Bloomberg Unveils Budget Amid Race to Succeed Him Richard Drew/Associated Press Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg gave his final budget address on Thursday. The plan largely follows his blueprint from January. After racing through yet another PowerPoint presentation filled with numerous bar graphs and small-font economic data, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Thursday took a minidetour during his final budget address to praise someone's record: His own. "Virtually every agency has done a spectacular job," he said at one point. I don't think there's anyone that's had an administration of competent people like that. It was a fitting capstone, perhaps, for a supremely confident leader who, despite the volume of criticism that came later from several people hoping to succeed him, repeatedly suggested on Thursday that he would leave New York City in sound fiscal shape by the time he departs. Over all, Mr. Bloomberg's $69.8 billion budget proposal, which is slightly leaner than last year's, hews closely to his original blueprint from January that would keep spending flat and eschew raising taxes. And even though Mr. Bloomberg announced that the city would gain an unexpected infusion of $800 million in capital gains taxes, because of a change in federal tax laws, and an extra $200 million from audits of corporate taxes, he cautioned that much of that money would be consumed by additional expenses. He also said the infusion would be offset by lower revenues from a plan to sell new taxi medallions which remains bogged down in court. As a result, Mr. Bloomberg said there would be no change to his proposals to close 20 firehouses and to reduce thousands of city-financed child care slots. Nor did he let up in his criticism of two of his favorite targets: state lawmakers and labor, especially the United Federation of Teachers. "Even with our fiscal discipline, the costs we cannot control without help from our partners in labor and in Albany continue to siphon money away from services and remain a long-term challenge," cautioned Mr. Bloomberg, an independent, who spent a good part of his hourlong presentation criticizing the mechanics of the state teacher evaluation system. In practice, Mr. Bloomberg's proposal is the official start of an often intense period of negotiations with the City Council to come up with a balanced budget, as required by law, before the 2014 fiscal year starts on July 1. But this year's budget merits an asterisk because it is being conducted against the backdrop of a spirited contest among a large group of Democrats and Republicans to succeed him. So whatever budget deals are struck now - or avoided - will quite likely have consequences on the next mayor's decision-making. The person who may have the most at stake is Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker and a front-runner in the mayoral race. Long perceived as Mr. Bloomberg's preferred choice, she issued a cautious joint statement with a key ally, Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr. of Brooklyn, chairman of the Finance Committee. While they said they "remain troubled" by proposed cuts to programs for children, libraries and firehouses, "the city's overall fiscal outlook" was "solid and steady." The statement also noted that the Bloomberg administration and the Council had worked in concert, for the last seven years under Ms. Quinn's watch, "to consistently deliver on-time and balanced budgets." Ms. Quinn's fellow Democratic mayoral candidates were more critical. Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, attacked the budget as failing to do enough to invest in early education and after-school programs, in a nod to his own proposal to increase taxes on the wealthiest. William C. Thompson Jr., a former comptroller, criticized Mr. Bloomberg's comments about the teachers" union. "The mayor basically took the budget football and fumbled it on purpose," he said, "blaming everybody else, starting with the teachers." John C. Liu, the current comptroller, said Mr. Bloomberg's "holding pattern budget" contained "unwarranted assumptions," like a freeze on any raises in labor contracts that expired after 2010 and an optimistic view of the amount of taxi medallion money the city would receive. Only Joseph J. Lhota, a Republican mayoral candidate and former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was unabashedly enthusiastic, saying "the budget is straightforward, includes no tricks and provides the next mayor an opportunity for transformative change." For his part, Mr. Bloomberg seemed reflective about his three terms in office. And he said New Yorkers should be thankful that his administration had sought to diversify the city's economy in all five boroughs, rather than rely chiefly on Wall Street. "Thank God we did that because we would be in real trouble if we didn't," he said.