Politics on the Hudson

With the city facing the possibility of running out of cash to pay bills and paychecks later this month, Mayor Phil Amicone was on the phone to Albany today. The mayor spoke with state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and staff in a bid to come up with a way around gridlock in the state Senate, which is preventing the city from sending out property tax bills.
Before the city can send out the bills, the Comptroller’s office must certify the city’s new budget as balanced. That can’t happen, however, until the state Senate approves the extension of two city taxes whose absence would leave a $13.4 million hole in the city budget.
Among the options being discussed, mayoral spokesman David Simpon said, are the state advancing revenue to the city which otherwise wouldn’t be available until later in the year, or the Comptroller certifying the Yonkers budget without the taxes.
The requirement that the Comptroller certify the city’s budget as balanced is a holdover from Yonkers two brushes with bankruptcy in the 1970s and the 1980s.