OMB Director Solomon: New programmatic investments in the executive budget
Solomon highlights $17 billion in new spending across prelim and exec budgets with only 8% for programmatic initiatives, including baselined funding for libraries, parks, Fair Fares, cultural organizations, CUNY, childcare, community safety, hate crimes prevention, and waste containerization.
By virtue of our strong fiscal management, we have made new critical investments in New Yorkers that are focused on retaining our tax base, taking preventative measures to save money down the line, and spending more efficiently
to deliver faster results for New Yorkers.
From a
A big picture perspective, we added roughly $17 billion in new spending across the preliminary and executive budgets with just $1.39 billion, or 8%,
attributable to programmatic administration initiatives, with the rest going towards addressing chronic underbudgeting.
For known critical needs and core government operations like snow removal and IT costs.
In terms of programmatic investments, our administration has baseline needs that were typically deferred to adopted budget negotiations and funded for just one fiscal year.
In the executive budget, we baseline funding for the library systems, the parks department, fair fairs, cultural organizations, and CUNY.
This removes the uncertainty many New Yorkers experience every July around ongoing access to their neighborhood library, cleanliness in their parks, the cost of traveling to and from work or their doctor, accessing the public art sphere.
And preserving CUNY as an engine of upward mobility.
We also made investments to improve the lives of our youngest New Yorkers by increasing childcare provider rates, expanding the New York City Reading and Solves program, and funding the Little Apple, the city's first ever municipal daycare program.
We also deepened our commitment to a safer New York with investments in the newly formed Office of Community Safety, an 800% increase in funding for the Office of Prevention of Hate Crimes,
and staffing within the CCRB and the fire department.
The mayor also expanded his commitment to safer streets and deepened funding for waste containerization.
We have boosted economic justice and worker protections with support for street vendors and commercial lease legal assistance and expanded capacity for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to grow their headcount by 181 heads and $18 million
over the next three fiscal years.
And we are improving New Yorkers'health and well-being by supporting survivors of domestic violence, seniors, and access to mental health care.
I think we can all agree that these are necessary investments that improve the quality of life for New Yorkers across every borough and community.