New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday warned that the city faces a multibillion-dollar deficit amid the coronavirus pandemic, while pleading for federal and state assistance.

New York City previously estimated $7.4 billion in lost revenue due to the coronavirus crisis, but on Wednesday, de Blasio warned that the city is projecting a shortfall of nearly $9 billion— possibly more—over the next two fiscal years.

"We are now $9 billion in the hole between the current fiscal year and the one that begins July 1,” de Blasio said.

"We have lost billions upon billions of dollars of revenue that we use to serve our people,” de Blasio explained. "It’s gone. It’s not coming back.”

He added: "The only way to possibly keep this city functioning and keep the services provided, keep people on our payroll, is if we get a really substantial stimulus program from Washington.”

De Blasio noted that "we don’t know when that’s going to be right now. They have not scheduled to vote in the Senate. We don’t know what it’s going to look like. And meanwhile, we have a budget due on June 30 by law.”

"This week I asked the state of New York for help. I asked the state of New York to give us a fallback, give us a safety net,” de Blasio said. "It’s something we need as a last resort if our federal government isn’t there for us, if we’re going to maintain basic services here in the city.”

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