Trade Centre atrocity costs New Yorkers $1bn

New York’s mayor Rudolph Giuliani has ordered a 15% cut in spending by most city departments, predicting the World Trade Centre attack will cost $1bn in revenue this fiscal year, as well as 100,000 jobs.

Meanwhile New York state’s governor George Pataki said it would take $54bn in federal money for New York to recover. He said New York was requesting $34bn to rebuild lower Manhattan and $20bn to re-invigorate New York’s economy.

Giuliani spared only the police and fire departments and school system from double-digit budget cuts.

Those departments face a 2.5% cutback. A city-wide hiring freeze went into effect after the September 11 attack, he said.

Despite the dire estimates, an upbeat Giuliani says the city is well positioned to absorb the fiscal woes caused by the attack that turned the lower Manhattan financial district into a graveyard for some 5,000 victims.

‘‘There’s no question our budget problems are real and substantial, but they are significantly less than the problems we’ve already encountered and overcome,’’ said Giuliani, referring to the fiscal crisis of the 1970s.

Congress has already approved $20bn to help New York rebuild and recover, and the city has a $550bn reserve.

‘‘People who bet against New York have always lost,’’ Pataki said. ‘‘We’re going to come through this.’’

The mayor, who leaves office at the end of December, offered some advice to his eventual successor: Do not raise taxes.

‘‘It would be a dumb, stupid, idiotic and moronic thing to do,’’ he said.

Giuliani warned that the $1bn estimate was a ‘‘soft’’ number of the loss of revenue - including lost taxes from hotels, restaurants and retail sales, which suffered business losses of up to 70% in the weeks immediately after the attack, he said.

The $1bn applied to the fiscal year that began on July 1.

It was unclear, Giuliani said, if the job losses would be permanent.

The number of people reported missing dropped on Monday to 4,815.

There have been 422 confirmed deaths, including 370 victims who have been identified.

According to a poll released yesterday, New Yorkers are still concerned about the chances of a follow-up terrorist attack.

Seventy-three percent were either ‘‘very worried’’ or ‘‘worried’’ about another attack, up three points from mid-September, said the poll by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion.

The poll of 1,275 New Yorkers, conducted from October 2-4, had a margin of error of three percentage points.