Mayor Bloomberg ordered a hiring freeze Tuesday and opened the door to laying off city workers to avert a looming $4 billion budget deficit next year.
"The city has to find a way to live within its budget," Bloomberg said.
He ordered his commissioners to trim $800 million from the current $63 billion city budget - and an additional $1.2billion in the budget due next July 1 - to avoid pink slips.
The uniformed services and the Education Department were targeted for savings of 2.7% this year and 4% next year. Other agencies were given targets of as much as 8%.
Union officials warned of troublesome future contract negotiations. Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson's said the city is in no position "to give generous raises."
Asked if raising property taxes is an option, the mayor said: "You can never say ... that anything is absolutely never on the table. It's not the 'Read my lips' kind of thing, [but] we have no plans to raise taxes."
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