Mayor Bill de Blasio unveils NYC Recovery Budget
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio presented Monday New York City's $98.6 billion executive budget for Fiscal Year 2022.
Officials say the Recovery Budget is a radical investment in working families to drive economic growth in every neighborhood.
"The Recovery Budget is an historic stimulus-driven investment in our comeback that will drive economic growth, lift up working families and small businesses, promote academic and social resilience and ensure a clean and safe city for all," de Blasio said.
The mayor explained that "a recovery for all of us starts by investing in working families across New York City."
"The pandemic hit us hard but together we will fight back and drive a recovery in every neighborhood," he said. "We are meeting the moment with direct investments in education, small businesses, open space and public health, and we are building up reserves to continue our strong fiscal foundation for the future. With the Recovery Budget, New York City will emerge from this challenge stronger, fairer, cleaner, greener and safer than ever."
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE RECOVERY BUDGET
- Adds unprecedented equity investments in students and schools
- Redefines summer school with Summer Rising
- Expands early childhood special education
- Funds New Deal-style job creation with City Cleanup Corps
- Invests to stop gun violence through partnerships with communities
- Redefines citywide responses to mental health crises
- Fully funds universal free 3-K for All and expands capacity for early childhood special education
- Reimagines public space with Open Streets, Open Restaurants, new bike lanes and the Manhattan Greenway
GAME CHANGERS: STIMULUS AND VACCINATIONS
Federal stimulus and the city's robust vaccination campaign are propelling New York City to recovery. New York City experienced a growth of 100,000 jobs from December 2020 to March 2021, and expects to gain 400,000 more to reach a total of 4.5 million jobs by the end of 2021.
The city's tax revenue forecast exceeded expectations, with an increase of $1.37 billion in Fiscal Year 21 and $164 million in FY22, for a total of $1.5 billion.
In addition to the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act enacted on December 27, 2020, on March 10, 2021, President Joe Biden signed The American Rescue Plan, providing robust federal funding to New York City and other localities that have been on the front lines of COVID-19. The Plan recognizes $5.9 billion in direct local aid and $7.0 billion in federal education funding from the two federal stimulus bills. This is on top of an additional $1.3 billion in FEMA assistance to cover COVID-19 related costs like vaccinations, testing, emergency food programs, medical staffing and more.
The injection of federal stimulus will provide the momentum needed to recover from the financial impact of the pandemic, and will supercharge the city's economic growth over time.
In addition, New York State's Fiscal Year 2022 Budget restored nearly all cuts and cost shifts imposed on the City in January. This included long overdue Campaign for Fiscal Equity funding, which ramps up to $1.1 billion annually in Fiscal Year 2024 and will bring educational resources and equity to our school children for years to come.
BUDGETING FOR OUR FUTURE
The Recovery Budget adds $1.8 billion to the city's budget reserves, including $1.6 billion to the Retiree Health Benefits Trust in FY21 and $200 million to the General Reserve. This brings total reserves in Fiscal Year 2022 to $4.59 billion, including $3.8 billion in the Retiree Health Benefits Trust, $493 million in the Rainy Day Fund, and $300 million in the General Reserve.
Officials say the administration has remained focused on savings, even when revenues were strong. The Fiscal Year 2022 Executive Budget reflects almost $3.9 billion in savings over Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022, with $603 million achieved across the two years in this Plan alone.
INVESTING IN NEW YORKERS
The Recovery Budget makes major investments to help working families across the five boroughs, including:
Investments in Education
100% Fair Student Funding for schools: $600M in FY22
Universal Free 3-K For All to make 3K available for every family by September 2023: $377M in FY22
Intensive Academic Recovery for Every Student to establish baselines with assessment data, core ELA & Math instruction, tutoring, and teacher planning time: $500M in FY22
Increase Information Technology Support, including digital tools that support technology literacy for every student: $155M in FY22
Hold Schools Harmless for Mid-Year Adjustments: $130M in FY21
Expansion of Restorative Justice for Social Emotional Learning at Middle and High Schools: $12M in FY22
Community Schools in Every District by expanding from 266 to 406 community schools citywide: $10M in FY22
Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) expansion to increase access to sports programming across the city for high school students, focusing on schools with greatest need: $6M in FY22
Strengthening Special Education Services including counseling, physical and speech therapy: $236M in FY22
Expanding Early Childhood Special Education: $22M in FY22
Support for Young New Yorkers
- Summer Rising for up to 190,000 young people this summer: $200M in FY22
- Add 5,000 CUNY Summer Youth Employment slots to bring the total to 75,000 slots: $13M for a total investment of $167M in FY22
Public Health Capital of the World
- Launch NYC Public Health Corps: $50M in FY22
- Launch New Family Home Visits, health Services to first-time parents in Task Force Neighborhoods and for NYCHA residents: $23M in FY22
- Expand LifeSci NYC Initiative beyond Life Science Avenue (Manhattan's East Side) to include the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan's West Side and increase lab space across NYC: $300M in capital
- Better prepare for next health emergency with focus on health inequities with the Pandemic Response Institute: $20M in capital
Mental Health Recovery
- Bring Mental Health Crisis Response Citywide, including EMS and social worker teams for urgent non-violent mental health needs: $112M in FY22
- Expand Mobile Treatment Teams by adding 25 new teams to bring critical mental health services directly to New Yorkers: $23M in FY22
- Thrive Neighborhood Support Network, adding crisis prevention support by peers and community organizations: $2.5M in FY22
- Launch Communities Thrive to connect underserved New Yorkers with tele-mental health services: $2M in FY22
- Create the Behavioral Health Academy to train and support community mental health providers in areas hardest by the pandemic: $1M in FY22
Caring for Seniors
- Launch Community Care Plan to support seniors living at home and in their communities and open 25 more senior centers in underserved communities of color: $39.4M in FY22
- Invest more in existing senior centers: $10M FY22
Non-Profit Support
- Provide financial stability for human services providers by increasing indirect rates: $120M in FY 21-22
- Expand emergency food distribution programs including delivery of fresh produce and shelf-stable goods to pantries and community-based organizations: $32M FY22
Bring Back Small Businesses
- Small Businesses Rental Assistance and Grants for Low/Moderate Income Neighborhoods: $100M in FY22
- Low-Interest Loans for Small Businesses Hit by Pandemic: $30M in FY21 to leverage $70M private investment
- Commercial Lease Legal assistance in underserved neighborhoods: $5.2M in FY22
Bring Tourists Back
- Launch Largest Tourism Campaign in History with NYC&Co: $25M in FY22
A Clean and Green City
- City Clean Up Corps to directly hire 10,000 New Yorkers to make the city cleaner and greener: $234M FY22
- Resume organics collection and expand recycling programs: $33M in FY22
- Restore litter basket collection service: $9M in FY22
Reimagine our Streets
- Funding for operations and maintenance of 360 speed cameras in FY21 and 600 speed cameras in FY22, bringing total to 2,220 cameras citywide: $46M in FY22
- Investing to streamline process for Open Restaurants: $8.5M in FY22
- Community Support for Open Streets: $4M FY22
- Bike Boulevards, Brooklyn Bridge bike lane: $2M between FY21-22
- Queensboro Bridge bike lane: $5M in capital
- Complete the Manhattan Greenway: $723M in capital
Public Safety and Criminal Justice
- CCRB expansion including enhancements launch of CCRB biased-based investigation capacity: $4.1M in FY22
- Community-Based Hate Crime Prevention for community based organizations to lead neighborhood patrols, do bystander intervention training and provide victim services: $3M in FY22
- Cure Violence - double workforce then triple workforce, add two new sites, and increase Anti-Violence Youth Employment: $27M in FY22
- Advance Peace to connect mentors with at-risk youth: $6M in FY22
- Saturday Night Lights will expand to 100 Locations: $7M in FY22
-Joint Force to End Gun Violence: $1.3M in FY22
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