By Katie Honan 

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday released a $92.5 billion executive budget for the coming fiscal year -- one that continues a steady increase in government spending since he took office, even as he promised belt-tightening.

The fiscal year 2020 budget is $300 million more than his preliminary budget released in February, despite city agencies making hundreds of millions in mandatory cuts that the mayor ordered. The City Council must approve a budget before the fiscal year starts July 1.

"This budget is for a new era that we're entering into where we will focus on fiscal caution, that we will make sure that savings is even more a part of what we do going forward," Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, said at a City Hall briefing. "There will be some investments, but they will be limited."

Earlier this year, city officials raised concerns about significant decreases in personal income tax revenue, which were about $935 million less than what was collected in the previous fiscal year, according to the mayor. He blamed the volatile stock market.

The drop in revenue prompted Mr. de Blasio to order cuts at every city agency in order to trim $750 million from the executive budget. It was the first time the mayor sought these type of reductions since he took office in 2014. His first budget was $73.9 billion; last year's budget was $89.06 billion.

The city ultimately cut $916 million from the preliminary budget, including $629 million from city agencies. Other savings came from a combination of debt-service savings, reduction to the city's fleet of cars and savings on utility funds, said Budget Director Melanie Herzog.

Despite the cuts, the budget isn't much different than in previous years, said Andrew Rein, the president of the good government group Citizens Budget Commission. "It's a stay-the-course budget, which doesn't do what we need to do to prepare for what might be rocky times ahead," he said.

The city should have about $10 billion in reserves in case of a recession, Mr. Rein said. The mayor has built up the city's reserves to more than $5.7 billion.

A City Hall spokeswoman didn't respond to a request for comment about the reserves.

The agency with the largest spending cuts was the Department of Education, which sliced $104 million from some programs. However, overall costs to the agency still rose to $27.1 billion compared with more than $25 billion two years ago.

Some of those cuts include a $19 million reduction from eliminating extended learning time at the academically struggling "Renewal" and "Rise" schools. The extra-time isn't bringing the anticipated results, the mayor said, but those schools will still receive necessary support.

Mr. de Blasio also revealed his $117 billion capital plan for the next 10 years, which is $13 billion more than the preliminary budget's total in February. The plan includes $16.4 billion for expanding and enhancing public schools, including new construction and improvements. There also is $13.1 billion for safety improvements to roads and bridges, and $9.7 billion for the mayor's affordable-housing plan.

The borough-based jail plan, which will replace the Rikers Island complex with four smaller facilities, is slated to get $8.7 billion. The jails are now expected to open in 2026, which is a year earlier than originally proposed.

New costs in the budget include $60 million to retrofit city buildings to increase energy efficiency, which is part of the mayor's "Green New Deal." There also is $22 million for outreach and public awareness for the 2020 census.

--Leslie Brody contributed to this article.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2019 20:13 ET (00:13 GMT)

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