CM GIBSON APPLAUDS CITY COUNCIL’S ADOPTION OF FY19 BUDGET

CM GIBSON APPLAUDS CITY COUNCIL’S ADOPTION OF FY19 BUDGET

The comprehensive and forward thinking budget passed today by the City Council enhances significant investments in essential youth, public safety, cultural, senior, hunger, homelessness, and educational services across all five boroughs. This was my first year chairing the Council’s newly created Subcommittee on Capital Budget. In just six months, we have radically improved capital budget transparency and significantly reduced the Administration’s long practice of allocating money to agencies that couldn’t realistically be spent in a fiscal year. The result is a more honest budget that represents the construction and infrastructure work the City will realistically complete in the next year, streamlining taxpayer dollars and clearing the way for better, more focused oversight of capital projects in the months and years to come.

I applaud Speaker Corey Johnson for leading a phenomenal first budget that’s truly reflective of the Council’s prioritizes and I was honored to serve on the Budget and Negotiating Team under his leadership. As your Council Member, I am proud that this year’s budget prioritized senior services and anti-hunger programs that will lift up and serve our most vulnerable New Yorkers. In our negotiations with the Mayor, the Council fought hard to protect and expand the services our constituents have come to rely on. I am thrilled to see this year’s budget includes:

• Fairer Fares: Thanks to the strong leadership of our Speaker Corey Johnson, the FY19 budget includes $106 million to support the much needed Fair Fares program. Fair Fares will provide reduced metrocards for New Yorkers making at or below the federal poverty line. Saving an estimated 800,000 New Yorkers up to $700 a year, this is a significant victory that assist thousands of people across the city working to achieve economic stability.
• Investing In Our Youth: Our young people are our greatest asset and their success is dependent on our investment in their future. This year, the popular Summer Youth Employment Programs increased by $10.3 million (increasing the number of available jobs to 75,000) and raised the minimum wage for participants in the program. The Council worked with the Mayor to baseline Fair Student Funding at $125 million and include $150 million dedicated to making NYC Schools ADA compliant. The budget also includes funds to restore the Work, Learn, Grow Job Readiness Program ($19 million), Summer SONYC, a program that provides programming for middle school students ($15 million), funds for COMPASS, which supports elementary after school programs ($14.2 million), and an investment in guidance counselors for our neediest schools ($2 million).
• Spotlight on Social Services: New York is the greatest city on Earth and it is incumbent on us to lead the way in providing services for those in need. This year, the Council and the Administration prioritized a number of social service programs by investing $400 million in NYCHA repairs, increasing the number of supportive housing units built annually, investing $60 million in increasing beds for homeless youth ages 21-24, dedicating $500 million to building affordable senior housing on underutilized NYCHA land, and adding $2 million to our fight against opioid addiction. No New Yorker should go to bed hungry at night, and this year’s budget allocation, which brings total EFAP spending up to $20 million, will make a huge investment in taking a bite out of hunger in NYC. These are significant and much needed investments that will greatly improve the lives of individuals and families across the five boroughs.
• Enhanced Citywide Services: This budget includes critical enhancements to services many New Yorkers rely on, including: $60 million for new libraries in capital funds (and $16.7 million in expense funding!), $12.3 million to support park services and extend the hours of public pools and beaches, $12 million to fund vital Adult Literacy programs, and $3.5 million to expand sanitation services.
• Bronx in the Budget: In addition to the citywide investments made in our communities, my Bronx colleagues and I have worked to secure funding for our borough. Our delegation secured funding for capital improvements at Bronx Community College ($2.65 million) and the Bronx Museum of the Arts ($500,000), as well as further support the creation of the Bronx Children’s Museum ($311,000), renovations at Orchard Beach ($5 million), and the creation of a Bronx Hip Hop Museum ($4 million). In addition, the Bronx Council Members also successfully lobbied for a new elevator at the New York Botanical Garden ($1 million), and funds to improve the Bronx’s Department of Park’s services ($47,000). At my urging, the FY19 budget also includes a $100,000 allocation to Pathways 2 Apprenticeships to offer pre-construction training skills courses to formerly incarcerated individuals so more residents of our community can benefit from the construction jobs that will be created as a result of the Jerome Rezoning. I am especially thrilled to share that this budget allocated $2 million to NYCHA to replace elevators at Morrisania Air Rights, making the senior center located on the 20th floor more safely accessible to the community.
• Enhanced Council Initiatives: My colleagues and I united to enhance some of the City’s most successful and important initiatives, including NYC Cleanup, Parks Equity, CASA and SU-CASA, which provide cultural arts education in our schools and senior centers. Initiatives to protect crime victim services, expand alternatives to incarceration, provide vital legal services, fund childcare services at CUNY, support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, fund maternal health care programs to address disproportionate infant mortality rates among African American women, and safe guard the rights of the incarcerated were also strengthened through initiative enhancements for which I am grateful.

As another budget cycle draws to a close, I thank all of my colleagues and their staff for the hours of work they did in preparing for this budget and serving the best interests of their communities.

Thank you to our Speaker Corey Johnson, Finance Chair Danny Dromm, and Finance Director Latonia McKinney for their outstanding leadership and all of their hard work. I extend my deepest thanks and gratitude to the City Council’s amazing, diligent, and patient finance staff, as well as my own staff, for supporting me in this budget process. Together we have truly created a budget that serves all New Yorkers.