"New York has been fiscally profligate for so long that the headline number - $127 billion - produces little shock. But for perspective, these are similar to the annual expenditures of a midsize nation (with all the expenses a country requires) - like Greece or Thailand - devoted to governing one city. New York City's budget has ballooned in recent years."
"And much of it has happened as the city has been losing the one thing that makes big government easier to finance: people. New York City's population fell sharply amid the pandemic, with a 5.3 percent decline from April 2020 to July 2022. More recent reports show a rebound, but the city remained below its 2020 baseline as of 2024. The arithmetic is brutal: A larger bill is divided among fewer payers."
"Per person, the imbalance is stark. Using the Lincoln Institute's fiscally standardized numbers, New York's general spending in 2023 was more than 30 percent higher per capita than Los Angeles's - and more than double Houston's. And what do New Yorkers get for this? Look at New York City schools, the largest district in the country. The city's education budget has climbed while enrollment has shrunk."
New York City's annual budget reached $127 billion, similar to a midsize nation's expenditures for a single city. The budget nearly doubled since 2014, growing faster than inflation and the city's economic growth. Population fell 5.3 percent from April 2020 to July 2022 and remained below 2020 levels as of 2024, shrinking the taxpayer base. Per-capita general spending in 2023 was over 30 percent higher than Los Angeles and more than double Houston. Education spending rose from about $34 billion in 2019 to over $40 billion as enrollment fell, pushing per-student spending toward the nation's highest levels while outcomes remained middling.
Read at The Washington Post
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