FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

YONKERS MAYOR SPANO JOINS NEW YORK STATE CITY LEADERS IN SYRACUSE FOR MAYORS SUMMIT ON MUNICIPAL FINANCE On July 17, Spano to Meet With Mayors from Syracuse, Rochester, Albany and Utica to Discuss Strategies Addressing Financial Crises
YONKERS, NY July 16, 2012 Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano joins mayors from upstate New York this Tuesday, July 17 for a Mayors Summit on Municipal Finance in Syracuse. Mayor Spano is set to meet with the mayors from Syracuse, Rochester, Albany and Utica to address the economic crises in their respective municipalities. Mayor Spanos attendance at the Summit continues his leadership in addressing the harsh fiscal realities now facing the City of Yonkers, as well as cities throughout New York State and the nation. I am committed to building fiscal stability in Yonkers and this Summit is the step in the right direction in getting us there, said Mayor Spano. I look forward to meeting with my colleagues to examine what I see as the next big crisis facing our nation which is the systematic failure of our cities. Mayor Spano added, To succeed we must step up and right the wrongs of the past in our cities finances and make the tough choices now that will provide for a brighter future. This Summit presents an opportunity for cities with common challenges to work together to build a strategic agenda for overcoming the financial obstacles that threaten the viability of our cities. As part of the Summit, each city will present its four-year financial projections. Attendees also will study the recent financial collapses of similar cities, such as Detroit, Stockton, CA and Camden, NJ; examine strategies employed locally and nationally to address these crises; and build a roadmap for sustainable budgeting. Mayor Spano has begun addressing Yonkers financial crisis by convening a Commission of Inquiry into the Citys Finances earlier this year. The Commission, led by former Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch and New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, has been charged with providing the Administration with a clear understanding of the Citys budgetary crisis. The Commission identified an $89 million budget deficit for 2013 that Mayor Spano has since closed, as well as deepening deficits in the range of $500 million over the next four years. Mayor Spanos four-year plan validates the severe structural gap between recurring expenditures and recurring revenues initially revealed by the Commission, requiring the City to embark on a comprehensive overhaul of its historical budgetary practices. Mayor Spano believes in order to address these challenges, cities must commit to the goal of self-help

through sound and honest budgeting reform and equalizing recurring expenditures and revenues, supplemented with precision targeting of state and federal aid requests. Mayor Spano will provide further details of his four-year financial plan later this week.