CITY HALL — Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled Thursday a $78.3 billion budge that doesn't include an additional 1,000 police officers that the City Council and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton have called for, but does include a major cash infusion for the MTA.
The budget sets aside hundreds of millions of dollars more in reserves as the mayor said the city has never fully recovered from the Great Recession and state and federal government cannot be counted on for help.
"The word recovery is very hard to buy into," said de Blasio. "We've seen a pattern of the federal government and the state government letting us down."
The mayor cited a reduction in the number of stop and frisks and marijuana arrests as having freed up officers to focus on serious crime. Gun shot detection technology, among other advances, has also made a difference in the number of police officers needed.
"I'm very confident what's happening right now with the resources we have," de Blasio said about adding 1,000 police officers. "The NYPD is getting better all the time."
Still, shootings are up 4 percent from this time last year and murders have jumped almost 7 percent.
NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis said there were "continuing" discussions with the mayor's office.
A spokeswoman for Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said the Coincil was "disappointed that the executive budget does not contain funding for new police officers who will help give Commissioner Bratton the tools he needs to continue to keep crime low while also improving police-community relations."
De Blasio said the issue was still open for discussion before approval of the final budget in June.
Other budget priorities include:
► $54 million to include mental health services in schools, shelters and on Rikers Island, a project headed up by First Lady Chirlane McCray.
► The city will transfer NYCHA community and senior centers to the Department of Youth and Community Development and Department for the Aging for a savings of $22.4 million.
► The city will increase its payments to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to $125 million per year for a total of $657 million over the next five years.
► Another $22 billion is included for transportation infrastructure including $7.8 billion to rehabilitate bridges and $1.6 billion for road resurfacing. De Blasio also announced that the FDR Drive will be resurfaced.
► De Blasio announced a $300 million, 10-year capital fund which city officials said had never been done before.
