New York, New York

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City announced his plan to cut 13,000 city jobs and raise the city's sales tax. New York City predicts that revenue will fall 11.5% from 2008. Bloomberg stated that "under the plan, the city's portion of the sales tax would jump half a percentage point, bringing the total tax to 8.875%. The increase would provide more than $1 billion over the next two years." The higher sales tax would have to win the approval of the state legislature (from WSJ). The plan calls also for nearly 4,000 of the city's 311,000 employees to be fired the majority of those who work in libraries, with the homeless and in civilian jobs at the police department. Nearly 10,000 jobs would go unfilled. The plan doesn't call for cutting teachers or uniformed police or firefighters (from WJS). If this is approved, this will upset many people in the short and long run. On a capital standpoint, this is a positive step toward securing NYC's economy. Compared to the legislation that may be passed by other cities in other states, this may be a mild forecast on what is occuring around the nation.