Mayor Bloomberg blasted Governor Paterson's proposed budget as overly harsh on New York City and urged Albany to give "New York City a fair deal." Under Paterson's $134 billion budget, Bloomberg says the city would have to fire 18,500 employees including 8,500 teachers, 3,150 police officers, and 1,050 firefighters. "Such budget cuts would inevitably damage the quality of life in the city that drives the economy of the entire state. It's in your power to prevent many of those dire consequences—simply by giving the people of New York City a fair deal," Bloomberg said.
The Mayor told the Daily News that Paterson's plan to cut $328 million in city funding would force him to halve the amount of street cleaning and waste basket pick-ups, reduce curbside trash collection by a third, and cut city funding for 500 soup kitchens and 15 seniors centers. According to 1010WINS, Bloomberg noted that the city and state can no longer increase taxes without causing more New Yorkers to leave the city. "In good times and bad times, one governor after another has been all too willing to raid New York City's portion of state aid," he told the Times. "Only in New York City would we have the dubious distinction of being cut off completely."
Though the Mayor and the Governor bicker annually over the budget, Paterson seems to be taking a harder line this year, acknowledging that although he understands that Bloomberg isn't happy, "this is a budget of necessity." He added: "You, yourself, mayor, are going to have to make cuts that you really don't want to make."
