NYC lost up to $10 billion in revenue from coronavirus, mayor says

Mayor Bill de Blasio

New York City may not be able to perform basic services after coronavirus caused up to $10 billion in lost revenue and other economic hits, Mayor de Blasio warned Wednesday.

“If you’re just talking about the money we’ve lost because our revenue is gone, our tax base is gone, our economy is gone … $5 billion to $10 billion is the amount of money we’ve lost that we would normally use to be able to support our first responders, our basic services, everything that keeps the biggest city in America going,” de Blasio said on CNN.

The city has already spent more than $806 million responding to the pandemic, and last week de Blasio announced $1.3 billion in cuts to his proposed city budget due to the huge loss in expected tax revenue. De Blasio is expected to unveil his latest proposed budget on Thursday, sources told The Daily News.

De Blasio called on the federal government to help “restart” the city’s economy with another stimulus package after New York City lost up to $10 billion due to coronavirus. Without it, the mayor believes New York won’t be able to return to normal anytime soon.

“There’s no way we’re going to be able to make up that money on our own, that’s where the Congress has to step up,” he said on Fox News.

De Blasio said on CNN the city won’t “be able to provide basic services and actually have a normal society if we don’t get help from the federal government.”

Speaking with Fox News, de Blasio said, “I need to make sure that I have a city that works — police, firefighters, sanitation. If we can’t provide those basic services, we are not going to be able to restart our economy.”