A Teetering 'Balanced' City Budget

Two new reports from New York City nonpartisan budget watchdogs — the Independent Budget Office and the Citizens Budget Commission — argue that the city is overestimating just how much money it is saving through recently announced budget cuts.

"We have not yet seen the kind of grappling (with) and reduction of expenditures that leads to real cuts in core services," says Maria Doulis, vice president for strategy, operations, and communications at the Citizens Budget Commission. "There has been a lot of expenditure reduction in the current year that is shifting costs to state and federal funding lines, re-estimating some contracts."

But: "there hasn't been yet this very systematic, laser-focus on expenditure reductions that would have multi-year savings impact."

Doulis spoke with WNYC host Sean Carlson. Click above to listen to the full conversation.