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Dear John,

When I first wrote this email, it was Thursday afternoon, and the plan was to give you all an update on where budget negotiations were. There were rumors and rumblings, so I thought it would be helpful to spell it all out. Then on Friday, a “handshake agreement” was reached between the Mayor and the Speaker, and lo and behold, we had a budget deal. This “handshake” meant that the Speaker’s assembled team of allied Council Members, called the Budget Negotiating Team (or BNT, which I am not a member of), hammered out the main points of an agreement with the Mayor. Per the City Charter (our City's constitution), we must pass a budget by July 1, so on Friday, my team and I assumed we’d have many more days to review the final document before any vote. On Sunday, we learned that a vote was scheduled for Monday evening before we had even seen the budget documents themselves.

I lay out this timeline because I want to bring some transparency to this complicated and challenging process. It benefits those in power to move quickly, to force a vote on a $101 billion budget before any of us have had time to read the fine print. It puts all of us Council Members in an incredibly difficult position.

Last night I voted yes on this complicated, flawed budget. I am surprised by how this process was conducted, and it will undoubtedly serve as a learning experience for the future. The truth is, until last night I still had not seen everything in this budget, and yet had to vote on it. I know on some level, our Council has won historic concessions from this Mayor, and on another, this is a budget that does not fully meet the needs of our City.

Through our hard work and organizing, we won some real victories. We won expansions for language access programs including funding for adult literacy programs and the long-fought for community interpreter banks. We won an unprecedented $10 million for childcare for undocumented families. We ensured the NYPD wasn’t expanded and the Department of Corrections (DOC) headcount remained flat. Funding for sanitation, parks, and cultural institutions will avoid draconian cuts and will receive urgent funding increases.

But the really ugly part of this budget is the education cuts. I do understand that our Council is putting $750 million into our schools and it is simply just a matter of federal money running out. I understand this is primarily tied to state-level funding formulas and changes in classroom sizes but I know that to parents, teachers, and students - a cut to education funding is just that. It’s a divestment in our future, and explaining away the reasons doesn’t make it any less painful. I rallied with teachers and students on Monday and heard your stories. Music classes, after-school programs, and so much more that are essential to our student's well-being are at risk of being cut. My commitment remains to keep our schools whole and work with my colleagues, education advocates, and schools to restore the necessary funding.

I must be clear that this problem stems from the Mayor. Our Council must and should be a check on the Mayor’s authority, and this year we did not succeed. This budget lays bare the deep problems with Mayoral control and the established archaic school funding formulas. The fight to ensure our schools are fully funded is far from over and I will be working hard in the coming days to ensure that our schools get the money they deserve. This includes meeting with District 39 principals this Wednesday to understand the impacts school by school followed by a letter to the Chancellor demanding accountability and funding.

This was not an easy decision and I know many of you will have thoughts on this vote. Please share them because I am your representative, and I am accountable to you all.

In Solidarity,
Shahana

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