Blasio plans $1B NYPD cut

Mayor de Blasio said on Monday that he had a plan to cut or transfer $1 billion from the NYPD’s $6 billion budget and would not guarantee that the department’s ranks would not shrink even as shootings surge.

“I’m excited to say we have a plan that can achieve real reform, that can achieve real redistribution, while at the same time ensure that we keep our city safe, while we make sure that our officers are on patrol around where we need them around this city,” de Blasio said at his daily City Hall press briefing.

“We can do this, we can strike the balance, we can keep this city safe,” he later added.

Hizzoner offered few details about his plan, and when pressed by reporters, he would not guarantee that the NYPD would remain at its current level of roughly 36,000 officers.

“We have found a plan that will keep this city safe, that will achieve the billion dollars in savings,” he said.

Separately, de Blasio said his plan would move at least $500 million from the NYPD’s construction and major-projects budget to help fund building improvements at youth centers and public housing.

The mayor and City Council must reach an $87 billion budget deal by Tuesday.

The plan to cut the NYPD budget comes as gun violence has surged across the city, with this past weekend alone seeing 11 people shot over a span of 12 hours.

Conservative and liberal lawmakers hit de Blasio’s embrace of calls to “defund” police.

On the conservative side, Councilman Joe Borelli (R-SI) said, “We have caved to the mob in a moment we know will come back to haunt us.”

And Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) called the plan’s $1 billion target “arbitrary” and an effort “to appease the masses without considering public safety.”

Liberals said the plan was not enough, with Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan) calling it an “accounting trick” on Twitter.

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens) tweeted that he was “demanding a budget that will #DefundNYPD by a real $1B.”