Dear New Yorkers,
I hope your 4th of July holiday weekend was a good chance to get started on your summer beach reading! In case that didn’t include reading New York City’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget agreement, we’ve got a summary here (and we’ll have a deeper dive next month). Thanks to City Council leadership and broad public outcry, the agreement restores critical funding to our public libraries and cultural institutions that the Mayor had proposed to cut, and it adds significant new funding for affordable housing.
Unfortunately, this budget—and the process that Mayor Adams followed to advance it—still fails to provide the long-term fiscal responsibility, transparency, and future-focused investments in that our city’s future demands. Neither the Mayor’s budget, nor his hastily convened Charter Revision Commission, take steps to establish clear policies for the City’s Rainy Day Fund, get control of claims against the City (which cost over $1 billion annually), provide transparency into whether proposed efficiencies are actually realized, or pay the City’s vendors on time — steps we called for in “A Stronger Fiscal Framework for NYC.”
While the Administration made modest inroads in funding chronically under-budgeted items, the financial plan continues the longstanding tradition of underfunding known expenses, underestimating fiscal gaps, and clouding the City’s financial picture. Making cuts early in the budget cycle, only to restore them at the end, without looking at longer term savings and efficiencies, does not provide the strong fiscal framework we need. And while the Council secured significant restorations for early childhood programs, the agreement fails to fully fund universal 3K and PreK. CUNY, the city’s best vehicle for upward social mobility, has been hit with over $75 million in annual budgets cuts during this administration.
Our Spotlight this month — July is Disability Pride Month — looks at disability and employment in NYC. We find that the percentage of working-age New Yorkers with a disability increased during the pandemic, possibly as a result of long Covid. While remote work offers the possibility of increased opportunities for people with disabilities, we have such a long way to go to achieve the vision of the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed 34 years ago this month.
Removing barriers to work is critical for the 7.6% of working-age New Yorkers with a disability… and generates better workplaces for all of us.
