Mayor Bloomberg warned Tuesday of major layoffs if the City Council balks at his emergency budget plan – which includes ending a 7% property tax break worth $576 million.

“We’ve gotten through all of the low-hanging fruit,” the mayor said of the city’s budget actions.

“There’s not a lot left to do other than to actually downsize, and we will have a great challenge to maintain services with fewer people.”

Up to now, the mayor’s plan to save $4 billion over two years calls for only 500 layoffs.

The major savings come from two property tax measures: ending the 7% tax relief as of Jan. 1 and forfeiting this year’s $400 property tax rebate, worth another $256 million to more than 600,000 homeowners.

But Council approval is needed for both tax actions, and both sides remain at bitter loggerheads.

Speaker Christine Quinn – normally a mayoral ally – has unilaterally taken the $400 rebate off the negotiating table.

She reiterated Tuesday “there is not a snowball’s chance in hell” that the Council will pass a bill allowing the property tax rebate to be withheld.”

Bloomberg also acknowledged the budget rancor Tuesday, commenting, “I can tell you, we have had – heated is probably the right word – discussions with Christine Quinn. She’s trying to do what she thinks is right. We’re trying to do what we think is right.”

In a related development Tuesday, the Council introduced a bill to raise the city’s hotel occupancy tax from a daily 5% surcharge on room rates to 5.875%, effective March 1.

This would bring in about $80 million over the remaining four months of the current budget year.

Source: NY Post