City Council members approved $75 billion fiscal 2015 city budget early Thursday that was peppered with expanded services and new initiatives.
It was the first budget created by a passionately progressive Mayor De Blasio and a like-minded City Council — and also the first in many years that didn’t require agencies to identify significant cost savings.
Overall, the expense budget was $5 billion bulkier than the one adopted under ex-Mayor Bloomberg last June, and $1.3 billion bigger than the preliminary plan released by Mayor de Blasio in February.
“I don’t think there’s any perfect budget, I think this budget spends too much,” said Minority Leader Vincent Ignizio (R-SI). “[But] there’s good people in this body who care deeply about every line item you see in this budget.”
Although the settling of the teachers’ contract contributed to the ballooning expenses — because it allowed for new projections of total municipal labor costs — the gains also came from new initiatives sought by each side of City Hall.
The Mayor made hefty investments that expanded universal pre-kindergarten and introduced a host of traffic safety measures.
In recent months, the City Council added $236 million in new initiatives – including putting 200 more police officers on the streets and covering the cost of lunch for all public middle school students.
“This budget doesn’t just reflect the priorities of 51 members, it reflects the needs of 8.4 million people in all five boroughs,” said council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Officials also approved $6.1 billion in capital construction projects for fiscal year 2015, which starts July 1.
While a number of financial officials have rapped the city for not being more prudent and squirreling away savings, most noted that projected gaps in future years of the expense budget were on par with historic levels.