Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (c.) Mayor Bill de blasio celebrates an early, balanced budget in the company of City Council officials.
Photo courtesy NYC Mayor’s Office
The city should not have any trouble adopting its budget for Fiscal Year 2015 on Tuesday.
Queens lawmakers celebrated the early budget agreement along with officials throughout the city, championing funding for key topics like the Department of Correction and Superstorm Sandy relief. Mayor Bill de Blasio boasted the agreement as one of the earliest in history, settling a $75 billion budget he said was in line with his progressive agenda.
“A budget agreement is where rhetoric meets the road – and we’ve delivered a fiscally responsible, progressive and honest budget that will have an enormous impact on New Yorkers across the five boroughs, while protecting our city’s fiscal health,” de Blasio said in a statement. “This is one of the earliest agreements in recent history – a result of the productive dynamic we’ve developed with the Council that ends the cynical budget dance and delivers results for New Yorkers.”
The term, “budget dance” has been the buzzword every budget season in the city for years and lawmakers largely lauded de Blasio for keeping this year’s discussion civil. City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Maspeth) said she was proud to see the agreement usher in some of the key issues she helped fight for this year.
“After years of counterproductive ‘budget dances’ under the previous administration, our city has produced a budget deal that reflects the priorities of everyday New Yorkers,” Crowley said. “I am proud to have worked with my colleagues in the Council on a historic budget that is early and addresses public safety, employment opportunities, education, health and infrastructure in meaningful and responsible ways.”
Crowley, who chairs the Council’s Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services, said one of her highlight concessions in the budget came in the form of de Blasio’s commitment of $32.5 million to fund the city Department of Correction to fight violence and mental illness on Rikers Island. The lawmaker said she was a staunch advocate for reform in the system since the recent deaths of mentally ill inmates at Rikers over the past year.
“With skyrocketing overtime costs and a growing mentally ill inmate population that requires very specialized care, we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” she said. “But we have undoubtedly taken a huge step in moving DOC and our city back in the right direction.”
Lawmakers celebrated budgetary victories like $6.2 million to hire 200 Police Department administrative aides, extending free school lunch to middle schoolers throughout the city, $5 million to increase city Parks maintenance and more.
City Public Advocate Letitia James said she had been one of the leaders in the battle cry to bring universal school lunch to the city in order to address nutrition and classroom performance. The program will begin in September, which she said was a step in the right direction for city schools.
“In February, I supported a campaign to bring universal school lunch to New York City, because I know that students who aren’t battling hunger are more attentive and perform better in their classes,” she said. “Thanks to the hard work of the Lunch 4 Learning campaign, today we take the first step towards universal school lunch.
Some lawmakers expressed concern over the budget when it was proposed last month, arguing it did not do enough for Superstorm Sandy victims. City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), chairman of the Council’s Committee on Veterans, said the mayor needed to step up to the plate for storm relief.
“The needs and concerns of veterans must be a priority for this administration,” he said. “The executive budget proposed last week ignores the Council’s request to increase funding for the mayor’s Office of Veteran Affairs, as well as many other desperately needed veterans’ initiatives.”
By Phil Corso
