Glenn S. Pasanen, associate director of City Project, a nonprofit budget monitoring group, said, "We think it is a sham".
"Too much of the hard work still lies ahead," cautioned Diana Fortuna, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a budget monitoring organization.
But in Westchester, there is "ongoing budget monitoring, both expenditures and revenues," said Robin Prunty, the Standard & Poors analyst who monitors Westchester.
It has received government contracts worth more than $1 billion since 2002, with most coming under the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, according to the independent budget monitoring group OMB Watch.
Noreen Connell, executive director of the Educational Priorities Panel, a budget monitoring group, said that while the State Legislature or the City Council may yet come to the rescue of the school system, the budget problems stem from city and state budgeting decisions.
"It's hard to figure out who the winners and losers are, in part because of the financial arrangements between the city and the Port Authority were always so murky," said Diana Fortuna, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a budget monitoring organization.
To many budget monitors, the city's fiscal trouble started long before the attacks.
Budget monitors said they had confidence that he would pick the right battles.
Borrowing against the tobacco revenue would have little short-term effect on the operating budget, independent budget monitors say.
B6 New York City Spends More The Giuliani administration's emphasis on frugality has eased, according to budget monitors.
The result, independent budget monitors say, is large work forces that are unproductive in strict economic terms.
