Bill de Blasio, liberal allies clash over budget
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s executive budget proposal has led to a rare showdown with his powerful liberal allies in New York City’s government.
The mayor, the first Democrat to lead the nation’s largest city in a generation, has often boasted about the lockstep vision he shares with Public Advocate Letitia James, the city’s official watchdog, and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a longtime de Blasio ally whom the mayor helped elevate into her position.
But some strain has emerged after de Blasio rejected a pair of council budget ideas that James also endorsed. He declined to hire 1,000 more police officers and decided against offering all public school students free lunches.