De Blasio Laments ‘Hits From Albany’ in New Budget, but Keeps Spending

NEW YORK — The news release about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $89 billion executive budget revealed the depths of the city’s anger at what it described as “hits from Albany.”

It said the state had saddled the city with $530 million in costs it described as “unsustainable,” including $254 million that will be used to “address mismanagement of state-run subways,” a $140 million “shortfall” in state school aid, and a $108 million “unfunded mandate” because of the initiative to raise the age of criminal responsibility.

“We had a bad year in Albany,” de Blasio said Thursday during a budget presentation at City Hall. The $530 million accounts for “about 25 percent of all the new city spending in this budget,” the mayor added.

But the city did not cut spending to accommodate the added costs to the spending plan for the 2019 fiscal year, instead relying on an $800 million one-time increase in personal income tax revenue to cushion the blow.

The $89 billion spending plan is $3.82 billion larger than the budget adopted last year and includes 1,700 more employees. It is also larger than the $88.7 billion preliminary spending plan that de Blasio introduced in February.

“The budget is bigger,” de Blasio said, before issuing a caveat: “What happened in the past was spending beyond our means and not accounting for it, not having reserves, not having savings plans.”

The mayor’s new plan includes $349 million more for homeless services. That is in addition to $300 million for homeless services that was added in February’s preliminary budget. The money covers fiscal year 2019, along with some costs from the current fiscal year.

There is also an additional $125 million for public schools, and $103 million for 3,000 permanent security barriers designed to thwart terrorist attacks, like the one on a bike path near the World Trade Center in October.

Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, disputed the mayor’s characterization of the state’s effect on the city budget, saying that even the City Council supported spending on the subway repair plan. De Blasio and Cuomo are engaged in a long-running feud.

“Shockingly, the mayor’s math is wrong,” Azzopardi said in a statement. “He uses political advocacy math instead of numbers.”

But the budget was also notable for what was not included — mainly, the City Council Fair Fares plan, which would provide reduce priced MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers, a $400 million property tax rebate and an increase in the general reserve fund.

Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, and Daniel Dromm, the council’s finance chairman, said in a statement that they were “disappointed” that no money for Fair Fares and the other City Council priorities was in the executive budget, though they believed there was enough money from additional revenue and potential savings to fund the proposals.

“We urge the administration to fund the council’s priorities for the good of our neighbors and our city,” they said in the statement.

De Blasio said his administration planned to go into negotiations with the City Council.

“We’re going to be really concerned about the price tag and the impact on the future of each of those choices,” the mayor said.

The mayor also said he was concerned about the possible effect of an executive order from Cuomo declaring a state of emergency in public housing and appointing a manager to make repairs.

“It gives the state the potential limitless ability to draw on city money,” de Blasio said.

Azzopardi said costs would be limited to certain “health and safety repairs,” and that the order would be “adjusted” once the city’s liability is determined.

The city did not account for those potential costs in its budget, but the mayor repeatedly said the city has the highest reserves in its history.

While that is true, said Maria Doulis, vice president of the Citizens Budget Commission, the city’s $1 billion in general reserves has not increased over last year’s budget.

“There are actions resulting from Albany and the state budget that the city will be forced to cover, but there are also choices the mayor made,” Doulis said. “The mayor continues to spend, and he’s not doing enough to counterbalance that spending by finding savings at the agency level and growing the reserves.”