Dear District 39 Constituent,
Today, the City Council voted to pass the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget. I voted no. Let me explain why.
Throughout this budget cycle, the Mayor proposed broad cuts to city agencies, which I outlined in last week’s newsletter. As a result, Council Members were largely forced to fight to restore funding for essential services rather than pushing for proactive investments. Given the City’s current multi-billion dollar budget surplus, this dynamic was wholly unnecessary.
Thanks to the hard work of Speaker Adrienne Adams, my Council colleagues, and the tireless advocacy of constituents like you, we were able to limit some of the most egregious cuts. We reversed the cut to libraries, which will ensure that they will be able to return to seven day service. The cuts to our cultural sector and community composting were restored. Promise NYC, which provides childcare to previously excluded immigrant families, got a $9 million increase to meet increased demand. Additionally, we were able to secure $2 billion in new capital funding for housing, including $140 million over two years for the Homes Now, Homes for Generation campaign to construct and preserve permanently affordable homes. The Speaker, in particular, deserves praise for delivering these wins and making the most out of a difficult situation.
However, Mayor Adams ultimately forced through a budget that continues to decimate our educational system from baby cradle to graduation tassel. His $150 million cut to 3-K abandons the promise of program universality. We were able to restore some money to ensure that every family currently on the waitlist will get an offer, but there is no commitment from the Administration that those offers will be for seats with locations and hours that logistically work for these families.
He also failed to properly invest in many local public schools, causing teachers in our district to be excessed and class sizes to rise, which I’ve heard about directly from many parents this week. The school construction capital budget also fails to create the new seats needed to comply with the State class size reduction law. He also cut CUNY by $78 million, depriving this generation of students of the resources that were available to me when I attended Brooklyn College. While our communities know that there is no higher priority than education, this budget treats education like an afterthought.
We also are experiencing a $23 million cut to Parks, which will result in less frequent trash pickup, a lower level of landscape maintenance, and even more limited access to bathrooms.
At the same time, Mayor Adams is funneling money into his NYPD pet projects that do not work towards real community safety including the Cop City multi-agency training center, the 86 member PR team, the teenage school police cadet program, and the Strategic Response Group. A budget is about choices and Mayor Adams has made the wrong ones.
Ultimately, this is a restoration budget that prevents funding for essential services from going from bad to worse. But New Yorkers deserve proactive investments that strengthen the resources their families need to lay down roots here and live dignified lives. Throughout this mayoral administration, the neighborhoods I represent have seen their essential services slashed and their cost of living skyrocket. I cannot sign off on a budget that despite the Council’s best efforts, continues us down Mayor Adams’s path of austerity.
You can see my full Stated Meeting Remarks and my joint statement with Council Members Tiffany Cabán and Alexa Avilés on our No votes below.
This fight for budget justice does not end here and I’ll continue to keep you updated on further developments.
In community,
Shahana
