Just when it seemed that all regulatory budgets - on both the federal and state levels - are getting slashed, one major East Coast city has taken a contrarian approach.  That city, surprisingly, is New York.  The New York City Council recently blocked Mayor Bloomberg's attempts to cut the budgets of NYC's top government watchdog as well as its borough presidents. The City Council restored $542,000 in proposed cuts to the budget for the new fiscal year budget of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio's office.  It also restored nearly $6.5mm to the budgets of the 5 borough presidents' offices.  This means each will have the same budgets as in the prior fiscal year. NYC's 'Zero Sum' Game.   The budget fight highlights the fact that, even though the public advocate and the borough presidents are independently elected, their budgets are decided by the Mayor and the City Council.  And, while the mayor's office typically looks to cut costs, the council generally restores most of the cuts recommended by the mayor.   The preserved budget comes just 2 years after the Mayor and City Council had agreed to a 40% budget cut for the public advocate.  In 2009, that slash was the largest cut to the office of any public official by far. [C-I Note: It seems that, even in bad times, politicans still manage to find funds.  "Where there's a will, there's a way!]    [WSJournal, 6/29/11]