00:00Twelve weeks ago today, we presented New Yorkers with our preliminary budget.
00:05It reflected a straightforward reality.
00:08New York City was reckoning with a historic budget gap.
00:13The causes were clear and numerous.
00:16They included years of mismanagement and under-budgeting from the Adams administration.
00:23A long-standing relationship between the city and the state, where too often New York City
00:28was forced to carry costs it never should have shouldered alone.
00:32An unwillingness to ask more of those with the most, asking working people to bear the
00:38burden instead.
00:40And throughout it all, a refusal to govern with the honesty and transparency that New Yorkers
00:46deserve.
00:47The accumulation of these failings was stark.
00:50When we took office, the deficit was vast – more than $12 billion.
00:58While you do not choose the deficit you inherit, you do choose how you respond to it.
01:04In the month that followed, we took aggressive steps to tackle the deficit and drove it down
01:09to $5.4 billion.
01:13Today, after three more months of painstaking work, I am proud to announce that we have
01:20closed the gap entirely, down to zero.
01:23It has not been easy, but we have balanced the budget, and we have done so without placing
01:29the burden on the backs of working New Yorkers.
01:31This budget does not raise property taxes, and it refuses to slash services.
01:37this.
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