MAYOR BLOOMBERG DISCUSSES THE NEW STATE BUDGET THAT TREATS NEW YORK CITY VERY WELL AND HELPS THE CITY CONTINUE TO INVEST IN INDUSTRIES THAT ARE CREATING JOBS The following is the text of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s weekly radio address as prepared for delivery on 1010 WINS News Radio for Sunday, April 1, 2012.
“Good Morning. This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
“We got great news last week from Albany, where State leaders approved a budget that was good for New York City across the board, and that makes our economic outlook even stronger. Employment numbers that came out last week also showed thousands more new private sector jobs springing up across our city. A big factor: Our investment in industries that are continuing to grow, including our booming film and TV production sector, and the tech start-ups that are an ever-bigger force in our economy.
“First, let’s look at jobs. Brooklyn’s Steiner Studios, already the biggest production complex outside Hollywood, got a lot bigger last Monday, when we helped cut the ribbon on five new soundstages there. The city’s other studios keep growing too, because of a huge surge in movies and TV shows being shot in our city: 190 films and more than 140 TV shows last year alone.
“This industry supports some 100,000 jobs for New Yorkers – some in front of the cameras, but far more as carpenters, caterers, delivery drivers and in scores of other occupations. The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment plays a starring role in the industry’s growth; it also does a great job helping a wide diversity of New Yorkers get the skills they need to launch their own TV and film production careers.
“Our Administration is fostering new tech jobs in our city, too. In early 2009, our Economic Development Corporation joined New York University’s Polytechnic Institute and Trinity Real Estate in creating a tech “incubator,” where start-ups get low-cost office space, training, and networking opportunities. The City’s investment: Just $100,000. The result: Twenty-two start-ups have already graduated from the incubator, or will in the next few months, and are establishing themselves in our city. They already support more than 400 jobs. That’s a great return on the City’s initial investment – which is why we’ve set up a total of 10 incubators for start-up firms that have more than 900 employees in tech, fashion, food, the arts and other strong sectors of our economy.
“The private sector grows when it’s confident that public sector management is sound – a big reason why the recent budget news from Albany is so welcome. Governor Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and their colleagues in the Legislature deserve enormous credit for passing an on-time, fiscally responsible budget that does so much for New York City. It will save us $21 billion in pension costs over the next 30 years; it invests additional State money in our public schools; it makes the State, not the City, responsible for meeting growth in the costs of Medicaid; and it protects what our Administration is doing to phase out the burning of heavily polluting grades of fuel oil in our city. For those reasons, and for many others, this is already the best State legislative sessions in many years for New York City. And, along with our growth in jobs, it’s another reason why our future continues to look bright.
“This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Thanks for listening.”
