The Bloomberg and Paterson administrations are locked in a public war over their respective budgets, with Mayor Bloomberg blaming the state’s late budget for the major cuts to city services – including the reduction of some 6,400 teachers – he has proposed today in his FY2011 spending plan.

Due to the more than one-month late state budget, the Bloomberg administration is assuming the city will take the full $1.3 billion hit included in Gov. David Paterson’s executive spending plan – a reduction that “cannot be absorbed without significant consequences in nearly all areas of City services, particularly at the Department of Education,” according to the mayor’s press release.

Bloomberg accused the governor of trying to balance the state’s books by “starving New York City.”

“We’ve kept our own fiscal house in order, preparing responsibly for the downturn with eight different belt tightenings over the last three years, while spending in Albany has continued to spiral out of control. Now we are paying the price for Albany’s irresponsibility,” Bloomberg said.

State Budget Director Robert Megna responded by accusing the city of trying to use the state as a “scapegoat to shirk responsibility for their own budget choices ”

“We also believe that the proposed New York City budget uses selective accounting to vastly overstate the local financial impact of the State’s Executive Budget,” Megna continued.

“Moreover, the City also appears to vastly understate the positive benefit of the additional federal Medicaid funding it expects to receive in fiscal year 2011. Taken together, these factors bring into serious question whether many of New York City’s proposed cuts will ultimately be necessary – especially given the fact that the City expects to end the current fiscal year with a $3 billion surplus.”

As the budget process continues, Governor Paterson looks forward to a continued dialogue with Mayor Bloomberg on the difficult fiscal choices that will be necessary across all levels of government during this historic fiscal crisis.

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