Saying he wants a stronger, safer and fairer city, Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered his preliminary 2016 budget presentation Monday afternoon at City Hall.

Public safety is a major theme in the $77.7 billion plan.

Proposals include more than $11 million toward new ambulance tours and more than $6.5 million toward EMS dispatchers.

It also allocates $11.5 million to replace NYPD bullet-resistant vests and $10 million to expand the police cadet program.

There's also a little more than $3 million to reduce Law Department "frivolous" lawsuits. Previously, the agency had settled those suits to avoid potentially costly trials.

"We will, wherever we think appropriate, where we think everyone has done their job appropriately, we will take the case to trial," de Blasio said. "We will spend what it takes."

More than $35 million will go towards reducing violence in city jails.

As tensions between the mayor and the police department subside, there were some notable absences from the budget.

It did not set aside any money to hire more police officers.

While the mayor does not dismiss the idea, he suggested instead that a decision on growing the police force could come later this spring.

"It's an ongoing discussion," de Blasio said. "As you know, Commissioner Bratton and his team have just finished their re-engineering evaluation, and they've put forward an initial plan. We're having very serious discussions about that. We're obviously going to have discussions with the City Council as well. So that's not going to be ready until we get to the executive budget."

The mayor also addressed the homeless crisis, with more than $40 million in the budget earmarked for rental assistance, stable housing and drop in services.

De Blasio is not proposing any specific budget cuts in this plan. Instead, he is asking agency heads to go through their own programs and come back with cost-saving measures. That approach is being met with concern from some budget watchdogs.

"It would be nice to see attention to ways to save money as well as ways to meet important service needs," said Charles Brecher of the Citizens Budget Commission.

The mayor and City Council must reach a budget agreement by the end of June.