Contact: Sunny Mindel/Samantha I. Lugo (212) 788-2958
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today released the Mayor's
Management Report (MMR) for Fiscal Year 1999, which covers the period from
July 1, 1998 through June 30, 1999, and for selected programs, through August
30, 1999. The report, which is published twice a year, provides New Yorkers
with an objective report card on how the City is being managed and how City
services are being delivered. "The MMR reflects the Administration's commitment
to more effective, more accountable government. Today, New York City is safer,
cleaner, more productive and attractive not only for New Yorkers, but also for
the businesses that thrive in the City, and for those who visit us every year,
all of which have contributed to our renaissance as the Capital of the World,"
Mayor Giuliani said. "The MMR is one of the tools that help us to maintain accountability
in City government and to document the reforms and innovative approaches that
the Administration implemented to improve services to all New Yorkers."
Among the Report's highlights:
New York City's historic decrease in crime is continuing. The number of major felony crimes was the lowest ever in Calendar year 1998. Major felonies declined by 54% from the period of January-June 1993 to the same period in 1999. Every police precinct saw major crime reductions of between 40% and 75%. From January-June 1998 to the same period in 1999, major felony crimes declined by 10%, major felonies in the transit system declined by 10 % and major felonies in public housing developments declined by 14 %.
These achievements have made New York the safest large city in America. Of the 217 cities with a population over 100,000 reporting FBI Index Crime data for Calendar year 1998, New York was ranked 166th in per capita crime, and reported the lowest crime rate of any city with one million or more residents. From Calendar years 1993 to 1998 Index Crimes have been reduced by 46% in New York City, compared with 12% in all other major U.S. cities reporting.
The Fire Department achieved across the board reductions in emergency response times. Average response time to structural fires fell to 4 minutes 15 seconds in Fiscal Year 1999, 4 seconds faster than the previous year. The average response time to all emergencies was 4 minutes 48 seconds in Fiscal 1999, 9 seconds below the previous year. The number of civilian fire fatalities dropped to 107 in Calendar Year 1998, the lowest total in the 53 years for which data is available.
The merger of the Emergency Medical Service and the Fire Department has also contributed to public safety. In Fiscal Year 1999 the combined response time of ambulances and trained fire units to life-threatening medical emergencies was 6 minutes 31 seconds, by far the fastest average ever recorded in New York City and over 2 minutes below pre-merger times.
The City is also becoming safer for motorists and pedestrians. Pedestrian fatalities were reduced by 17% from Fiscal Year 1998 to Fiscal Year 1999, and by 38% from Fiscal Year 1993 to Fiscal Year 1999.
The City is working to improve safety and traffic flow by reengineering accident-prone intersections, by redesigning areas with chronic traffic problems such as Herald Square and Columbus Circle, and by stepped-up enforcement against unsafe drivers, including new measures against drunk driving. From the inception of the DWI initiative through the end of Fiscal 1999, the Department seized 593 vehicles and made 1,695 drunk-driving arrests -- a 15 percent decrease from the 2,004 drunk-driving arrests during the same period of Fiscal 1998. Drunk-driving related traffic fatalities decreased from 12 fatalities to 7 during the same period.
The Department of Transportation is performing more timely repair and maintenance work to ease traffic disruption and maintain safety and traffic flow. DOT repaired 64% of potholes within 30 days in Fiscal 1999, compared with 26% in Fiscal 1997. 100% of new traffic signals were installed within 6 months of approval during the period of January-June 1999, compared with 34% during the previous six months. The Williamsburg Bridge subway service reopened in early September 1999, five weeks ahead of schedule.
Fiscal Year 1999 set new records for the cleanliness of City streets and for the City's recycling program. Over 87% of the City's streets were rated acceptably clean, the highest figure in history, and all 59 Sanitation Districts were rated clean for the third consecutive fiscal year.
The recycling program diverted 29% of the City's total waste stream in Fiscal Year 1999, the highest level ever. The Department of Sanitation collected over 671,000 tons of recycled residential material, also a record. Three of the four sections of the Fresh Kills landfill have now been closed to further refuse, and the landfill is on schedule to close permanently at the end of December 2001.
The City's small parks and playgrounds remained 96% acceptably clean in Fiscal Year 1999, while their overall conditions ratings improved from 80% acceptable in Fiscal Year 1998 to 87% acceptable in Fiscal Year 1999, the highest level since the current ratings system was instituted in Spring 1992.
The City continues to see significant improvement in critical public health issues. New cases of tuberculosis declined by 48% and new AIDS cases declined by 39%, from Calendar Year 1994 to Calendar Year 1998. Deaths from HIV/AIDS reached their lowest level since 1985. New cases of lead poisoning declined by over 18% from Fiscal Year 1998 to Fiscal Year 1999, and by 53% from Fiscal Year 1995 to Fiscal Year 1999.
The City's Comprehensive Pest Control Initiative has contributed to a 31% decline in pest complaints from Fiscal 1993 to Fiscal 1999.
Mayor Giuliani's Childhood Asthma Initiative, a major effort to reduce childhood sickness and death from asthma, is expanding and establishing new programs throughout the City.
The Health and Hospitals Corporation continues to reengineer its approach to the delivery of medical care, and has made further advances in the timeliness and quality of women's health services. From Fiscal Year 1995 to Fiscal Year 1999, waiting time for mammography screening has been reduced by 82%, and the proportion of women receiving prenatal care in their first trimester has risen from 47% to 64%.
The City's infant mortality rate was 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1998, compared to 7.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1997. The 1998 infant mortality rate was the lowest in 101 years of available data, and 1998 marks the first year in which the City's rate is below the federal Health People 2000 target of 7.0 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The number of public assistance recipients in New City has fallen by more than half a million, a decrease of 43.5%, since the City's welfare reform initiative was first implemented in March 1995. Fewer New Yorkers are on public assistance than at any time since July 1967.
The Administration for Children's Services achieved adoptions for 26% of children with a goal of adoption in Fiscal Year 1999, compared with 24% the previous year and 19% in Fiscal Year 1995. Over $351 million in child support was collected in Fiscal Year 1999, the highest total ever, and the Administration is developing ways to increase collections in the future.
Total spending for the Board of Education in Fiscal Year 1999 rose to $10.43
billion, the highest level in the City's history. It is expected to reach
$10.7 billion in Fiscal Year 2000.
Through Project Smart Schools, the City met its goal of installing computers
in every middle school classroom by August 1999. The number of art, music,
and dance teachers hired through Project ARTS reached 750 during the 1998-99
school year, and will rise to 1,000 during the 1999-2000 school year.
The Board's capital plan for building and renovating schools during Fiscal 2000-2004 totals $6.99 billion, nearly $2 billion more than the five year plan for Fiscal 1995-1999. The School Construction Authority (SCA), in conjunction with the Board of Education, created 19,598 new students seats during the period from October 1998 through September 1999, 23 percent more than during the previous twelve-month period. New student seats have exceeded the number of new enrollees by over 21,100 during the period 1994 through 1999. The SCA delivered all planned seating capacity projects on time or early for the third consecutive year in Fiscal Year 1999. The average duration of new school construction projects has been reduced from 40 months for projects completed in 1992 to 18 months for projects completed in 1999, and SCA's on-time project completion rate from 14 % in Fiscal Year 1995 to 70% in Fiscal 1999.
Raising the standards of education for our youth, the Board of Education has formally agreed to put an end to social promotion, one of the most important steps we can take to improve our children's education. In addition, this is the first year that the City University of New York will appear as a section in the MMR, increasing its accountability and road to excellence.
The City's private sector growth is outpacing both the nation and the rest of New York State. From the period January-June 1998 to the same period in 1999, 79,200 private sector jobs have been created, putting the City on pace to exceed the 77,400 jobs created in Calendar 1998 - and setting a new record for job growth in New York City.
Private sector jobs grew by 2.7% during January-June 1999 compared with January-June 1998 and compared with 2.3% for the nation as a whole, and 1.5% for New York State excluding the City. New York City has now passed its previous peak employment and restored all of the private sector jobs lost during the recession of the early 1990s.
Since Fiscal 1994 the Giuliani Administration has saved New Yorkers a total of over $2 billion through targeted tax reductions, and the Mayoral Task Force on Tax Reduction and Restructuring is working to develop new tax reduction proposals. City and State reductions in the hotel occupancy tax, coupled with rising tourism - which topped 33 million visitors in Calendar 1998 - have resulted in a 76 percent increase in the City's hotel tax receipts from Fiscal 1993 to Fiscal 1998. The Commercial Rent Tax has been eliminated in four boroughs and in Manhattan north of 96th Street, reducing the number of commercial rent taxpayers by 80%, and the tax rate has been reduced for the remaining taxpayers. The Mayor was successful in his efforts to eliminate the sales tax on purchases of clothing and footwear under $110; March 2000 will see the elimination of all sales tax on these purchases.
The Mayor's Management Report presentation was web cast live on NYC.gov at www.ci.nyc.ny.us/mmr99.