Gotham Gazette

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City Budget

City Budget

  • How New York City Might Begin to Revive Its Decimated Tourism Industry

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    Visitors to the Statue of Liberty (photo: Spencer T Tucker/City Council)


    New York City’s tourism industry has a long road to recovery and a lot to learn from other cities like London, which has kick-started its economy through hyperlocal tourism, to come out of the coronavirus pandemic recession. During a virtual policy forum this week hosted by the Center for an Urban Future, top

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  • Is It Really Layoffs or Loans? De Blasio's Other Options to Find $1 Billion

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    Mayor de Blasio at a budget presentation (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio finds himself in a tricky fiscal situation as the city needs to find $1 billion by the end of the month to balance its budget. Federal aid is nowhere in sight, Albany has so far refused to allow the city to borrow the funds, and state budget cuts are also on the horizon. At the end of his rope, the mayor says he may have to lay off 22,000 municipal workers. But that nuclear option may not be necessary, and there are ways de Blasio could achieve the $1 billion goal

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  • Where De Blasio's Push to Borrow Billions Stands

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    The Financial Control Board meets (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio has until the end of September to present a state fiscal oversight body with a plan to find $1 billion in savings that will help balance the city budget for the current fiscal year. In lieu of a federal aid package to help replace lost tax revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic, the mayor and labor union leaders are pushing the Legislature and Governor Cuomo to allow the city to borrow billions of dollars to cover operating expenses, a proposal that many city and state

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  • Save the NYC Urban Fellows Program, Prepare the Next Generation of Public Service Leadership

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    Mayor de Blasio at a ceremony (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    This is not the time to cancel the NYC Urban Fellows Program, as the de Blasio administration appears on the verge of doing. It is a time to inspire young people to work in government. We need more opportunities for young people to work in government, not fewer. It is misguided and short-sighted to cut a program that managed to survive the 1975 fiscal crisis, and every New York City budget crisis that has followed.

    The New York City Urban Fellowship is a very popular public service

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  • The City Must Restore Mayor's Misguided Cuts to Essential Community Schools Program

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    Mayor de Blasio at a community schools celebration (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    As New York City prepares for a return to school, city leaders are once again turning to community-based organizations (CBOs) to play a central role in supporting the reopening of schools. This is understandable. CBO partnership has always been a pivotal cornerstone of success for our young people and families and it is again critical to the success of all of these reopening plans. But recent, deep financial cuts to the sector – and the potential for further cuts – makes this

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Lessons for Today from New York City’s 1970s Fiscal Crisis

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's office)


    August 26, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Lessons for Today from New York City’s 1970s Fiscal Crisis

    Author and history professor Kimberly Phillips-Fein, who teaches at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, joined the show to discuss how New York City can take lessons from the 1970s fiscal crisis to help maneuver through its current budget woes.  

    Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter ...

  • Mayor Must Bridge Budget Gap Without Borrowing or Mass Layoffs

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    (photo: Edwin J. Torres/ Mayoral Photo Office)


    Despite a full-court press from cities and states across the country, Congress left for August recess without passing joint legislation to provide them with federal financial assistance. This aid is desperately needed by localities, both red and blue, that have suffered dramatic revenue losses due to the shutdown of much of their economies during the pandemic. There is still hope that some amount of aid will eventually be forthcoming, but not in time or in sufficient amount to address the dire needs of New York City and State.

    While

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  • Providers, Participants Scramble for Scaled Down Summer Youth Employment Program

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    Mayor de Blasio with local activists (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Every morning, Joaquin Soto wakes up to participate in Summer Bridge, New York City government’s 2020 summer youth employment program. Instead of commuting to a work site, Soto turns on his computer, attends Zoom meetings, watches videos on professional development, and takes quizzes to show what he’s learned.

    “The application was really straightforward and very accessible,” said Soto, a 17-year-old from Cypress Hills. “But I feel like there’s definitely been some kind of trouble for

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  • How the De Blasio Administration is Preparing to Lay Off Thousands of City Government Workers

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    Mayor de Blasio during a budget presentation (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


    As the New York City economy continues to struggle from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and additional fiscal aid from the federal government is nowhere in sight, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has begun formulating plans for taking the last resort step of laying off thousands of municipal workers.

    The coronavirus fallout drained the city’s coffers, forcing the passage of an $88.2 billion budget for the 2021 fiscal year, a massive $6 billion

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  • Wasted Opportunities: New York City’s Misplaced Budget Priorities Fail Marginalized Communities and Us All

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    Garbage time (photo: Michael Anton/Department of Sanitation)


    Unequal impacts of COVID-19 on low-income Black and brown communities have magnified the consequences of our unsustainable working and living processes and accumulated environmental injustices.

    The highest rates of pandemic-related deaths are in the same communities that have long breathed more polluted air and who deal day-to-day with heightened police violence. The accelerating climate crisis will amplify both of these forms of violence as the stagnant quality of hot air concentrates local pollution and local

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  • After a Step Back, Corey Johnson Reemerges

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    Speaker Corey Johnson (photo: Jeff Reed/City Council)


    When the coronavirus pandemic hit New York and the mayor vacillated before closing schools and imposing social distancing guidelines and restrictions on large gatherings, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson beat him to the punch in calling for all three. The Council speaker, a Manhattan Democrat and likely 2021 mayoral candidate, made regular appearances on local TV and radio, and tweeted constantly from his

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  • 'A Very Pathetic Response': Charles and Inez Barron on Protest, Police Reform and Radical, Black-Led Politics

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    Charles, left, & Inez Barron, right, at a ceremony with the Mayor & others (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Anything short of a revolution won’t satisfy Charles and Inez Barron, the married Brooklynites who hold seats in the State Assembly and City Council, respectively, and the police reforms and city budget passed in the wake of recent widespread Black Lives Matter protests serve merely as a distraction to their radical idea of Black-led politics. 

    Assemblymember Charles Barron and City Council Member Inez Barron, both Democrats, have a

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  • What's Next for the City's Massive 100 Million-Meal Emergency Food Program?

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    Mayor de Blasio at a school food hub (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The uncertainty around how New York City public schools will be reopened come September extends to the emergency food initiative greatly expanded by city government during the devastating coronavirus outbreak that led to mass unemployment and food insecurity, as a large portion of the program was using public schools to distribute millions of free meals.

    A part of the massive program that has distributed over 100 million free meals since March will likely shift as students and

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  • Congress Returns; New York’s Future Hangs in the Balance

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    The U.S. Capitol (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


    With Congress back in Washington, D.C., New Yorkers have a big stake in the outcome of the next federal economic stimulus package. 

    No Clear Signals on New Aid to State and Local Government
    Serious negotiations are finally starting on an aid program to help an American economy devastated by the coronavirus recession. Two months have elapsed since the Democrats in the House of Representatives passed a $3 trillion aid package that included $1 trillion in support for state and

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  • An Inclusive Recovery Starts With An Inclusive Process

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    Gather stakeholders around the table (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Major financial decisions in New York, such as city and state budgets and economic development deals, are typically made behind closed doors in processes that are opaque to the public and rushed through our legislatures. The recent budget deal between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council was no different — addressing a $9 billion shortfall with contingencies and fuzzy math. It included an insufficient plan to restart our economy and will

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  • Federal Funding Up for NYPD, Down for Human Services

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    NYPD officers (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayor's Office)


    Budgets, as the saying goes, reflect our values. Take a closer look at where the money goes – or doesn’t – and you can readily see our nation’s priorities.

    This is perhaps never truer than during an economic downturn. At FPWA, we’ve examined the trends in federal spending for human services using our online Federal Funds Tracker. We know that since the Great Recession ten years ago, the federal government’s austere budgets have left human service

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  • 'I Actually Have to Negotiate a Budget': Corey Johnson and the Challenge of Running for Mayor as City Council Speaker

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    Corey Johnson, with Bill de Blasio watching (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Speakers of the New York City Council don’t fare well when running for citywide office. Melissa Mark-Viverito, who previously held the job, was unsuccessful in a crowded 2019 special election for public advocate. Christine Quinn, the speaker before her, placed third in the 2013 Democratic mayoral primary that saw Bill de Blasio advance toward the mayoralty. Gifford Miller, Quinn’s predecessor, similarly lost in the 2005 Democratic mayoral primary to Fernando Ferrer, and Peter

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  • Deconstructing the #DefundNYPD Clash with City Council Members of Color

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    Council Member Cumbo (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Defending her vote in support of a new city budget that did not cut NYPD funding by at least $1 billion (as New York City faces a $10 billion COVID-19-related revenue shortfall) Brooklyn City Council Member Laurie Cumbo told protesters criticizing the plan: "Work under the

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Council Member Brad Lander on the New City Budget

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    City Council Member Brad Lander (photo: Jeff Reed/City Council)


    July 1, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Council Member Brad Lander on the New City Budget

    City Council Member Brad Lander, a Brooklyn Democrat and 2021 candidate for city Comptroller, joined the show to discuss the new city budget, which he had voted "no" on just hours before this discussion.

    Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMaxand ...

  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Police Reformers Dissatisfied with NYPD Moves in City Budget

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    July 1, 2020 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Police Reformers Dissatisfied with NYPD Moves in City Budget

    joo hyun kanginsetJoo-Hyun Kang of Communities United for Police Reform joined the show to discuss police reformers' dissatisfaction with the new city budget in terms of NYPD funding and related decisions.

    Listen to the conversation and let

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  • What's The [DATA] Point? $88.2 Billion, The Fiscal 2021 New York City Budget

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 93 -- $88.2 billion, The Fiscal 2021 New York City Budget [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    $88.2 billion is the size of the new New York City budget adopted for Fiscal Year 2021 in a contentious, last-minute vote on June 30 into July 1. After years of economic expansion, this is the first budget Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Johnson negotiated in a recession. CBC's Ana Champeny joined the podcast to discuss why this is

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  • De Blasio, City Council Agree on Contentious $88.2 Billion Crisis Budget with Focus on NYPD Shifts

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    City budget announcement from 2019 (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    The New York City Council approved an $88.2 billion budget for the 2021 fiscal year shortly after midnight in one of the most divided votes for the legislative body in recent history. The new budget, which takes effect immediately for the July 1 start of the new fiscal year, is a sharp decline in expected city spending given cratering revenue brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and includes significant cuts to and funding shifts from the NYPD in response to recent mass protests against

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  • As Council Negotiations Continue, De Blasio Promises $1 Billion Cut to NYPD Operating Budget, Plus $500 Million in Capital Shifts

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    The Mayor and Speaker at an NYPD press conference (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Update

    As pressure mounted on the city to drastically reduce spending on policing in the budget that is due before Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council reached a tentative agreement on Monday to cut $1 billion from the NYPD and to reinvest funds in youth and social services. Nearly half the reduction, however, involves shfiting spending on school safety to the Department of Education rather than actual cuts. 

    The agreement would reduce the NYPD's

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  • Covid Laid Bare Systemic Disparities. Our City Must Make Bold Changes for an Equitable Recovery

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    BK BP Eric Adams, the author (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)


    New Yorkers have spent most of 2020 enduring an unprecedented health crisis that threatens us physically and financially like never before. We are also experiencing historic social unrest. People of color are feeling all of that pain far worse than their white neighbors.

    There is, however, nothing unprecedented or unusual about that.

    Black and brown New Yorkers have suffered from deep health, financial, and criminal justice disparities throughout the history of our city. COVID-19

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  • 4 Things to Watch as Mayor and City Council Finalize New Budget

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    The Mayor and City Council discuss the budget (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    New York City’s next fiscal year begins Wednesday, July 1, and there is no clear picture of the city’s fiscal future. The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has been catastrophic for the city’s economy, gutting revenue streams and necessitating major cuts in planned city government spending, along with tapping into billions of dollars in reserves.

    Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council are engaged in intense negotiations as they seek to

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