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City leaders have reached final terms of a $44.5-billion budget pact that spares zoos, senior meal programs and health clinics - but also keeps three firehouses shuttered and temporarily trims recycling collections to twice a month.
An awaited handshake in the City Hall rotunda between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Council Speaker Gifford Miller occurred about 6:50 p.m., capping weeks of posturing and haggling - some of it outdoors, in the summer heat behind City Hall, where top officials perched on benches.
"We are doing this in a very difficult fiscal environment but we are doing it responsibly," Bloomberg said.
A total of $5.8 million was earlier expected to be cut from the zoos at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Instead, $4.8 million in city operating aid will be restored under the agreement - with the balance to be provided by private funding through the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the zoos. The society had warned that without city funds the zoos would have to close.
The budget for the fiscal year that begins next week follows months of wrenching deals, broad tax hikes, layoffs and controversial state-aid measures.
The final shape was at sharp variance from what Bloomberg first proposed. But despite a crisis fed by multibillion-dollar...