Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Thursday, September 14, 2000

Release #336-00

CONTACT: Sunny Mindel/Curt Ritter 212/788-2958 View Archived Video and
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the Mayor's Management Report


MAYOR GIULIANI RELEASES FISCAL YEAR 2000
MAYOR'S MANAGEMENT REPORT

New York City Is Safer, More Livable, and More Prosperous
Than It Has Been In Decades

Reductions In Crime and Growth In Economy Outpace National Averages

Health*Stat, the City's Health Insurance Initiative, Reaches Out to Hundreds of Thousands of Uninsured New Yorkers

Welfare Rolls Reduced by Nearly 600,000,
Declining More than 50% since March 1995

City's Credit Rating Upgraded by Moody's and Standard & Poor's

44 New Schools Built since Fiscal Year 1994

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today released the Mayor's Management Report (MMR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2000, which covers the period from July 1, 1999 through June 30, 2000 (and for selected programs, through August 31, 2000.) This Charter-mandated Report, which is published twice a year, provides New Yorkers with an objective report card on how the City is managed and how well City services are delivered.

"Sound fiscal management is one of the key foundations of New York City's renaissance," said Mayor Giuliani. "This is attested by independent ratings of the City's general obligation debt. In August, Moody's Investors Service gave New York City its highest General Obligation credit rating in 12 years, and this week Standard and Poor's raised the City's General Obligation credit rating to its highest level in more than 25 years. These upgrades confirm my Administration's efforts to restore fiscal stability to New York City. The Mayor's Management Report details how, through sound fiscal management, we have controlled City spending, cut taxes, created thousands of new jobs, reduced crime and the number of dependents on public assistance, and made New York City a friendlier place for businesses to grow and prosper."

PUBLIC SAFETY

New York City continues to be the safest large city in America. In the first half of CY 2000 the number of major felony crimes declined by 8% compared to the first half of CY 1999, and have declined by 58% since the first half of CY 1993. Major felony complaints in the transit system have decreased 28% from the first half of 1997 to the first half of this year. The City's housing developments have also seen significant overall reductions in crime -- reports of major felony complaints have dropped by 9% compared to the first half of CY 1999, and by 39% since the first half of CY 1993.

Of the 217 cities with a population over 100,000 reporting FBI Index Crime data for CY 1999, New York is ranked 165th in per capita crime, and has the lowest crime rate of any city with 1 million or more residents. From CY 1993 to CY 1999, the City's FBI Index Crimes have been reduced by 50%, compared with 17% for all other U.S. cities with populations over 100,000.

The City is acting to enhance the safety of livery and medallion cab drivers. In April of this year Mayor Giuliani authorized $5 million to reimburse licensed cab owners up to $325 each toward the cost of either a new partition or a new in-vehicle digital security camera system. This past May, the Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to require the installation of a bullet-resistant partition or an in-vehicle digital security camera in all independently owned/operated for-hire vehicles and medallion taxicabs.

The Fire Department's merger with the Emergency Medical Service continues to improve public safety. In FY 2000, the average response time to life-threatening medical emergencies for ambulances and fire units was 6 minutes, 37 seconds -- a decrease of 2 minutes, 9 seconds from FY 1995, when only ambulances were available to respond. The last two calendar years, 1998-1999, saw the lowest number of civilian fire fatalities for any two consecutive CY periods since 1946, the earliest year for which data is available. The number of malicious false alarms dropped to an all-time low, declining 61% since FY 1993.

The City's domestic violence initiative has seen the expansion of the Domestic Violence Hotline, the first Citywide hotline of its kind in the nation. Since the Hotline's creation in 1994, the number of calls received has nearly doubled, but the average waiting time for a call to be answered has decreased from 44 seconds in FY 1995 to 10 seconds in FY 2000. The Police Department made 4,012 arrests for violating orders of protection in FY 2000, 114% more than in FY 1994. Shelter bed capacity for victims of domestic violence has more than doubled from FY 1992 to FY 2000.

The Department of Correction has instituted enhanced security and better management of the City's correctional facilities. The Department reduced violence incidents (stabbings and slashings) in the City's prisons by more than 93% since FY 1995, from 1,093 to 70 in FY 2000. The Department also increased the number of searches from 104,100 in FY 1996 to more than 276,500 in FY 2000, as a result, the number of weapons confiscated in searches has fallen by more than half during this period, from 8,006 to 3,981.

TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION

The City continues to improve pedestrian and motorist safety and traffic flow. Pedestrian fatalities were reduced by 7% in the first half of CY 2000 compared to the first half of 1999, and by 43% compared to the first half of 1993. Traffic fatalities dropped in the first half of 2000 from 185 last year to 168 this year. The City is continuing its stepped-up enforcement against unsafe drivers, and has made progress against drunk drivers. The Police Department arrested 4,748 motorists for driving while intoxicated, a decrease of 21 percent compared to FY 1999. Drunk driving-related traffic fatalities decreased from 30 fatalities in FY 1999 to 26 fatalities during FY 2000, and drunk driving-related traffic accidents decreased 13 percent over the same period.

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