By Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Mayor Michael Bloomberg's budget presentation Thursday revealed harsh cuts across virtually every sector, from city schools to its fire houses and police force.
Unless the teachers union agrees to a decrease in pay raises, 2,500 teaching jobs will be eliminated. Twenty fire houses will be closed under the mayor's proposal and the NYPD will lose 892 jobs as members retire or leave the force.
Funding to the cities' libraries and children's services will decrease by several million.
"There's isn't enough money to employ the people we have — forget about raises," Bloomberg said as he talked through the city's Fiscal Year 2010-2011 budget.
And if Gov. David Paterson's state budget passes, these cuts will get much, much deeper.
The city would lose an additional $1.28 billion in funding, resulting in a reduction of 3.6 percent in the city's uniformed agencies, including the NYPD and FDNY and 7.2 percent across all other city agencies.
The school system alone would lose $500 million, resulting in the elimination of 8,500 teachers.
As it is, some city agencies and officials are already up in arms.
“The mayor’s proposal is simply unacceptable. We are at the beginning of the budget process," United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. "The UFT will continue — as we have always done — to work to protect the schools of New York City.”
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio was especially displeased with the fire house closings, saying in a statement, "We all have to tighten our belts, but closing twenty firehouses simply goes too far."
The budget also calls for 4,300 non-uniformed city jobs to be cut. Bloomberg said that it is likely that only 1,000 of the city jobs eliminated would come from lay-offs, with the rest coming through attrition. But he noted that because of times are tough, people are retiring later, which could result in lower than normal rates of attrition.
Following the speech, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn sent out a statement supporting the mayor's proposals and harshly criticizing the governor's budget.
"Today’s proposal underscores the potentially devastating impact fiscal decisions in Albany could have on our City," Quinn's statement read.
"We depend on Albany for our fair share of support, and in the current economic climate state funding becomes all the more crucial."