Let's get ready to FIGHT OVER MONEY—Mayor de Blasio, that scourge of schoolchildren citywide, has released his preliminary $74 billion first budget and, yes, he's still hellbent on raising taxes on rich people, so take that, Cuomo. He's also asking Albany for $500 million in state funding.
Actually, the preliminary budget isn't too much of a surprise, with de Blasio allotting considerable funding for those progressive programs he promised to instate during his campaign. A major chunk of the budget—$530 million, to be exact—will be going to expanding pre-kindergarten and after-school programs; other noteworthy projects include reducing repair backlogs at housing projects ($52 million), adding shelter beds for homeless youths ($2.4 million) enforcing the paid sick leave law and creating an inspector general for the police department ($1.8 million each). And since de Blasio's inauguration has apparently ushered in a new Ice Age, he's allotting $35 million for unanticipated snow removal costs.
And at the big budget reveal last night, de Blasio made a couple jabs at former Mayor Bloomberg, claiming ol' Moneybags had been given an "artificially high level of credit" for his management of the city finances. "The way they budgeted was not appropriate," he said. On the bright side, though, Bloomberg left de Blasio with some extra money to play with—about $730 million in this and next year's budget. De Blasio also says he's setting aside money for retroactive pay raises for city workers, something Bloomberg, who did not resolve the labor contract negotiations before leaving office, believed the city could not afford.
And that's that for now—stay tuned for a more detailed executive budget in the spring and a final budget that will have to be approved by City Council in the summer.
