The New York Times reports the Mayor of the Big Apple has requested his department heads prepare plans to spend less than budgeted, just like what’s happening here in Nevada. An interesting contrast is in the media’s treatment… as well as the lack of anybody suggesting tax hikes as the answer.

It is the first time officials have resorted to a citywide plan to make cuts since October 2002, when the budget was still reeling from the aftershocks of the Sept. 11 terror attack. Since then, the city’s superheated real estate market and fat payouts on Wall Street have led to surpluses, including a record $4.4 billion in the last fiscal year, which allowed the mayor to increase spending and services while cutting taxes and offering rebates.

Some members of the City Council, who must ultimately vote to approve changes to the spending plan, had said they would oppose cuts to the current budget. But Speaker Christine C. Quinn said yesterday that the mayor was taking responsible action.

“I hope we won’t have to implement any of the cuts, but the mayor is right to ask his commissioners to go into their agencies and look and see if there’s any fat,” she said. “We can’t pretend that we’re in fiscal times that are rosier than they are.”

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