Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to lay out his preliminary budget this afternoon which is expected to focus on public safety. 

The $82 billion proposal that includes a few new initiatives. For starters, the mayor wants to invest more money - $5.4 million more to be exact - to improve ambulance response times.

That funding boost will go to pilot programs in the Bronx, the borough with the longest response times.

Queens will also get some of the funding for additional ambulance services.

The average response time for ambulances has been worsening. Last year, it took seven minutes and four seconds for an ambulance to respond to a life-threatening medical emergencies - 18 seconds longer than it took the previous year.

City Hall is also planning to expand the police department's Shotspotter program, which uses sensors to detect gunfire. It's currently used in 24 square miles of the city.

The mayor will announce his intention Thursday to expand it to 60 square miles, which would require an investment of an additional $3 million a year.

The city has felt like the program has been quite successful. The pilot program generated nearly 1,700 gunfire alerts and in nearly three-quarters of them, no one called 911 to report gunshots being fired.

A few other items of note: The mayor wants to expand the number of park security officers by 30 percent, hiring 67 additional full-time officers and 50 seasonal ones.

This comes on the heels of an alleged gang rape of an 18-year-old woman in a playground in Brownsville.

The city is also planning to buy a new Staten Island Ferry boat, that an aide says will be better able to weather storms.

It's a $47 million capital investment with a total cost to the city of $104 million.

As far as the tone of today's speech, we are expecting the mayor to strike a somewhat somber note about the city's financial outlook, given the recent plunge in the stock market and growing concerns about a global economic slowdown.

There's also the issue of the state budget which some say could saddle the city with $800 million in payments for Medicaid and the City University system. 

NY1 will carry the mayor's budget address live starting around 2:30 p.m.