The combination of the recession and the impact of the destruction of the World Trade Center is clearly reflected in the City's financial condition. Over the past 15 months the City has implemented a $4.6 billion in FY 2004 gap-closing actions, including an 18.5 percent property tax increase while borrowing $2 billion to meet operating expenses. However, there was still a FY 2004 deficit of at least $3.8 billion. The Mayor proposed a series of actiosn to close the gap, which include $1.4 billion in new taxes, more than $1.1 billion in State aid above current projections, and $620 million in agency gap-closing initiatives. The State Legislature has approved a state budget and associated initiatives. If enacted into law, it will assist the City in balancing its own budget. The ongoing dispute between the Governor and the State Legislature over the State budget, along with the risks in the Executive Budget could result in another round of cutbacks and layoffs.
The Housing Preservation and Development Information System has become a multi-module system with a central repository of information on private and City-owned residential properties and registered property owners. The system design allowed for future enhancements and upgrades. It also met overall goals as stated in the original system justification. However, it did not follow a formal system methodology.A user satisfaction survey revealed that 57 percent of respondents would like to see changes made to HPDInfo.Lastly, the Department does not have procedures in place to ensure that security violations are recorded, documented, and reviewed.
This follow-up audit report is to determine whether the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation(HHC) implemented the recommendations made in an earlier audit. The previous audit made 22 recommendations to HHC. Of the 22, only 11 were implemented, three were partially implemented, one was not implemented, and seven were no longer applicable. This audit found that HHC has improved its billing and collection procedures. HHC still needs to improve its posting of initial payments into its computer system and the timliness of its initial billings to HMOs. Several recommendations are listed to address the problems noted in this report.