By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Sorry kids, but unfortunately there won't be any Christmas this year — at least at City Hall.
In an effort to save the city money, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered agencies to stop sending out holiday cards, according to reports.
The move, which would save an estimated $50,000 a year, was announced in a memo sent out last week that alerted agency heads to a new "Quick Costs Savings Program," the Daily News reported.
"If agencies wish to send holiday or other types of greetings, they must utilize electronic greeting cards," a city official told the paper.
The city also plans to save money by enforcing a widely ignored city law that forces employees to make double-sided copies. The city paid $7.5 million for paper last year, and reducing that by just 15 percent would save more than $1 million, the official told the News.
"It will target needless and often hidden costs that, over the course of time, have become an accepted part of business," Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith wrote in the memo, according to the News.
"The savings will add up, and they will help us cultivate the culture of frugality necessary to weather tough times."
City Hall has already stopped purchasing bottled water, eliminating subscriptions and powering off computers that are not being used, and the mayor famously uses a paper-saving iPad for notes and briefings.
