About an hour after polls closed in the May 14 Jersey City mayoral race, outgoing Mayor Jerramiah Healy and Mayor-elect Steve Fulop pledged to work together for the good of the city.

Those shiny, happy feelings lasted about two weeks.

Now, the outgoing and incoming mayors are sniping over the proposed 2013 budget, with each man blaming the other for a possible tax hike.

Fulop says the city administration fudged the numbers so Healy could campaign on keeping taxes stable, while Healy says Fulop is trying to embarrass him in his administration’s final days.

“Winning the election was one thing, but knocking us in the ass on the way out must be something else they wanted to achieve,” Healy said yesterday in a City Hall conference room.

The sparring began at Wednesday’s City Council meeting when city budget officials (at Fulop’s behest) offered a budget amendment that would have increased the local tax levy by about $16 million, a roughly 8 percent hike. Healy opposes the amendment.

The council voted not to add the amendment to its agenda after four Healy allies changed their votes from “yes” to “no” leading Fulop to accuse Healy’s administration of “playing games with numbers.”

Fulop alleges the $500 million spending plan, which has yet to be adopted, was kept artificially low to assist Healy’s re-election campaign and says the council should now adopt a budget that is “factual based.”

“All I’m saying is for Jerry to finally be accountable,” Fulop said. “It’s not about kicking anybody on the way down.”

Most of the $16 million gap between the introduced budget and the proposed amended budget involves a $12 million sale of city land by the Jersey City Medical Center. Fulop says there is no buyer. Healy insists there is but won’t say who.

“This is realistic projected revenue,” Healy said. “To say we misled the public, which is what the councilman said, is absolutely false.”

Assistant Business Administrator Bob Kakoleski told the council if it wants to adopt the budget by July 1 when Fulop becomes mayor state officials won’t allow the city to include revenue from the property sale. The revenue could be added if the budget is adopted later in the year, Kakoleski said.

If the budget is adopted as introduced, taxes remain stable. The amended budget shot down by the council Wednesday night would hike municipal taxes by about $258 for a homeowner with an average $93,500 assessment.

The final council meeting of this term is on Wednesday, June 19. Fulop said he hopes the nine-member body will adopt the proposed amended budget on that date.

“Option two is a new council and I will bear the burden of cleaning up their mess,” he said.