"What they have actually done is cut back on the bridge budget," she said.
Mr. Bloomberg said the city would continue to tap hotel customers for additional tax revenue to help bridge budget gaps.
States are looking for ways to bridge budget gaps, and at least 19 of them are considering raising taxes on beer.
"It seems inevitable that a government turns to its central bank to bridge budget shortfalls, with the result being too-rapid money creation and eventually, not immediately, high inflation," he said at a policy forum here, sponsored by the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform. Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform
But many states, including New York, are working to bridge budget gaps by selling bonds tied to some or all of the first 25 years of expected payments from the tobacco companies, under a pact signed with 46 states that has been valued at $206 billion.
Monsignor Fleming and his administrator had been charged with creating the plan to bridge the budget deficit.
The mayor's combination of spending cuts and "revenue enhancements" — increases in taxes, fees and fines — are intended to bridge a budget deficit next year of almost $636 million.
The unemployment rate hit 10.6 percent in December, more residents are unemployed than at any time in at least 34 years, and the city and the state are cutting services to bridge growing budget gaps.
Mr. Pugh said the Council has been meeting with the mayor to discuss solutions like consolidating city departments and raising fees as other ways to bridge the budget gap.
Dr. Muzylo's longer ride home was a product of the transit agency's decision to eliminate and combine lines and routes to help bridge a budget gap approaching $800 million.
MOSCOW — Russia may borrow from foreign banks for the first time in a decade to bridge a budget deficit next year, the finance minister, Aleksei L. Kudrin, told a cabinet meeting Tuesday, signaling that the Kremlin was planning for a long recession that could deplete its oil windfall funds.
