Mayor Bill de Blasio's $85 billion budget has something for everyone: day care, public-housing repairs, Staten Island ferry terminal improvements, legal funding for the poor—even a partial hiring freeze. But budget hawks were not impressed.

Presenting the spending plan Wednesday, the mayor called lack of affordability the city's fundamental problem, and offered more police, affordable housing and pre-kindergarten as key solutions. 

The budget includes a previously announced $1.9 billion addition for low-income housing, de Blasio's signature initiative, with the goal of creating or preserving 10,000 apartments. His newly announced universal 3-K program for 3-year-olds is to get $36 million in fiscal year 2018 and eventually $177 million annually.

But the mayor also painted the budget as fiscally responsible, touting "historic reserves" to protect against the effects of slowing revenue growth and potential federal cuts: $24 billion in a retiree health benefits trust fund, $250 million a year over four years to a capital stabilization reserve and $4 billion in the general reserve. He also announced a partial hiring freeze for some managerial and administrative staff, though for the uniformed services, whose ranks have grown under the administration.

The slowing of revenue growth was attributed to decreased personal income tax receipts and a significant reduction in real estate transaction tax proceeds, budget director Dean Fuelihan said.

Budget watchdog Citizens Budget Commission gave the budget a thumbs down, citing $700 million more in new agency expenditures compared with the current year. The independent group chastised the administration for not showing more restraint.

"This spending growth is not accompanied by any additional increase to the city's budget reserves, and budget gaps projected in future years have grown," Citizens Budget Commission President Carol Kellermann said in a statement. The budget is subject to approval by the City Council, which is likely to insist on some changes before it votes in late June.

The budget also proposes funding to buy 14 sidewalk-cleaning trucks specially designed for the city, to begin installing air-conditioning in the 26% of Department of Education classrooms that lack it, to fund overdose prevention and to reimburse private schools nearly $20 million for security services.

The Citizens Budget Commission expressed particular concern about a "dramatic" increase in planned capital spending. The 10-year, $95.85 million capital plan unveiled Wednesday includes nearly $320 million for ferries, $600 million for homeless shelters and more than $1 billion for new jail facilities. Roughly half of that jail funding was originally to build a facility on Rikers Island, but  Fuleihan said it is "no longer there for that original purpose."

Still, the mayor stopped short of saying the new island jail was off the table, only allowing that it is "on hold." The money could be used for design or construction of jails, Fuleihan said. 

The mayor also frowned upon the state government's failure to provide design-build authority to the city, a refusal that he said slows infrastructure projects and swells taxpayers' costs by $450 million a year.

Read original article here.