Dear John,

A few weeks ago, I wrote to you with a set of principles for how I would be approaching the City budget this year, during this time of public health pandemic, economic crisis, and racial justice reckoning. Those principles included divesting at least $1 billion from policing to preserve as much investment as we possibly can in education, youth, and social services; prioritizing public health to get us through the pandemic; investing in a just recovery; and taking a smart, long-term approach to our city’s economic and fiscal health.

The budget that the City Council is being asked to approve today does not meet those principles. It does not meaningfully shrink the NYPD’s budget . It does not even impose the same hiring freeze for police officers that it does for teachers and counselors . As a result, while it makes some good restorations to school and summer youth funding, it does not sufficiently stave off cuts to education, affordable housing, and seniors. It does not do enough to surge our public health capacity (like creating the NYC Public Health Corps [[link removed]] I’ve been calling for). It does not do enough to protect workers (we still don’t have an Essential Workers Bill of Rights). And by needlessly cutting the capital budget for job creation, affordable housing, and infrastructure, it does not invest smartly in our city’s economic recovery.

So I will be voting no.

First, this budget does not rise to meet the moment of reckoning over racial justice and public safety. Over the last month, an unprecedented movement has taken to the streets, with community groups, advocates, and neighbors, led by Black leaders but including a multiracial and multigenerational coalition, pushing for fundamental change in how we approach public safety. A clear demand emerged from longtime police accountability advocates, led by Communities United for Police Reform [[link removed]] , to shrink the NYPD’s budget by at least $1 billion and prioritize investments in communities of color who have endured abusive policing, historic disinvestment, and a disproportionate toll of the coronavirus health and economic crisis.

Reducing police spending is BOTH the first step to transforming our approach to public safety AND a fiscal necessity this year. According to new data released by the Vera Institute [[link removed]] , New York City spends far more on policing than other American cities . We have 1 NYPD officer for every 162 people. Los Angeles only has 1 officer for every 308 people, Houston every 360, and Phoenix every 380. So those three cities on average spend $382 per capita on policing. New York City spends $626 per capita -- 63% more -- for a total of nearly $6 billion (and that doesn’t even count health care, pensions, and other fringe costs).

We aren’t going to thoughtfully transform our approach to public safety overnight. That is going to take a real process of systems transformation, like the one that my friends in the Minneapolis City Council voted to start on Friday [[link removed]] , voting to replace their police department with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. They will still have some police officers; but they won’t have policing as the primary response for every problem [[link removed]] , from homelessness to mental health to domestic violence.

But we could and should have used this budget to take meaningful steps. The first step, as I called for back in March [[link removed].] , would be to impose a hiring freeze on the NYPD, as we are doing for every other City agency. However, the budget we are voting on today does not extend the City’s across-the-board hiring freeze on the NYPD. Instead, the City will hire 1,100 new officers next year (replacing 1 for every 2 who retire), even as we hire no new teachers.

The purported NYPD savings rely heavily on a $350 million cut to overtime, which I suspect the NYPD will not abide by. Another $307 million comes from shifting school safety agents from the NYPD to the Department of Education, which will not generate any savings or reinvestment. And the proposal even claims as a cut the $115 million we spend on those safety agents’ fringe benefits, which won’t be cut or moved at all.

Put simply: we are not making the kinds of cuts needed to reduce the footprint of abusive policing, to better protect public health and our social safety net, or to balance our budget.

I do want to acknowledge the work of Speaker Corey Johnson, Finance Chair Danny Dromm, and the Council’s Budget Negotiating Team for winning some important budget restorations. We are making big restorations ($132 million) to the Summer Youth Employment Program and other summer youth programs, which Mayor de Blasio had proposed to eliminate entirely. The Council won the restoration of $100 million in “Fair Student Funding” to our schools, as well as restoration of the CUNY ASAP program. And while we are eliminating curbside composting, we will be funding a small community composting program that at least keeps the program alive.

But we will still be cutting over $300 million from our public schools system, at a time when we so urgently need ambitious vision and creativity to safely open our schools this fall. We’re still forced to cut millions from programs that support our seniors, that staff our libraries, that keep our parks and our streets clean.

We aren’t even funding the measly $1 million that the Department of Transportation needs to create the Reckless Driver Accountability Program that I sponsored, which we finally voted to create in February after years of organizing together -- exactly the kind of non-policing approach to saving lives that we urgently need at this moment.

Finally, the budget we are voting on today continues to needlessly and foolishly cut the city’s long-term capital investments in affordable housing, job creation, and infrastructure. While the fiscal crisis compels spending cuts to the City’s operating budget to achieve a balanced budget, cuts to the long-term capital budget are exactly the opposite of what Keynesian economics teaches us to do in a time of economic and fiscal crisis.

As I outlined in an issue brief [[link removed]] , and joined advocates to lobby, the $2.3 billion reduction in NYC’s capital budget (which is generally financed over 30 years, a smart and cost-effective long-term investment) will delay financing for 20,000 affordable housing units, remove over $800 million from bridge, road, and waterfront pier repairs, eliminate more than 15,000 jobs, take opportunities away from M/WBEs and communities of color, slow our city’s recovery, and weaken our infrastructure for the longer term. And it won’t even help us address our operating budget shortfall. As Sherlock Holmes called it: a capital mistake.

I’m deeply disappointed with this budget, but I’m not despairing. In fact, I’m energized by the extraordinarily diverse energy across our city to build something better. Working together in our neighborhoods to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. And marching together in our streets to insist that Black lives matter.

So my vote today is not only a no vote on the budget. Inspired by your organizing, your mutual aid, and your commitment to our shared future, it is a promise to fight harder to win a real transformation in public safety, to prioritize public health and the social safety net, and to invest in a just, sound, and vibrant recovery for our city.

Brad

456 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215
718-499-1090
[email protected]

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