Mayoral candidates Bill de
Blasio and Bill Thompson had a mini quarrel over Thompson’s pledge to grow the NYPD by
more than 2,000 cops if he is elected mayor. Mr. de Blasio suggested Thompson ain't seeking to back up his campaign rhetoric by deeds, since the city can’t afford to increase police manpower from 34,800
to 37,000. The extra cops would cost the city about $200 million a year, a increase of about 5 percent in the NYPD budget.
“I do want to see more police, but I don’t ever want to
get into the practice of not telling the whole truth to people,” de Blasio
told a forum several days ago in Washington Heights, according to the nY Post's David Seifman.
“I don’t think we’re going to be in a position budgetarily to add
substantially to the police, certainly not in the next few years. I
think the one thing I commit to is that the current level will not be
reduced. We can draw that line in the sand.”
“If
he’s presenting it as a signature plan and something that has to
happen, it’s his obligation to show us how he’s going to pay for it,” de
Blasio said in an interview.
Thompson responded to de Blasio’s
missive by saying he’ll spell out the specifics for his police expansion
plan when he’s good and ready and not when de Blasio wants him to. “I’ll
take fiscal advice from Bill de Blasio right after I take term-limit
advice from Chris Quinn,” Thompson declared.
According to Thompson, voters should have confidence he’ll come through,
claiming he has the “strongest financial background” of any of the
Democratic contenders.
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