NYC Comptroller Mark Levine and Kathryn Wylde on tacking New York's budget crisis

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine was the first to sound the alarm about New York City's massive budget gap. 

"It's very simple. We're spending more money than we're bringing in," Levine told CBS News New York. 

"We've got some tough decisions to make"

Levine said the recent Wall Street bonuses have helped close the gap a bit, but the underlying problem still remains. 

"We've got some tough decisions to make. We're going to need more help from Albany. We send so much more than we get back from them, and we want more equal funding formulas. But we're going to have to do some more work on the home front as well," Levine said. "Here's the toughest one. We have some programs, some expenses which are growing incredibly fast."

Levine pointed to a housing voucher program called CityFHEPS, which helps families get out of homeless shelters and into private housing. 

"It's great. It's helping people avoid homelessness. Marcia, it's growing by 4% a month," Levine said. "It's going to break $2.5 billion next year, and it's going from there." 

So how can the city continue to spend and spend without raising the money?

Levine said he did not want the city to drain its reserves. 

"This is not a year to be draining our reserves, and it's why Moody's has shifted their outlook of New York from stable to negative. Marcia, that doesn't happen normally. That happened in the financial crisis of 2008. It happened in COVID. The fact that it's happening now should be a warning to all of us," Levine said. 

"Anything that means raising costs ... is not a good message" 

"Obviously, anything that means raising costs in New York right now is not a good message," former Partnership for New York City president Kathryn Wylde said. "We are a very expensive city, and taxes are a piece of that. Those get passed along to consumers." 

Wylde said the city doesn't have an economic crisis or fiscal crisis, but it does have a spending crisis. She praised Gov. Kathy Hochul's moves on going after the high costs of insurance, litigation, and energy. 

"Going after costs, which is where the governor is providing leadership ... there's a lot of confidence that the governor is going to make sure that the business climate, the opportunities to create jobs and growth in New York, stay strong," Wylde said. 

See their full interviews in the video above.