{"id":31996,"date":"2024-03-01T15:02:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T15:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/?p=31996"},"modified":"2024-03-01T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T15:02:08","slug":"comptroller-analysis-reviews-mayors-preliminary-budget-impacts-to-city-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/31996","title":{"rendered":"Comptroller Analysis Reviews Mayor\u2019s Preliminary Budget Impacts to City Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>New York, NY \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Ahead of the City Council\u2019s FY 2025 Preliminary Budget hearings, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released an analysis of the Mayor\u2019s budget cuts and their impact on City services. The report,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/nyc.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=bf606302e0aec6b092c87b850&amp;id=70325b0244&amp;e=50b85db3a0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/nyc.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u%3Dbf606302e0aec6b092c87b850%26id%3D70325b0244%26e%3D50b85db3a0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1709376177831000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1dvnxGgRBbpZKg36T9HDUZ\">The Bottom Lines<\/a><\/em>, identifies areas where short-sighted programmatic cuts and longer-term agency budget and staffing reductions have resulted in measurable declines in critical\u202fservice to New Yorkers. The report also identifies areas where the City can better manage budgeting and spending \u2014 uniformed overtime, crash claims and Carter cases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite last week\u2019s announcement cancelling the third round of PEGs this fiscal year, the Mayor\u2019s preliminary budget cuts CUNY, libraries, cultural institutions, and vital re-entry programs that keep New Yorkers safe, and it fails to address critical challenges facing our Housing, Sanitation, and Parks Departments,\u201d said\u00a0<strong>Comptroller Brad Lander<\/strong>. \u201cA better way to address our fiscal challenges is to confront long-term areas of overspending, like uniformed overtime, crash claims, and Carter cases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Late last year, the Adams Administration announced a requirement that agencies submit plans for the three Programs to Eliminate the Gap (PEGs), each totaling\u202fabout five percent of city spending, as well as restrictions on contractual spending and a\u202fcitywide hiring freeze\u202fin order to\u202faddress significant budget deficits. While the City since rolled back some of the cuts (scaling-back the PEG in January, and\u00a0cancelling the upcoming April PEG), the vast majority of the cuts from the first two rounds of PEGs remain in the Preliminary Budget.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Bottom Lines<\/em>\u00a0reviews the impacts:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shortsighted Programmatic Cuts\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>CUNY<\/strong>: Over the past two years, the City has reduced its annual funding for CUNY\u2019s\u202fcommunity colleges by $95 million.\u200b Cuts will hit colleges\u202funevenly; 9 institutions unable to achieve budget\u202ftargets began making midyear cuts ranging\u202ffrom eliminated programming, increased class\u202fsizes, or further reductions in faculty and staff.<\/li>\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>Libraries<\/strong>: Libraries provide New Yorkers with critical access\u202fto knowledge, resources, high-quality internet, and programming.\u202f\u200bThe Library system\u2019s\u202foverall budget\u202faccounts for just 0.4% of the City\u2019s total\u202fexpense budget. As a result of the 5% cut in the operating subsidy given\u202fto Library systems, saving a meager $24 million for the City, neighborhood libraries across the city have had to close on Saturday or Sunday, eliminating 7-day service where is previously existed. Rising library card registrations show\u202fan increased demand for library services, but budget cuts\u202fare forcing libraries to close their doors more days of the\u202fweek.<\/li>\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>Alternatives to Incarceration &amp; Detention<\/strong>:<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>The Office of Criminal Justice\u202f(OCJ) manages alternatives to incarceration (ATI) and\u202falternatives to detention (ATD) programs, which maintain and improve a fair and equitable justice system while reducing the City&#8217;s\u202fjail population.\u202fOCJ will be cut Alternatives to Incarceration\u202fprogramming by 12% and Supervised Release by\u202f11%. Re-Entry Services will see an immediate 25%\u202freduction. These cuts total $27.8 million in the next fiscal\u202fyear.\u200b<\/li>\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>Students in Temporary Housing<\/strong>: 13% of students in public schools live in temporary housing. As the Department of Education (DOE) faces the expiration of federal COVID stimulus funds, these cuts impact students in temporary housing.\n<ul>\n<li>Community Coordinator positions will disappear with a $12\u202fmillion cut ($9 million in expiring stimulus funding, $3 million in unallocated city\u202fdollars)\u202fas an additional 175 new shelters, HERRCs, and respite centers have opened.<\/li>\n<li>$77 million (both expiring stimulus funding and\u202fnon-baselined city money) in community school funding, representing 155\u202fprograms \u2014 was not included in the FY25 preliminary budget.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Agencies Facing Critical Challenges\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>Housing and Preservation Development:<\/strong>\u00a0\u200bThe HPD budget has been reduced by 7%.\u202fTo effectively tackle the\u202fCity\u2019s affordable housing crisis, the City must\u202fensure HPD has additional resources\u202fto clear the\u202fbacklog of affordable housing projects, develop\u202fand train new staff, and expand the City&#8217;s social\u202fhousing footprint.\u202f\u200bRead more about these challenges in\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/nyc.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=bf606302e0aec6b092c87b850&amp;id=3b5e53acab&amp;e=50b85db3a0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/nyc.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u%3Dbf606302e0aec6b092c87b850%26id%3D3b5e53acab%26e%3D50b85db3a0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1709376177831000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1iezAI6Cbh8If7qA8xzPzm\">Building Blocks of Change<\/a><\/em>.<\/li>\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>Sanitation<\/strong>: DSNY cancelled or\u202freduced many critical programs, including\u202fcommunity &amp; home organics collection,\u202fsupplemental litter basket service, lot cleaning\u202fand planning for the future of solid waste. 500\u202fpositions are eliminated due to hiring freezes\u202fand service reductions.\u202f\u200bCurrent cuts to DSNY\u2019s\u202fcomposting and litter basket programs threaten to\u202fworsen the cleanliness of city streets, undermine\u202frat mitigation\u202fefforts, and stymie the progress\u202fmade toward increasing\u202forganics diversion\u202fputting the\u202fCity\u2019s 0x30 goals directly at risk.\u202f\u200b<\/li>\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>Parks<\/strong>: While Parks saved the most through hiring freezes and vacancy\u202freductions, Parks also permanently\u202feliminated some programming including life-saving swim\u202fclasses. In total, Parks loses over 650 jobs. Parks\u202fmay suffer from\u202fmaintenance issues,\u202freduced hours and\u202fclosed facilities, and cutbacks on programs which could drive down New Yorkers&#8217; access to and use\u202fof\u202fparks.\u202f\u200b<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Instead of these cuts and critical challenges to agencies, the report identifies areas where the City can drive down longstanding cost\u202foverruns. Better management of uniformed overtime, crash claims, and Carter cases\u202fprovide\u202freal opportunities for the City to save dollars without diminishing services.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0Stronger Budget Discipline Required\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>Uniformed Overtime<\/strong>: Uniformed agencies, particularly the Police\u202fDepartment, routinely spend far more money for\u202fovertime than agreed to by the Mayor and\u202fCouncil in the budget. For example, the Comptroller projected in\u202fDecember that the city was underbudgeting\u202fUniformed Overtime by $600 million\u202fincluding\u202f$450 million by the\u202fNYPD.\u200b Much of the overspending is for planned events. Read more in\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/nyc.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=bf606302e0aec6b092c87b850&amp;id=c95df3cea8&amp;e=50b85db3a0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/nyc.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u%3Dbf606302e0aec6b092c87b850%26id%3Dc95df3cea8%26e%3D50b85db3a0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1709376177831000&amp;usg=AOvVaw33qUTXGc27iSkKfDCwStCj\">Overtime Overview<\/a><\/em>.<\/li>\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>Crash Claims<\/strong>: Payouts for crash claims sharply rose over a decade; the total payout for crashes\u202fnearly doubled from $89 million to $174 million\u202fcomparing 2014 to 2023, and the average payout\u202frose from $150,000 to $300,000. A 20% reduction in\u202fthe\u202fclaims budget entirely covers the cuts libraries\u202ffaced in\u202fthe most recent budget. Read more in\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/nyc.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=bf606302e0aec6b092c87b850&amp;id=69b1455d7a&amp;e=50b85db3a0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/nyc.us13.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u%3Dbf606302e0aec6b092c87b850%26id%3D69b1455d7a%26e%3D50b85db3a0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1709376177831000&amp;usg=AOvVaw30QpFWlGE5R3_Ce4g4Y-cb\">Wreckless Spending<\/a><\/em>.<\/li>\n<li role=\"listitem\" aria-setsize=\"-1\"><strong>Carter Cases<\/strong>: Money paid to settle due process claims for students with disabilities\u202fto receive legally mandated services where DOE has failed to do so grew from $131 million in 2012 to over $1\u202fbillion in 2023.\u202f\u200bEducational Services, covering\u202fprofessionals like speech, behavioral &amp; physical therapists, contributed most significantly\u202fto the growth of cost from just\u202f$33 million in 2012 to\u202f$480 million in 2023. Often parents must\u202ffind private providers\u202fbecause\u202fDOE does not provide enough specialists, especially in lower income, Black &amp; Hispanic districts and DOE is\u202frequired to pay for services that are often many times the cost of\u202fcity employee rates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York, NY \u2013\u00a0Ahead of the City Council\u2019s FY 2025 Preliminary Budget hearings, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released an analysis of the Mayor\u2019s budget cuts and their impact on City services. The report,\u00a0The Bottom Lines, identifies areas where short-sighted programmatic cuts and longer-term agency budget and staffing reductions have resulted in measurable declines [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,1469,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-new-york","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31997,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31996\/revisions\/31997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}