Time to sharpen the budget knives — again. City Hall bean-counters have asked city agencies to make deep new cuts for this year and next — cuts which may include lay-offs.

Agencies have been asked for plans to cut $550 million from this year’s budget and between $1.2 billion from next years budget, NBCNewYork.com has learned. Uniformed agencies — cops and firemen — and the Department of Education will face a duller budget axe, with smaller cuts expected for this year and next.

But other city agencies will have to make deeper slashes, according to an Office Management and Budget memo obtained by NBCNewYork.com. The new cuts would come on top of $3-plus billion dollars in cuts already enacted by the cash-strapped city government.

Schools and uniformed agencies are expected to slice an additional 2 percent from their budgets for the Fiscal Year 2010, which started in July, while other agencies will have to make 4 percent cuts. It gets worse — or better, depending on your perspective — in 2011 as city schools and uniformed agencies will be asked to slice 4 percent and other agencies 8 percent.

read more: NBC New York