Bill de Blasio didn’t just beat his Republican rival Joe Lhota in Tuesday’s election for New York City mayor. According to the headline in the New York Post, he achieved “utter destruction.”
His first big challenge when he takes office seven weeks from now will be preparing a $74.6 billion city budget that already faces a nearly $2 billion deficit. It’s unlikely that Wall Street will save him; though de Blasio doesn’t seem to have noticed, revenues have been dropping in the past few months. The city can do nothing without a balanced budget, but to get there, de Blasio will have to make the city’s public-sector employees very unhappy. They’ve worked without contracts for years in hopes that a new mayor would give them a big pay hike, but such raises could nearly quadruple the deficit.
Likewise, de Blasio’s success on a host of other issues will depend on his willingness to stand up to the city’s numerous special interests.
Good read if you are interested in Gotham politics.........
http://www.city-journal.org/2013/eon1106ng.html