By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo News Editor
CITY HALL — Mayor Michael Bloomberg slammed Albany during his presentation of the city’s 2011 budget, laying the blame for the 11,000 New York City workers that will be forced into unemployment squarely on state legislators' shoulders.
Bloomberg’s grim $63 billion 2011 budget was especially brutal for the education department, which will lose 6,400 teachers, and the FDNY, which will lose 400 firefighters and need to eliminate staffing at 20 engines.
Fifty senior centers will be closed and residents will see further reductions across all city services, including public libraries, pools and children’s services.
This will be the eighth round of cuts across city services since 2007.
“The Governor’s proposed a budget that in effect balances the State’s books by starving New York City, and we are still facing that very grim outlook,” the mayor said. "Now we are paying the price for Albany’s irresponsibility.”
“It is not fair. We shouldn’t tolerate it,” the mayor said, adding that State legislators representing the city should be up in the capitol, “demanding that we get treated fairly.”
Drivers in the city would also suffer if the mayor’s budget is approved, with parking rates in Midtown going from $2 an hour to $2.50.
Nearly 900 NYPD jobs, however, will be saved. The mayor said that because of the city’s tax revenue, which was slightly hirer than expected, city hall was able to restore $55 million to the NYPD's budget and save the jobs of nearly 900 NYPD officers. Bloomberg emphasized that this was a very important development, “particularly after this weekend,” in reference to the attempted Times Square bombing.
Bloomberg said the other good news was that because of the city’s fiscal “prudence,” taxes would not be raised in order to close the city’s budget gap.
The mayor warned numerous times that while his office was able to balance the budget for 2011, he was very worried about the 2012 budget as the city will start the year without any surplus.
The executive budget presented is based upon the current iteration of the state’s budget and its “draconian” cuts to the city’s funding.
Bloomberg said Albany still had the chance to fix its budget, but did not seem hopeful.
