a lot to go, in this day in age, from one price to another if it's a relatively small price. But if a large number of people do it, it contributes significant revenues."

Mr. Bloomberg emphasized that, for reasons outside of his control, his hand was forced. The mayor specifically called out the Public Advocate Bill de Blasio-backed lawsuit against the State Legislature's livery cab bill, which ended up blocking the planned sale of additional taxi medallions.

"We have a budget that is going to be strained by the recovery," he explained. "We have a budget that is questionable because of some people suing us for their own selfish reasons to stop the taxi medallions. We have great uncertainties out there and we will balance our budget like we've done every single year."