NEW YORK CITY—The de Blasio administration is significantly ramping up capital spending in its proposed fiscal year 2019 budget and in future years as well. The city is projected to spend $4.5 billion in additional funding for its capital programs between now and 2020.

In fact, the city is planning on spending an unprecedented nearly $52 billion for capital projects from fiscal year 2019 through fiscal year 2022.

The New York Building Congress states the capital funding to maintain, repair or replace existing infrastructure in the city will test the mettle of city agencies charged with planning and executing these capital programs.

According to figures supplied by the New York Building Congress, New York City capital spending will increase from $8.3 billion in fiscal year 2017 to $11.8 billion in fiscal year 2019, a $3.5-billion increase. In fiscal year 2020, the capital program is projected to rise to $13.5 billion. The current fiscal year 2018, which ends in June, calls for approximately $9 billion in capital spending. The 2018 funding level is higher than all but two peak years of the Bloomberg administration.

“We are thrilled at the level of investment in core infrastructure being proposed by Mayor de Blasio,” says Carlo A. Scissura, president and CEO of the New York Building Congress. “The prolonged stability and growth of the city is contingent on the fundamentals of good schools, safe and reliable transportation, and a basic state of good repair of the city's infrastructure.”

In its report, the New York Building Congress states that sustaining such large capital funding increases will require “aggressive implementation and skillful management from the city's capital agencies, the Office of Management and Budget and the Comptroller's Office” that collectively oversee capital projects and process payments for work performed.

Some of the targeted city capital programs include $13.7 billion in Department of Environmental Protection project commitments over the next five years for the city's water and sewer systems. More than $70 million of that funding is earmarked for the completion of stage two of the City Water Tunnel #3.

The School Construction Authority has proposed $13.9 billion in funding commitments for public school capital projects over the same five-year period.

The city's Department of Transportation' $12.3-billion commitment plan over the next five years is by far the agency's largest on record, and 80% greater than the de Blasio administration's first budget in 2014, the Building Congress reported. The funding includes $294 million for the reconstruction of the Manhattan Bridge.

NYC Health + Hospitals Corp. is proposing to commit $3.6 billion over five years for capital projects, a 92% increase over the mayor's first capital proposal released in fiscal year 2014.

The Parks Department's five-year $4 billion capital budget is consistent with its preliminary budget released last year, which represented a record level of commitments for the agency.

Instant Insights /

NYC Capital Spending to Soar; Will Test City's Capacity to Manage Projects

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