Mayor de Blasio, City Council agree to $75 billion budget giving middle-schoolers free lunch, adding 200 cops to streets

The budget is $5 billion greater than the $70 billion plan the Council and then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg adopted at this point last year — a 7% increase that will draw scrutiny from fiscal monitors.

Mayor de Blasio and the City Council agreed Thursday on a $75 billion budget that expands spending across agencies, from putting 200 more cops on the beat to giving all middle-schoolers free lunches.

“It signals a new direction for New York City,” de Blasio said as he announced the budget deal — his first as mayor — with Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

The budget is $5 billion greater than the $70 billion plan the Council and then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg adopted at this point last year — a 7% increase that will draw scrutiny from fiscal monitors.

The final deal also is $1.1 billion greater than the budget de Blasio proposed six weeks ago, reflecting the addition of money from a union health care fund to pay for labor settlements, and the addition of more than $100 million in new services.

That new spending includes $6.2 million to hire 200 civilian workers for the NYPD, allowing 200 desk-bound cops to return to the streets.

“It’s going to have a very profound impact on the ground,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio and the Council also agreed to add $6.25 million to guarantee free lunches beginning in September for all public middle school students, regardless of family income — roughly 170,000 children.

“This will help keep our schoolchildren fed, allowing them to focus on learning and not where there next meal will come from,” Mark-Viverito said.

Both additions represent compromise. The Council demanded the hiring of 1,000 more cops and giving all schoolchildren a free lunch, but de Blasio opposed them.

Likewise, the deal added $50 million for “member items,” money given to all Council members for pet projects in their districts.

Sam Costanza Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said the new budget will keep schoolchildren, specifically middle-school students, fed. 

De Blasio had vowed to do away with the spending, which has been prone to abuse, but he relented. “I think the term they use in diplomacy is detente,” he said.