Mayor de Blasio returned to campaign fighting form on Monday – making tackling the city’s “affordability crisis” the center-piece of his annual State of the City speech while criticizing his predecessor’s lack of action on that front.

Instead of the direct tax on the wealthy he sought in early 2014, Hizzoner reiterated a recent call for a “mansion tax” to be passed in Albany of homes valued at $2 million or more.

Proceeds for such a tax, which the city estimates at $336 million per year, would go to lower the cost of rent for 25,000 seniors.

Additionally, de Blasio said the city will pay for lawyers for all low-income tenants to fight cases of eviction and harassment in housing court — an effort that will gradually grow to cost $93 million per year.

“Our city and who we are is threatened by an affordability crisis,” the mayor said during a speech at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, which was rented out for the occasion at a cost of $35,000. “My message to all New Yorkers tonight is very simple and I hope very clear: This is your city…. you made it what it is. And it’s our job to protect that.”

While his administration has been focused on lowering the steep costs of living in the city, the mayor said it needed to do more on the other side of the equation by creating more, better-paying jobs.

He committed to creating 40,000 new jobs over the next four years, and 100,000 over the next decade — a time frame that would extend well past a potential second-term in office.

De Blasio said 1,500 of those jobs would come out of a $136 million investment in an industrial campus in Sunset Park that will produce food, fashion, TV shows and films starting in 2020.

“This new initiative, this new focus on creating more and more good paying jobs, this will be the new frontline in the battle to keep new york city affordable,” he said.

The mayor also took a few jabs at his predecessor, Mike Bloomberg — something he has largely avoided doing since early in his tenure as mayor.

“The Great Recession hit new york hard – and there weren’t enough answers,” said de Blasio, who is up for re-election in 2017. “When i took office we had 370,000 city workers who didn’t have a contract… We weren’t making as a city investments in so many of the things we needed to keep growing in our infrastructure. We weren’t making investments in our people.”

City Council member Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island), commended the mayor for committing to creating jobs in the private sector and for his dedication to infrastructure repair.

But he said the theme of the speech barely differed from the one the mayor gave in 2014.

“He painted a dire picture of the city, which is surprising given that he’s running for reelection on his record,” said Borelli.

Others pounced on the mayor’s harping on affordability after boosting the city’s spending by more than $12 billion since coming into office.

The city’s preliminary budget proposed for fiscal 2018 is $84.7 billion.

“Bill de Blasio wanted to make history when he ran for Mayor and he has. It’s the kind we can’t afford,” said Douglas Kellogg, of the advocacy group Reclaim New York. “Spending is at record levels, debt is at historic highs, and New Yorkers are stuck paying the bill.”

The mayor only briefly mentioned the homelessness and opioid addiction crises – saying he would address them more fully in coming days – along with the issue of increased traffic congestion.