2008-2011 Mayoral State of the City addresses: on Budget & Economy


Tom Menino: One-year wage freeze for city workers, so no service cuts

$140 million means cuts to core services. It means cuts in jobs. We are talking about real pain for working families, and I don't want that. We've had the foresight to prepare for the bad times, even when it was deeply unpopular. That's why we were able to refinance debt and cut costs by more than $30 million. I will not stop seeking efficiencies and streamlining operations. I will not stop fighting for legislation that gives cities the additional tools we need to manage through this crisis and beyond, and I will focus our resources on our shared priorities: public safety, public education, and economic opportunity for everyone. We cannot tighten our belts out of this situation--no matter how no matter how much we prioritize, legislate, and consolidate We need courage and urgent action. Tonight, I am asking municipal union leaders to partner with me on behalf of working men and women. If we can agree to a one-year wage freeze, then I can protect core services for residents and preserve jobs.
Source: 2009 State of the City Address Jan 13, 2009

Mark Begich: Closed $33M budget gap without using one-time reserves

When I became mayor in 2003, we inherited a $33 million budget gap. The state had eliminated community assistance and the city was dipping into one-time cash reserves to pay for on-going functions. To fill that gap, we cut services, asked city workers to forego already negotiated raises and banned the use of one-time reserves for routine operations.

Since 2004, Anchorage has received nearly $60 million in state community assistance. We’ve applied every penny for property tax relief.

Source: 2008 State of the City Address Jul 28, 2008

Cory Booker: Budget crisis: cut $60M in spending; cut municipal taxes

So much was said when our City, in the midst of a $180 million budget crisis, moved to take aggressive corrective action. After cutting spending by $60 million and increasing revenue in a like amount, our City still faced a budget crisis of monumental proportions with mounting personnel costs. We refused to tax our way out of this problem and did the unheard of thing. In 2007, thanks to Municipal Council support, we cut our municipal tax rate in order to absorb tax increases by the County and for the school district so that we could sustain the same overall tax rate for our citizens. We made the difficult decision to eliminate hundreds of job vacancies from the budget, offer buy outs for employees to voluntarily separate and ultimately lay off 65 employees. Local government cannot be about employment, it must be about efficiency, effectiveness, about delivering the best of services to residents and dedicated to creating business and employment opportunity for residents outside of government.
Source: 2008 State of the City Address Feb 1, 2008

Rocky Anderson: Persistent fiscal responsibility to balance budget

From a fiscal point of view, tremendous progress has been made in Salt Lake City, both last year and during the past seven years. Persistent fiscal responsibility has resulted in far less money being spent than budgeted, far more money being raised than budgeted, and an enormous increase in the city's reserve fund. Last year, actual expenditures by city departments were $2.8 million less than the Council authorized in the budget and actual revenues were $8.9 million more than anticipated in the budget. From fiscal year 1999 to fiscal year 2006, the fund balance has increased from $20.4 million to $31.6 million an astounding 55% increase in the city's reserves.
Source: 2007 State of the City Address Jan 16, 2007

Rudy Giuliani: Economic development requires maintenance

Economic development is not just building new things. Part of the art of economic development is preserving what you have. Sometimes the City has not done a good job of preserving what it has. Throughout the last century, we have not consistently preserved our subways, our highways, and our bridges. In the last fifteen years, we have paid the price for that in the form of huge capital budgets and expenditures for the cost of finance in our capital budgets. We pulled the money out of maintenance to deal with the financial crisis. That’s one of the big mistakes. We should learn from that mistake and not repeat it.
Source: State of the City Address, New York City Jan 13, 2000

  • The above quotations are from 2008-2011 Mayoral State of the City addresses.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Budget & Economy.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Cory Booker on Budget & Economy.
  • Click here for more quotes by Rocky Anderson on Budget & Economy.
Candidates and political leaders on Budget & Economy:

Gubernatorial Debates 2020:
DE: vs.Carney(incumbent) vs.Williams(D)
IN: vs.Holcomb(incumbent) vs.Melton(D) vs.Myers(D)
MO: Parson(incumbent) vs.Galloway(D) vs.Neely(R)
MT: Bullock(retiring) vs.Fox(R) vs.Perry(R) vs.Gianforte(R) vs.Stapleton(R) vs.Olszewski(R) vs.Neill(D) vs.Schreiner(D) vs.Cooney(D) vs.Williams(D)
NC: Cooper(incumbent) vs.Forest(R) vs.Grange(R)
ND: Burgum(incumbent) vs.Coachman(R) vs.Lenz(D)
NH: Sununu(incumbent) vs.Volinsky(D) vs. fsFeltes(D)
PR: Rossello(D) vs.Garced(D) vs.Pierluisi(D)
UT: Herbert(retiring) vs.Huntsman(R) vs.Cox(R) vs.Burningham(R) vs.Newton(D) vs.Hughes(R)
VT: Scott(incumbent) vs.Holcombe(D) vs.Zuckerman(D)
WA: Inslee(incumbent) vs.Bryant(R) vs.Fortunato(R)
WV: Justice(incumbent) vs.Folk(R) vs.Thrasher(R) vs.Vanover(D) vs.Smith(D) vs.Ron Stollings(D)
Gubernatorial Debates 2021:
NJ:
Murphy(D) vs.Ciattarelli(R)
VA:
Northam(D,term-limited) vs.Herring(D) vs.Chase(R) vs.Fairfax(D)

Gubernatorial Debates 2019:
KY:
Bevin(R) vs.Goforth(R,lost primary) vs.Adkins(D,lost primary) vs.Beshear(D) vs.Edelen(D,lost primary)
LA:
Edwards(D) vs.Rispone(R) vs.Abraham(R) vs.Kennedy(R,declined)
MS:
Bryant(R,retiring) vs.Foster(R) vs.Hood(D) vs.Reeves(R) vs.Waller(R)
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Page last updated: Jun 01, 2021