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Mayor Bloomberg Changes His Tune On State Budget, Gov. Cuomo

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Days after calling Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget "an outrage," Mayor Michael Bloomberg is doing an about-face.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg said that while he's "not happy" about funding cuts to New York City, they are simply a reality that "we're going to have to deal with."

"He's got to focus on what's right for 18 million people; I've got to focus on what's right for 8 million people," Bloomberg told reporters, including 1010 WINS' Stan Brooks.

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The mayor had expressed anger because the state didn't give the city the $200 million it requested under the so-called "AIM" program, which stands for aid and incentives for municipalities.

"We got cut 100 percent; everybody else got 3 percent," Bloomberg said Monday.

But Gov. Cuomo, who closed a massive $10 billion gap and delivered the state's first on-time budget since George Pataki, didn't take kindly to the mayor's comments.

"AIM to the city was not cut 100 percent," said Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto. "AIM aid was eliminated last year, so it is a zero percent increase for fiscal year 2011-12. Prudent budgeting would not have counted that as an increase."

Bloomberg has apparently come to terms with the fact that Cuomo simply has "got less money to give," adding he has had discussions about how the governor could help the city in "other ways."

"It's good government, a good leader making hard and tough decisions, which aren't always popular," Bloomberg said.

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