CM Brewer questions Comptroller on retiree healthcare, commercial rent tax, and credit ratings
Brewer asks about retiree healthcare status, the commercial rent tax, and credit ratings. Levine says Advantage is gone, retiree healthcare is not in jeopardy, he'd support lifting the CRT trigger point further, and three rating agencies lowered the outlook to negative though recent good news may help avoid a downgrade.
Thank you.
So I just was wondering where you think we are with the retirees'health care, a very complicated topic.
And secondly, I know when you were in the council, we all fight to get rid of the CRT, the commercial rent tax in Manhattan.
I didn't know if you thought, given the good news about the revenue, that might be something to consider for those small businesses.
And then also, I just wanted to get updated where we are with the credit ratings.
One thing about the schools I just want to say, knowing the schools well as you do, students need more help than they have in the past.
So even though the number has gone down, each student has a whole myriad of challenges.
So I just, I don't think it's apples to apples.
You got X.
X number and you only need X dollars, I think you need more dollars in a sense because every child needs more support.
So I just want to throw that out.
Yeah.
So look, I'm going to answer the retiree health question from the perspective of the retirees themselves, which is I know what you care about, Council Member.
And first of all, advantage is gone and not coming back.
I get asked about it constantly still, so I want to reassure people there.
We still have some work to do to achieve some of the savings that we have hoped for in previous agreements, but I want to emphasize that that does not
put the health care of individual retirees in jeopardy.
This is a problem for us to work out, to make sure our budget squares, but that is not a problem for retirees.
On the commercial rent tax,
It's true, I have felt it's unfair that it's only one part of the city, Manhattan South to 96th Street, where this is applied, and it's hard enough to run a small business right now.
And I have generally focused on kind of lifting the trigger point so that...
500 now, I think.
Right.
I would probably be in favor of lifting it further.
I'm a little more cautious on our broader fiscal situation, Council Member, so I'd like a chance to think about the question of completely abolishing it, but I would certainly support finding ways to exempt more small business.
businesses.
And then credit rating?
Sorry, credit rating, yes.
Look, we got a warning shot from three of the four, from Moody's, from Fitch, and from Kroll.
And they told us by lowering their outlook that there's a chance they would give us a downgrade.
It's not a foregone conclusion.
We could still avoid it, but I think that that is still an ongoing threat that in the months ahead and through the fall, particularly as we close out the annual budget in October, we need to be very wary of.
I think that the goodness we've had in Wall Street earnings.
Helps our standing with the credit agencies.
Some of the additional money that we got from the state will help our standing.
The fact that the current budget plan does not draw down the rainy day fund, I think also will improve our standing.
So I think we're in a better place for those reasons.
But we should still be cautious.
And I think this is still hanging over us.
And we should still do everything we can in the months ahead to avoid the risk of a downgrade.