The battle between New York City and the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) on a contract for police officers from the Bronx is headed to binding arbitration. It's a move the PBA, the city's largest police union, says is unacceptable. PBA President Patrick Lynch said it's the fifth time in six rounds of talks the group has been forced by City Hall to go to arbitration. The city is offering raises of 3 percent and 3.15 percent over two years. Lynch claimed those numbers are lower than inflation and that there are officers in other local police departments making tens of thousands of dollars more. A report in New York's Daily News newspaper said that Mayor Bloomberg's administration has offered to increase the starting salary of rookies to $40,000 and to give cops already on the job the same raise that firefighters received. The city's commissioner of the Office of Labor Relations said the PBA is choosing a lengthy process where someone else will settle the contract issue. Lynch countered the charge by saying the city is forcing the PBA to go through a lengthy and expensive process just so it can get a fair contract.