In a State of the City address crafted for a recession era, Mayor Bloomberg said he will reduce government spending, streamline city agencies, and assist debt-ridden New Yorkers by establishing a $10 million fund to help refinance mortgages, and starting a new banking program that will offer accounts with no minimum balances or hidden fees. "The city can't manage anyone's personal finances but we can make it easier for New Yorkers to manage their own — and we will," he said.
In terms of cuts and reductions, the Mayor said he will merge the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Administration for Children's Services, combine the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting and NYC TV, reduce the number of city-owned cars, and save $40 million in rent and energy costs by cutting city office space by 10 percent over the next four years. He will also launch a new inter-agency task force to "consolidate," "centralize," and "reduce" government operations.
Bloomberg announced some new proposals, calling for a $750 million rescue fund for owners of distressed apartment buildings, expanding the NYPD's Lower Manhattan Security Initiative into Midtown, installing GPS devices on some school buses, and leading an effort to help New York residents who are undocumented Haitian immigrants apply for temporary protective status so they can stay in the country legally for 18 months. The Times found the address to be more "focused more on the incremental rather than the innovative," while the Daily News claims that "[d]espite campaign pledges to keep coming up with bold ideas, many of his points are familiar," like his promise to keep development of the World Trade Center site on schedule, which he said he would do last year.
