NEW YORK, NY January 24, 2008 —Today, it's Mayor Bloomberg's turn to lay out his budget. WNYC's Bob Hennelly has more on what's becoming an especially challenging year.

Even before Governor Spitzer introduced his spending plan this week, the city's Independent Budget Office predicted an economic slowdown would mean the Bloomberg administration had to close a $3.1 billion budget deficit for next year, with even larger gaps in future years.

Plans to close that gap were well under way last year when city agencies cut current spending a half billion dollars, imposed a hiring freeze and found another billion in cuts for next year.

Now, the mayor and council have to factor in $400 million in cuts from Governor Spitzer in their municipal calculations.

What hangs in the balance is over a $1 billion in potential city property tax relief referenced in Bloomberg's State of the City address that would be especially welcomed by the 14,000 households on the brink of foreclosure.

For WNYC, I'm Bob Hennelly.

OUTRO: Governor Spitzer and the state legislature have until April first to work out Albany's spending plan.

Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council have until the end of June. Last year, the city sent both Albany and Washington $22 billion more in tax revenue than it got back.