Bronx Democrat Jeff Klein, who represents a whiff of Bedford Park and is the co-leader of the State Senate, trumpeted the state budget deal hammered out last week as the most “family friendly budget in a generation.”

The deal included a minimum wage hike that would gradually go up to $9 an hour in three years, a $350 tax rebate check for families and incentives for businesses to hire veterans.

“Thousands of low wage families in the Bronx will directly benefit from this boost in wages,” Klein said in a statement announcing the deal.

But many Democrats outside of Klein’s five-person Independent Democratic Conference (which may soon shrink after the high-profile arrest of Malcolm Smith on bribery charges Tuesday morning) say Klein compromised too much, to the detriment of Bronx families.

State Senator Gustavo Rivera, who is becoming Klein’s most vocal liberal critic among Bronx elected officials, blasted the deal on the Senate floor for including a watered-down minimum wage hike and not including funding for the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented immigrants to receive tuition assistance at state college and universities.

“Not only did the Education, Labor and Family Assistance budget bill completely omit funding for the DREAM Act, it proposes a minimum wage increase that does not meet the immediate needs of our workforce and that will be outdated by the time it reaches fruition,” Rivera said.

Before the deal went down, Assemblyman Nelson Castro also called for DREAM Act funding, saying, “New York State can no longer continue to ignore the need to ensure that these young adults, who we have educated and raised for decades, have access to good quality education.” (Update: Castro resigned from office effective Monday, April 8, at