If Mayor de Blasio’s proposed fiscal 2019 budget were to be enacted as is, without the City Council adding anything more to it, spending would be up $19 billion, or 27 percent, since he took office. That’s a hike of more than 5 percent a year.

A key part of that increase is the rise in the number of city employees, which stands around 300,000 — 33,000 of them added under the de Blasio administration, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. And with revenue continuing to roll in, the mayor and Council have very little incentive to rein in the growth of the government. In fact, de Blasio’s executive budget plan, released last Thursday, would spend about $500 million more than the preliminary proposal he released in February. Is this sustainable?

Responses to the mayor’s executive budget address from last Thursday are trickling out of the City Council.

And while they have ranged from conciliatory to critical, it appears that Mayor de Blasio will have to do some hard negotiating to preserve some segments of his proposed $89 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2019.

The Citizens Budget Commission on Thursday expressed some immediate concerns about the emphasis on spending and a shortfall in savings.

“New York City’s Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2019 increases operating spending at more than twice the rate of inflation and misses an opportunity to bolster reserves as strong tax revenue growth continues,” the organization said.

The CBC also is concerned about a record-high city employee head count, and rising costs of dealing with homelessness.

Jumaane Williams, the New York City councilman and progressive activist who's seeking to unseat Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul in September's primary, wants the state to end Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 2 percent spending cap and increase taxes on the rich.

Fiscal policy experts are divided on whether a more progressive tax model would drive millionaires and billionaires from the state. Critics note that the state is dependent on its large population of wealthy residents for significant portion of its tax revenue, and are especially wary following the loss of the state and local tax deduction that was expected to burden New York's highest earners.

"As a result of federal tax reforms, the cost to taxpayers — especially the mega-wealthy — just went up, and for some considerably," said David Friedfel, director of state studies at the nonpartisan but fiscally conservative Citizens Budget Commission. "To add additional taxes there would be cause for concern. At a certain point, people make decisions based on margins, and it becomes too costly to live there and work there."

Last month, before the New York City Council issued its budget demands for next fiscal year to Mayor Bill de Blasio and before the mayor eventually ignored nearly all of them in his Executive Budget plan, the Council called in administration budget officials to testify on a modification to the current year’s budget.

For budget watchdogs, the Council’s new strategy is promising, if not limited.

“It’s clear the Council is trying to assert itself in budgeting,” said Maria Doulis, vice president of Citizens Budget Commission, an independent fiscal watchdog. “But nothing they do is going to change the fact that it is an executive-centered budget process. It’s driven by the mayor.”

Indeed, since de Blasio took office, the budget has steadily risen by billions each year. The Council has repeatedly called for more agency efficiencies and savings but has largely capitulated as they also advocate for funding their own priorities worth hundreds of millions, which is happening again this year, highlighted by Johnson’s push for both Metrocard subsidies for low-income New Yorkers and property tax rebates for middle-class homeowners (while de Blasio has been resistant to both).

“It’s good that the Council wants to increase its scrutiny of the budget,” Doulis added. “But it should remain focused on the big picture issues and topics that affect the long-term fiscal health of the city.”

The Cuomo administration and health policy experts have been taking stock of the Medicaid health home program in hopes of steering it more toward its promise of improving care for the costliest patients in the medical system.

The program was initiated back in 2012, and more than $550 million was spent on health homes in the last fiscal year. Rather than a physical entity, health homes are a network of providers that together manage care for the patient under the premise that coordinating care for the most expensive Medicaid patients will improve their health while managing costs. There are about 168,000 people enrolled across 33 health homes throughout the state.

CBC released a report earlier this week analyzing the program and its first five years.

Medicaid enrollees are eligible if they have two or more chronic conditions such as substance use disorder or diabetes, or one single chronic condition of either HIV/AIDS, serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance or complex trauma. The serious emotional disturbance and complex trauma coverage is limited to Medicaid recipients under the age of 21.

The Citizens Budget Commission released a new scorecard on economic development in New York. Dave Friedfel, Director of State Studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, explained how the programs were scored.

A multi-year study by medical researchers at the University of Pennsylvania looked at ambulance runs in the state of Mississippi from 1991 to 2005 and included 120,000 heart-related EMS runs. They concluded that “paramedic tenure and cumulative experience is associated with better EMS performance.

In 2015 the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog supported by business, issued a report that called for the FDNY to realign its resources to match the decline in fire calls and continued growth in EMS call volume.

“Since 1998, the first year for which comparable data are available post-merger, the number of fire-related incidents declined 49 percent over the period; in contrast, the volume of medical emergencies to which the FDNY responded increased by more than one-third,” the CBC reported. “The number of medical incidents to which the FDNY responded (879,298) was about 15 times that of fire-related incidents (61,952) and more than 30 times that of structural fires (26,531).”

The report continued, "Despite the preponderance of medical incidents and the continued decline in fire incidents, most of the department’s resources—71 percent of the $3.8 billion budget and two-thirds of personnel—are devoted to staffing fire units. EMS operations are just 13 percent of the budget.”

Considering all the good news in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s updated budget, there sure was a lot of griping. Even from the mayor himself.

Mayors have little to do with economic booms. That’s why city budget watchdogs focus on what mayors do with the proceeds. On that count, the hawks are unhappy. Fiscal conservatives at the Citizens Budget Commission and Manhattan Institute lamented what they called bad choices and missed opportunities in the mayor’s plan, notably its rising spending and failure to sock away enough money to cushion the blow when things go south, as they eventually will.

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order earlier this month to impose an external monitor on the crisis-plagued New York City Housing Authority has turned into a potential budget boondoggle for the city, with Mayor Bill de Blasio warning on Thursday of the “unforeseen consequences” the order could have on the city’s fiscal future.

Sean Campion, senior research associate at Citizens Budget Commission, an independent nonprofit, said the governor’s order is a “good first step” to chip away at the housing authority’s massive needs, but he acknowledged that the order is “somewhat vague” about the city’s responsibilities. “It definitely sets a new precedent. The impact is yet to be determined. There’s obviously some benefits to having this monitor come in and develop a plan for spending the state money and whatever city money the city wants to chip in as well,” he said.

Mayor de Blasio on Thursday asked the City Council for an $89.06 billion operating budget for the 2019 fiscal year, which will begin on July 1.

The request comes in nearly $500 million more than de Blasio proposed in his preliminary budget back in February.

The Citizens Budget Commission on Thursday expressed some immediate concerns on an emailed statement.

“New York City’s Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2019 increases operating spending at more than twice the rate of inflation and misses an opportunity to bolster reserves as strong tax revenue growth continues. City-funded spending will grow 5.8 percent and total head count is projected to increase to a record high,” the group said. “Additional revenue, mainly from the personal income tax, will offset increased spending, as the City continues to face challenges managing rising expenses related to homeless shelters and overtime. Finally, the Citywide Savings Program features little in agency savings, instead relying on debt service re-estimates.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled an $89.06 billion executive budget proposal for the 2019 fiscal year on Thursday, decrying new spending that the city must undertake to meet shortfalls and unfunded mandates imposed by the new state budget approved last month, and cautioning of federal actions that could affect the city’s fiscal future.

Similarly, watchdog organization Citizens Budget Commission took issue with the mayor's budget plan, with a statement saying that it "increases operating spending at more than twice the rate of inflation and misses an opportunity to bolster reserves as strong tax revenue growth continues." CBC pointed to rising spending and headcount, and ballooning costs of homeless shelters and overtime pay. It also pointed out that the Citywide Savings Plan does not include much by way of new agency savings. CBC did give de Blasio credit for taking "some prudent steps," such as more money to account for pension costs and removal of aniticpated revenue from taxi medallion sales that are unlikely to occur.

Mayor Bill De Blasio's $89.06 billion fiscal 2019 executive budget came under fire for increasing spending and doing too little to prepare for cuts from Washington and uncertain times ahead.

“New York City's executive budget for Fiscal Year 2019 increases operating spending at more than twice the rate of inflation and misses an opportunity to bolster reserves as strong tax revenue growth continues,” the Citizens Budget Commission said in a statement. “City-funded spending will grow 5.8% and total headcount is projected to increase to a record high.”

CBC vice president Maria Doulis said: “The city had to contend with cuts in state aid, but not all were unfunded mandates; the mayor also made a policy decision to replace state aid with city resources in education and for the affected service programs. Continued economic growth provided the tax revenues that allow for these and other spending increases, but they are not counterbalanced with increases in agency savings. Agency expenses and headcount continue to grow, adding to current expenses but also long-term liabilities. There were no proposals to increase reserves or give back some of these surpluses to taxpayers.”

The budget watchdog saw some positive elements.

“The financial plan takes some prudent steps,” the CBC said. “It includes a reserve for potential increases in pension costs starting in fiscal year 2021 that may be implemented after an actuarial audit is completed and eliminates anticipated revenues from taxi medallion sales that are unlikely to be as profitable as once expected.”