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“Our schools have endured the hardest two years and need every penny to provide the social, emotional, and academic supports that all our students deserve this summer and fall,” he said. “We should not be forcing schools to implement sharp cuts to their budgets this summer.”
The local chapter of the United Federation of Teachers at MS839 in Brooklyn issued a statement saying that its budget was cut by hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to the release, upwards of six staff members won’t be able to return because of the reduction in funding. Class sizes will also increase, while arts, sports and enrichment programming will be gutted, according to the press release.
One Brooklyn principal, who asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak to the press, said she was especially concerned about the enrollment-based funding reductions because the city’s projection appeared to not take into account its latest enrollment numbers.
“We have more first graders going into second grade than they’re saying we have,” she said.
It’s also not clear how the city will enact a new state law requiring smaller class sizes passed by the state Legislature last week. Adams has been adamant that the city could not afford to meet the new class size targets without making deep cuts elsewhere. The class-size legislation is awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature.
In another budget cut that drew attention, the city will no longer add 574 correction officers, the mayor said.
Speaker Adams said the Council had been concerned about chronic absences at facilities like Rikers Island, where staffing shortages have led to what some say is an ongoing humanitarian crisis. She said she wanted the Department of Correction to take a closer look at how staff was being managed.
Meanwhile, the NYPD budget is expected to remain flat. The mayor’s executive budget had added $228 million in the current fiscal year and around $182 million to the NYPD, mostly to fund overtime expenses.
“We want to see the NYPD managed more appropriately because the money is there,” Speaker Adams said.
The mayor and Council also highlighted funding to address an ongoing homelessness crisis on city streets and subways. The budget includes $226 million to expand the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, or B-HEARD, and the addition of “1,400 new safe haven and stabilization beds by mid-2023” the mayor’s office said. The beds are specifically designed to treat mental health and substance use issues for homeless New Yorkers.
The budget includes $90 million set aside for homeowners for a property tax rebate, a move that the mayor said would help small landlords. Some have argued that the city needed to spend more to address the affordable housing crisis that has only worsened with rising rents.
The budget deal was one of the earliest in recent years. In 2016, former Mayor Bill de Blasio reached a handshake deal with the Council on June 8th.
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