(
)
Presenting the final budget of his tenure at City Hall, Mayor Bloomberg declared yesterday that “suffering” would result from the failure to secure a teacher-evaluation pact — but it would all be worth it if schools ultimately get the right to boot poor teachers.
“I am convinced that the suffering we will go through is more than worth it to, maybe, finally get an evaluation deal that will let us put only the best teachers in front of our kids,” the mayor said in releasing a $70.1 billion preliminary budget for fiscal 2014, which starts on July 1.
The city has already lost $250 million in state aid and faces the loss of as much as $1.5 billion more if it can’t come to terms with the teachers union on a system for evaluating teachers.
To balance out the lost $250 million, the mayor’s budget plan envisions not replacing 1,800 teachers who leave over the next two years while cutting supplies, after-school programs and art and music classes.
“You can ask 1,000 questions. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out,” Bloomberg said when asked how his nuclear-level showdown with the United Federation of Teachers over the evaluation plan would turn out.
The four leading Democratic mayoral candidates all, to different degrees, criticized Bloomberg.
“When difficult funding decisions need to be made, our classrooms are the absolute last place that should be cut,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a Bloomberg ally.
The council has to approve the budget in June, so Quinn will have quite a lot to say about the issue.
Bill Thompson and Comptroller John Liu both blasted the mayor for “scapegoating teachers” and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio insisted there was an evaluation deal that Bloomberg abandoned.
Schools aside, the rest of the budget appeared designed to hold the line on services.
The next fiscal year ends on June 30, 2014, so Bloomberg’s successor will inherit six months’ worth of his budget.
“In essence, for us, it’s a status-quo budget, which in these times is a good thing,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Projected revenues were increased by $232 million this year and $330 million next year.
An infusion of $4.5 billion in federal funds allowed the city to recoup recovery and repair costs associated with Hurricane Sandy.
The capital budget was so flush that more than $1 billion was set aside to buy new garbage trucks.
The continuing court battle over outer-borough taxis led the mayor to take down the expected revenue from the sale of new yellow-cab medallions from $790 million to $600 million.
Bloomberg boasted that spending in the “controllable” portion of the budget would go down by 1.1 percent. But what he described as “uncontrollable” expenses — such as debt service, pension and health-care costs — are jumping 6.8 percent.
In past budget presentations, the mayor spotlighted the soaring cost of fringe benefits. But this year, he didn’t emphasize that health-care bills are exploding and will reach $8.8 billion, surpassing the $8.2 billion pension tab.