***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***
June 19, 2019
 
CM GIBSON APPLAUDS CITY COUNCIL'S ADOPTION OF FY20 
BUDGET
Every year, the Council aims to negotiate and pass a comprehensive, progressive, equitable, and fair budget. Today, the City Council  significantly investments in essential programs that service the needs of all New Yorkers and safeguard our future. Such safety measures include an additional $250 million will be added to the City's reserves, and a $40 million investment in Census outreach, advertising, and community engagement efforts. These measures will help protect the city's future investments and ensure the best possible efforts in attaining additional federal funding through the 2020 Census.

I applaud Speaker Corey Johnson'a leadership in remaining insistent and persistent in fighting for the vital services this great city cannot do without. As your Council Member, I am proud to serve on the Budget Negotiation Team as well as a Deputy Leader to help prioritize important investments in our educational systems and youth, libraries, cultural institutions, parks, Census 2020, senior meals, and much more.  In our negotiations with the Mayor, the Council fought hard to protect and expand the services our constituents have come to rely on. I am thrilled to see the Fiscal 2020 Budget includes:                    
  • Pay Equity: The fight to support wage equity paid off and this years' budget ensures pay parity for Childhood Education workers, both teachers and non-teachers, public defense and civil legal service providers, as well as human service providers. These investments help address immediate recruitment and retention challenges that these organizations and agencies face, and will aim to slow down the high rates of attrition to ensure the best possible opportunities to recruit experienced and talented staff. 
  • Investing In Our Youth and Education: Our young people are our greatest asset and their success is dependent on our investment in their future. This year, COMPASS, which supports elementary after school programs received $14.2 million in baselined funding to create 4,000 new slots, 285 new Social Workers will be coming to our schools ($30 million), new Title IX coordinators, which ensure schools are free from sexual and gender-based violence and discrimination, are coming to our schools ($857,000), a restoration of the Breakfast in the Classroom was achieved ($6 million), and popular programs like  Work, Learn, Grow ($19.7 million) and Summer SONYC ($15 million) will continue to be in place.
  • Strengthening Social Services: New York is the greatest city on Earth and it is incumbent on us to lead the way in providing services for those in need. This year, the Council and the Administration prioritized a number of social service programs by baselining funding for senior congregate and home-delivered meals ($10 million), keeping senior centers ($2.8 million) and senior social clubs open ($885,000), transgender healthcare training ($390,000), and the Fair Futures support system for foster youth from middle school through age 26 will be the first program of its kind in the nation ($12.8 million).
  • Enhanced Citywide Services: This budget includes critical enhancements to services many New Yorkers rely on, including $33 million for libraries, of which $19 million is baselined, additional litter basket pickups ($8.6 million), additional Urban Rangers, PEP Officers, and Park Workers and Gardeners ($43 million), extensions to the beach and pool season ($1.7 million), tree stump removals ($1 million), and  $640,000 for poll site translators.
  • Bronx in the Budget: In addition to the citywide investments made in our communities, my Bronx colleagues and I have worked to secure funding for our borough. Our delegation secured funding for capital improvements at Bronx Community College ($3 million) and the Bronx Museum of the Arts ($1.7 million), an brand new exhibit center at the Bronx Zoo ($4.4 million) as well as further support for Orchard Beach ($5 million in FY 2021), and the Bronx Universal Hip Hop Museum ($2 million).
     
  • Enhanced Council Initiatives: My colleagues and I united to enhance some of the City's most successful and important initiatives, including NYC Cleanup, Parks Equity, and CASA, which provides cultural arts education in our schools. Initiatives to protect crime victim services, expand alternatives to incarceration, provide vital legal services, fund childcare services at CUNY, support  survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, fund maternal health care programs to address disproportionate  infant mortality rates among African American women, and safe guard the rights of the incarcerated were also strengthened through initiative enhancements for which I am grateful.  
As this budget cycle draws to a close, I thank all of my colleagues and their staff for the countless hours of work they did in preparing for this budget and serving the best interests of their communities.  I thank  Speaker Corey Johnson, Finance Chair Danny Dromm, and Finance Director Latonia McKinney for their outstanding leadership and all of their hard work.  I extend my deepest thanks to my own staff, for supporting me in this budget process. Together we have truly created a budget that serves all New Yorkers. 

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