Council Member Ferreras-Copeland (photo: John McCarten)
The City Council held its final hearing on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $84.86 billion executive budget proposal on Thursday, with Council members raising issues that have persisted throughout budget season and expressing concerns about the federal budget proposal released this week by the Trump administration.
“The city adopts the Fiscal 2018 budget at a time of great uncertainty about the future of critical programs and services that help many of our most vulnerable populations,” said Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, chair of the Council’s finance committee, in a prelude to a deal that must be reached between the Council and de Blasio by the July 1 start to the new city fiscal year. Many are expecting a deal much sooner than that deadline, though.
Ferreras-Copeland called the White House’s budget proposal “devastating,” pointing out that it outlines cuts to food stamps, Medicaid, housing programs, and the earned income and child tax credits. She worried that many city agencies hadn’t developed contingencies to cope with those potential cuts.
Although Ferreras-Copeland commended the de Blasio administration for funding key initiatives -- air conditioning in public school classrooms, immigrant support services, planning for borough-based jails in the effort to close the Rikers Island complex -- and reducing excess capital appropriations, she criticized the lack of funding for universal school lunch, senior services, youth jobs, and the Emergency Food Assistance Program. The budget, “as it currently stands, does not appropriately reflect the vision of both the Council and the Mayor,” she said.
Ferreras-Copeland said the administration had failed on a few fronts, particularly in reforming the capital appropriation process and providing transparency. She cited, for instance, the mayor’s announcement of a partial hiring freeze for administrative and managerial positions. “Because the Administration did not issue guidance on this plan until well into the budget hearings, agencies were unable to provide us any detail about how it would affect them,” she said. She also called for increasing city reserves, from the current 10.7 percent of adjusted spending to somewhere between 12 and 18 percent.
Dean Fuleihan, de Blasio’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, defended the proposed budget while promising to continue working with Council members on their priorities. Fuleihan presented a grim assessment of how President Trump’s budget would affect the city, insisting that the administration has “responded to the uncertainties and challenges we face by maintaining historic reserves and expanding our savings program, while continuing to make investments that strengthen New York’s future.”
Reform of the capital projects management system seemed of particular importance at the hearing and Ferreras-Copeland wondered why projects experienced consistent delays and cost overruns. Council Member Brad Lander later released an issue brief at the hearing, prepared in concert with other members, that showed 44 percent of capital projects that cost more than $25 million were severely late and 42 percent of projects were severely over budget. On average, the brief noted, projects were $30 million over-budget and 700 days late.
“This is not the fault of the de Blasio administration but we have a shared responsibility to do more to fix it,” Lander said.
Fuleihan agreed with that sentiment, while insisting the administration was making incremental improvements. “We need to work together...we need to be careful, we need to be thoughtful about this,” he said. The city will pass both a new fiscal year operational spending plan and a revised 10-year capital spending plan. The capital plan is revised every other year.
Fuleihan also promised to provide more detail about lump sum appropriations for a number of city agencies, an issue that Ferreras-Copeland said prevents the Council from full oversight. He also explained the implementation of the administration’s partial hiring freeze, which includes a variety of caveats, as the mayor had indicated it would.
Another issue that has been raised throughout the budget process is increased funding for nonprofit human services providers that are contracted by the city. These providers are increasingly facing financial insolvency and Council members have been advocating for the administration to provide contract increases. Fuleihan noted that it was an “inherited” problem and that the city has done more in the last three years than prior administrations. This year, the mayor’s preliminary budget also included a six percent wage increase over three years, at a cost of $200 million, for employees of these nonprofits. “Do we need to do more? Obviously,” Fuleihan said. “We’re saying we need to do more and we’re committed to doing more.”
Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, chair of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations, pushed the administration on a $150 million capital need for city libraries and for $40 million in increased allocations for cultural institutions facing the threat of federal funding cuts.
Fuleihan stressed that the city has made significant investments in libraries, including capital allocations and operational funds for six-day service. “There’s always significant needs there, I’m not minimizing that...It’s another area where I think we all need to see some improvements,” he said of library capital projects. Cultural institutions, he said, were “part of the conversation we’re having,” and vowed that the administration will fight back against any proposed cuts.
Both Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and Council Member Laurie Cumbo reiterated a request for funding “Fair Fares” to give discounted Metrocards to low-income New Yorkers. It is one of the few budget requests that the mayor has absolutely refused to fund, insisting that the state or state-controlled MTA should provide the funding. Fuleihan repeated that rationale at the hearing. “The mayor is more than sympathetic towards this but he feels that the appropriate place to fund it is the MTA,” he said.
Cumbo also asked for the administration’s plan to expand the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), an ongoing point of negotiation between the administration and the Council. Fuleihan, pointing out that the city has increased SYEP slots by almost double in the last three years, said expanding the program was not as simple as funding more slots. “There are two things: how much capacity are we actually able to do over the summer, and if we agree on moving forward, how do we move forward,” he said. “So I think there’s still questions for us to work though.”
Following Fuleihan, Comptroller Scott Stringer also presented the Council with his preliminary analysis of the White House budget proposal and its impact on the city, finding that the city could lose $850 million in social services, housing and education funding. “We have to anticipate the impact of these significant cuts,” he said, “and be prepared with a sound and responsible city budget.”
And although he said that the city’s economic outlook remains strong -- with a projected surplus in fiscal 2017 that will “equal or exceed” the previous year’s $4 billion surplus -- he said revenue and job growth were slowing. “I remain concerned that we are not adequately prepared for a potentially rocky road,” he said.
“We’re not being alarmist, I’m not here today to say we’re in doomsday,” he later added, “but, look, part of why we’ve been successful as a city is, we navigate what comes our way. We’re forward thinking about it...This is our moment to be very strategic and cautious.”
Stringer listed a few of his own priorities for the budget, calling for reductions in the cost of citizenship applications to relieve the financial burden on 670,000 eligible immigrants. He also reiterated the need to fund human services nonprofits, releasing an accompanying analysis of the industry, and finally insisted on procurement reform at the Department of Education.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli also released an analysis of the federal budget proposal on Thursday, calling for increased reserves to weather economic uncertainty and the potential rollback of the Affordable Care Act. “The President's proposed budget would make steep reductions in programs upon which city residents rely and poses a major risk to future city budgets,” DiNapoli said in a statement.
With Thursday’s hearing, the public facing part of the budget process comes to an end, save for the rallies and press conferences that may occur to lobby for additional funding for specific causes. The City Council and the mayor will now move to closed-door negotiations to hammer out the final tweaks to the spending plan. Last year, the final budget deal reduced spending by about $100 million from the proposed executive budget. Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Mayor de Blasio ceremoniously shook hands on that budget agreement on June 8, the earliest agreement in 15 years. The next budget is due by July 1, the start of the 2018 fiscal year.
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
Mayor de Blasio (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)
The Democratic county organizations of Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island have endorsed Mayor Bill de Blasio for reelection. The three borough party committees, formal local affiliates of the larger Democratic Party, will officially announce their endorsements on Thursday, joining Brooklyn county, which has already announced its support of de Blasio’s candidacy for a second term.
A Democrat who took office in 2014 after a contentious 2013 primary and landslide general election, de Blasio is consolidating organized party support ahead of this September’s primary, for which his main opposition is former City Council Member Sal Albanese and police reform leader Robert Gangi. De Blasio has also received support from several political clubs in the early going of endorsement season, most major labor unions, as well as a variety of elected officials, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Public Advocate Letitia James, and many City Council members. (A large rally with Brooklyn Democrats to celebrate their endorsement was postponed due to a deadly car crash in Times Square.)
De Blasio, who has the power of incumbency, solid poll numbers, and a number of significant accomplishments to his name, is a heavy favorite to win reelection. If he does prevail in his primary, he will face the winner of the Republican contest, very likely either Staten Island Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis or real estate executive Paul Massey, as well as independent Bo Dietl, and other lesser-known and lesser-financed candidates. Opponents are seeking to portray de Blasio as a weak manager, too much of a spender, and ineffective at solving the city’s homelessness crisis.
In announcing his organization’s endorsement of de Blasio for reelection, New York (Manhattan) County Leader Keith Wright said in a statement that de Blasio “has delivered for New Yorkers,” citing universal pre-kindergarten, low crime, improved police-community relations, and other factors. “We are proud to endorse Bill for re-election, because we must keep this progress going,” Wright said.
In thanking Wright and his cohort, de Blasio said in a statement that “none of the progress we’ve made in recent years would be possible” without the “partnership” of Manhattan Democrats at all levels of government.
Not particularly known for its prowess, the Richmond County (Staten Island) party organization is backing de Blasio for a variety of hyperlocal reasons, including the mayor’s work to repave the borough’s roads, implementation of 24-hour ferry service, expansion of electronic waste removal, and other factors, according to Chair John Gulino, who called de Blasio “a true champion of Staten Island” in an endorsement statement that also touches on broader themes like crime reduction.
In response, de Blasio said in a statement that “The Richmond County Democrats are one of the fastest-growing progressive organizations out there today.” Staten Island was the only borough de Blasio lost in 2013 against Republican Joe Lhota.
In endorsing de Blasio for reelection, the Queens County Democratic Committee Chair, Congressional Rep. Joe Crowley, cited de Blasio’s “commitment to fight for all New Yorkers” in the face of the Trump Administration. De Blasio has positioned himself as an anti-Trump in recent months, vowing to fight the new federal administration on several fronts. In a statement accompanying the endorsement, Crowley also cited pre-K, low crime, and, more locally, de Blasio’s redesign of the deadly Queens Boulevard, where the mayor recently celebrated more than 900 straight days without a fatality.
In accepting the endorsement, de Blasio said in a statement that the diverse borough of Queens is an essential part of New York remaining “a place that welcomes everybody, no matter who they are or where they come from.”
With four Democratic County committees behind him, the mayor is only awaiting the backing of the Bronx, which is all-but-certain. On Wednesday, the campaign announced the endorsement of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who represents part of the Bronx and was its county party chair until he became Assembly speaker. Heastie is de Blasio’s most important ally in Albany.
County party endorsements can be helpful in terms of organized party support for a candidate, which helps with campaign advertising, volunteers, and get-out-the-vote efforts. It can also help with fundraising.
The new county party endorsements for de Blasio come just after some positive fundraising and polling news for the mayor -- he raised about $669,000 in the most recent two-month fundraising period and has about $2.6 million in cash on hand heading into the summer, and, a recent Quinnipiac poll showed 57% of respondents saying the mayor deserves reelection, versus 35% who said he does not. Among Democrats, 73% said de Blasio deserves reelection, 20% said he does not.
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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
@tweetBenMax @GothamGazette
Mayor de Blasio (photo: Mayor's Office)
Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that he doesn’t take the subway very often because New York City residents want him to use his time as effectively as possible.
“My life and schedule are well known and what it would do in that case is add a whole lot of time to moving around and that’s not in the public’s interest,” de Blasio said, when Gotham Gazette asked why he doesn’t lead by example and use the subway to commute to work, given that de Blasio regularly implores New Yorkers to avoid driving and take mass public transit whenever possible. “Every minute of my day has to be used effectively on behalf of the people and that’s literally seven days a week, 365 days a year,” the mayor continued, speaking at a news conference about the city’s plans to crack down on parking placard abuse. “There’s no day when I’m not working on this job in some form or fashion,” the mayor said.
Often while promoting the city’s Vision Zero program aimed at reducing traffic fatalities, de Blasio says New Yorkers should use public transportation as much as possible. Just last week, at a May 17 news conference in Queens, Gotham Gazette asked de Blasio what he would tell New Yorkers choosing between driving to work and taking the subways, which have been in terrible shape of late. “I would always say don't drive,” the mayor said. “It's as simple as that.”
De Blasio did acknowledge that in certain parts of the city that are underserved by mass transit, driving may be necessary. “But to the maximum extent humanly possible, don't drive. It's a bad scene...So, my point is, even though there are problems in the subway system I think they pale in comparison to problems in our roads. Avoid driving whenever humanly possible.”
“For our subways – look, there's work that has to be done but there's still a hell of a lot more reliable, I think, than driving on the streets,” he added.
De Blasio’s advice conflicts with his own daily commute, which often involves travelling in a motorcade with a security detail from Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side to his gym at the Park Slope YMCA, then to City Hall or another destination. Just this week, the mayor’s motorcade drove him to Park Slope and then back up to the Bronx, where his administration is holding the weeklong “City Hall in Your Borough.”
Although the Second Avenue Subway line launched a few months ago, adding more connections to the Upper East Side, including one fairly close to Gracie Mansion, it hasn’t changed de Blasio’s commuting habits. Nor has it provoked him to ride the subway even slightly more sporadically - the mayor is an infrequent subway rider, though he says he rides it often enough to understand the deplorable current conditions and that his experience riding it in the 1980s and ‘90s also helps him get straphangers’ plights.
The mayor’s gym routine has also invited criticism and ridicule from City Hall watchers and political opponents, many of whom say the mayor, who often arrives at City Hall between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., is distracted from his official duties and an ineffective leader. Republican mayoral candidate Paul Massey has called de Blasio “lazy” for his late arrivals at City Hall. Others point out that the mayor is not only not being efficient with his time (he argues that he works in the car and even at the gym), but also setting a bad example in terms of both transportation type and unleashing unnecessary, environmentally-harmful emissions.
De Blasio’s comments come at a time when commuters are increasingly aggravated over the sorry state of the city’s subways, which experience persistent delays and breakdowns. The mayor constantly seeks to remind people that the MTA is a state-run agency and that Governor Andrew Cuomo appoints 6 of its 14 members and its chair, and has pushed for increased resources for the ailing transit system. At the May 17 news conference, de Blasio reiterated that point. “I think the MTA needs to recognize that they've got to do something quick here...They have to make sure the allocation of resources in the region is fair,” he said. “In number terms, the number of people riding our subways dwarfs everything else in the region that the MTA does.”
“And there are obviously physical problems that have to be addressed,” he added, saying that the MTA’s recently announced emergency plan for the subways was helpful. “But I think the MTA needs to come forward with an even bigger plan to shift its resources towards this problem of making sure the day-to-day commute works better...The big question is how you prioritize your resources.”
Governor Cuomo, on the other hand, has been slow to take responsibility, insisting that historic disinvestment in the system has caused it to crumble (Cuomo has been in office for six-and-a-half years), and that he has limited control over the MTA. On Tuesday, Cuomo proposed an international competition, with $1 million for each of three categories of solutions to the MTA’s most intractable problems, including an outdated signal system and old subway cars.
The mayor does ride the subway on occasion, sometimes, in his telling, as a way to take the temperature of the city. “There are times when I take the subway because I just obviously like to see what’s going on,” he said Wednesday, adding that he will hop on when heading to Midtown or during the holidays, when the subways make for a quicker journey. He also said he spent 20 years as a subway commuter before buying a car in 1999. “But in the end people wanna make sure that I’m getting things done for them all the time and so that’s the first imperative here,” he insisted with regard to the question of the example he’s setting by rarely taking the subway.
“I have plenty of understanding of life in the subway and I still use it consistently enough to keep a good sense of things,” he added. “But no, the number one thing I owe the people is good use of my time.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
with reporting by Ben Max