Mayor De Blasio Unveils $85 Billion Spending Plan For NYC
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled his preliminary budget for fiscal 2018 on Tuesday.
Since de Blasio took office, the number of city workers has gone up and the budget has expanded by 20 percent.
This year he's proposing a nearly $85 billion spending plan, which is more than $1 billion larger than the current budget.
A mayoral spokesman calls the new budget "responsible," and says it focuses on improvements to public safety, education, and infrastructure.
Link: De Blasio Budget Fact Sheet
As CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer reports, the mayor's budget includes calls to double road repaving from 630 to 1,300 lane miles a year, adds 5,000 new summer jobs, installs bullet proof windows in all police cars, creates 38,000 new classroom seats for city students, and installs new street lights and traffic signals to reduce pedestrian fatalities.
He also tried to answer the biggest uncertainty in the budget -- what happens to the $8.5 billion the city gets from Washington in the wake of his conflicts with newly sworn in President Donald Trump
The aid covers everything from anti-terror funding to child protection to free school lunches.
De Blasio said he was putting aside money in reserve funds just in case the president makes good on his promise to cut aid to sanctuary cities like New York.
The mayor says he has no plans to stop his public opposition of Trump.
"I believe he respects strength and responds to strength, not weakness," he said. "I also think the obligation of the mayor of New York City to stand up for the people of New York. It's just as simple as that."
Council Finance Chair Julissa Ferreras Copeland questions whether the city was saving enough.
The mayor says there will be no new city taxes, and called upon the state to extend the millionaire's tax.
The City Council will look over his proposals and the bargaining will begin.
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