Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly called low starting salaries for rookie police officers a “major barrier” in the department’s recruitment effort yesterday.

The comments came after Mayor Bloomberg’s presentation of the city’s preliminary budget, which included a $3.9 billion surplus. During the presentation, Mr. Bloomberg fielded questions about starting salaries for officers, responding that the city offered the police union two plans within the past two months that would have increased starting salaries by $10,000, which the union refused.

“It is bizarre, but that’s up to the union,” Mr. Bloomberg said. Officers are “terribly served by the union that refuses to sit down at the table and bargain,” he said.

Afterward, Mr. Kelly said he wants to see starting salaries – currently $25,000 per year – go up, whether through arbitration or negotiation. “Now, no one becomes a cop to get rich, we understand that, but even for a six-month period you have to put food on the table,” he said.

In a statement, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Patrick Lynch, said the mayor’s offer “came with the unreasonable condition that we fully fund it through the loss of other benefits.”

“This city wants to put money in your front pocket that it is taking out of your back pocket,” he said.