Budget trips up priorities, pols cry out

CITY COUNCIL members grilled Mayor de Blasio’s budget director Monday on an $89.1 billion budget plan they said left them “deeply disappointed” and fed up.

Speaker Corey Johnson tore into the mayor for refusing to pay $212 million for half-price subway fares for the poor along with other programs proposed by the Council. At the same time, spending has gone up $965 million just since February, and de Blasio last week touted a $300 million expansion of his citywide ferry fleet.

“I don’t understand how you can justify subsidizing $6.60 for every ferry ride, but not helping people who live in poverty get on the train,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that besides the discount MetroCard program known as Fair Fares, de Blasio ignored most of the 50 proposals the Council requested in its budget response.

Office of Management and Budget Director Melanie Hartzog said that while the budget has jumped 4.5% since last year, most of that is the rising cost of basic operations — especially after de Blasio signed more generous labor contracts early in his first term but pushed off many of costs coming due now.