Bill to Elex Board: Hit the brake$!

Mayor de Blasio has demanded that the city Board of Elections end its multimillion-dollar black-car program following a string of Post stories that exposed the big spending, as he blasted the embattled agency.

“There’s got to be a cheaper way to get their people around than spending it on cars like that,” Hizzoner said at an unrelated Wednesday news conference. “There’s got to be a better way.”

He said his administration will “push” the board to end the practice of hiring black cars to ferry employees around, including trips after hours, during early voting and on Election Day.

The Post revealed Tuesday the agency spent $12.1 million on liveries over the last six years — and that spending has more than doubled.

The board shelled out $5.4 million on black cars from January 2018 through October 2019, an analysis of city comptroller records showed.

That’s a 116 percent increase from the $2.5 million it spent between January 2014 and December 2015. And it’s a 29 percent increase from its $4.2 million outlay on livery cars in 2016 and 2017.

Records show the agency currently maintains at least three contracts to provide black-car service worth $9.2 million. The agreement runs through 2023.

That story followed The Post’s Monday exposé, which revealed the hired drivers abused BOE placards to illegally park in bike lanes — and hacks had so little to do that they could nap for hours.

The big spending and bad behavior left de Blasio agog.

“It just gets stranger and stranger,” Hizzoner argued.

“I don’t understand how they count over there, I don’t understand how on earth you could spend that much money,” he said. “It sounds pretty crazy to me.”

Hizzoner’s blast came just hours after City Council Speaker Corey Johnson promised a BOE review following the stories in The Post. However, other than embarrassing the agency with hearings, the Council and City Hall have little leverage over the BOE.

The patronage-laden agency is run by a 10-member board appointed by the Democratic and Republican Party chieftains in each borough.

The BOE has remained largely immune from change despite high-profile screw-ups, allegations of conflicts of interest involving its director and voting-machine meltdowns.

This latest scandal gave de Blasio an opening to again push Albany lawmakers for reforms.

“We’ve got to change the nature of the Board of Elections,” the mayor said.

There’s got to be a cheaper way to get their people around than spending it on cars like that. — Mayor de Blasio, on the board’s $9.2M black-car deal