Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    NEW YORK, April 8 (Xinhua) -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Wednesday that the city has to further slash its budget amid economic crisis and is likely lay off 7,000 more city workers in the next fiscal year starting July 1.

    The mayor's Budget Director Mark Page sent a letter Wednesday to city agencies announcing plans to cut an extra 350 million dollars from next year's budget, on top of the previous cuts of 3.1 billion dollars he has already ordered, due to the deteriorating economic situation.

    Under the plan, the Administration for Children's Services, the Department of Health, the Buildings Department and other city agencies would each face an additional 4 percent budget reduction.

    However, the operating budgets of uniform services, including fire and police departments only face additional cuts of 0.5 percent.

    All of the cuts will go into effect on July 1 and Bloomberg is expected to reveal his final budget at the end of April.

    The move came after Bloomberg proposed his 59-billion-dollar budget a few months ago, with projected deficit estimated at 4 billion dollars. The city's Independent Budget Office has estimated that even if the mayor achieves all the savings he wants from union givebacks and taxes, the city will still face a 1.4 billion dollars deficit next fiscal year.