New York Mayor details cuts to city under Trump budget proposal

By Hilary Russ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday said the city would suffer huge cuts to a wide array of services and capital funding, jeopardizing everything from housing inspections and senior services to transit projects and counter-terrorism efforts, under President Donald Trump's proposed federal budget.

"New York City is directly in the crosshairs of this budget proposal," de Blast said at a City Hall news conference.

"If this is the opening salvo from President Trump, I can tell you he's about to meet with huge resistance from all over the country," he said. "We're not gonna take it lying down."

The biggest city in the United States, New York would lose 86 percent of its budget for housing preservation and development, or about $136 million, with Trump's proposal on Wednesday to eliminate the Community Development Block Grant program.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors on Thursday said that the proposal would "severely hurt" many people in cities of all sizes, towns, and suburban and rural areas.

New York City would lose as much as $190 million in federal funds to fight terrorism, and the city's public schools would lose about $100 million, officials said.

Proposed reductions to federal transit programs threaten the city's Second Avenue Subway extension and a plan to build a new passenger train tunnel under the Hudson River, part of Amtrak's $24 billion Gateway Program, de Blasio said.

About 700,000 families would lose access to a program that helps pay for heat and energy costs. In addition, the New York City Housing Authority, the nation's largest public housing program, would see its capital fund cut by about two-thirds, or about $220 million, and another $150 million, or 13 percent, of cuts to operations.

(Reporting by Hilary Russ)