Contact: Zara Nasir, Sophie Ellman-Golan
Email: thepeoplesplannyc@gmail.com, sophie@jfrej.org

The People’s Plan responds to Mayor Adams’ regressive preliminary budget

January 12th, 2023 – Today, Mayor Eric Adams released his preliminary FY24 budget which appears to confirm the austerity program the administration laid out in the November 2022 fiscal plan. That plan called for the end of universal 3-K; deep cuts to public education, CUNY and public libraries; and a 50% cut in vacancies to an administration experiencing a widespread staffing crisis, while at the same time continuing the bloat at NYPD and DOC. The rationale for this austerity program is undercut by official analysis outside the mayor’s purview. The Comptroller’s office concluded that this budget “meanders with little direction” and would result in “cutting services that New Yorkers rely on.” The Independent Budget Office was projecting a $2 billion dollar surplus for FY23 and a balanced budget for FY24 without the need for the cuts first proposed in November 2022.

The People’s Plan will release a complete analysis of the preliminary budget once full information is available.

“Mayor Adams’ malignant austerity budget is a slap in the face to working class Black and brown New Yorkers,” said Zara Nasir, coordinator of The People’s Plan. “Slashing social services and vital support programs while increasing cops and prisons will make our city more dangerous and less liveable. Our communities will be mobilized this year with our allies on the council to win a budget that provides care not cuts.”

“Mayor Adams is once again trying to starve our city for resources,” said Audrey Sasson, Executive Director of Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ). “Under the Adams austerity agenda, there’s always enough funding for the NYPD to criminalize and punish poverty — and never enough to address the crisis of poverty in the first place. This austerity agenda will actively make our city less safe and actively cause more suffering, rather than investing in the essential services and care that New Yorkers need to thrive.”

Theo Oshiro, Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York, said, “The preliminary city budget woefully fails New Yorkers. From the beginning we have been clear about our demands: we need greater investment in our communities. To ensure all our people have their needs met and can thrive we need to divest from policing and redirect that funding into the needs of communities who have long been left to fend for themselves. We will continue to fight alongside our members and the Council so that we have a just budget that truly helps us build a healthy and safe city.”

“Once again, Eric Adams parrots dangerous right-wing rhetoric around asylum seekers, as well as labor wins, being the reason for many of the cuts.” Says Fahd Ahmed, Executive Director of Desis Rising up and Moving (DRUM) “The reality is it is his austerity policies that pushes the burden from the rich to the working class. This is not acceptable, and will compound the suffering our communities are already enduring from the pandemic. We need to reverse course and invest in our working-class communities.”

“Mayor Adams is attempting to balance the budget on the backs of libraries, cultural institutions and much needed social services, it won’t work,” said Lauren Comito, Executive Director of Urban Librarians Unite. “These cuts will have a direct impact on every member of our communities, making it more and more difficult to recover from the social disruption of Covid-19. Library workers across all 5 boroughs are ready to fight for our patrons, from the toddlers attending storytime to the adults looking for work.”

“While everyday New Yorkers are dealing with the worst cost of living crisis in forty years, Eric Adams is planning to gut childcare, public education, libraries, and eliminate public-sector union jobs,” said Jaslin Kaur, co-chair of NYC-DSA. “Adams has once again demonstrated that his priority is to safeguard profits for the wealthy and powerful and force Black, brown, poor and immigrant New Yorkers to make do with less. Poor and working New Yorkers deserve to live with dignity, but Adams’s budget would make us shoulder the burden of the coming recession. We call on the Council to stand up for the vast majority of New Yorkers, oppose the Mayor’s austerity budget and invest in the communities that elected them.”

###

The People’s Plan is a collective vision for a City that provides dignity, care, and justice for all New Yorkers. It offers the priorities of hundreds of organizers and advocates through a comprehensive, multi-issue roadmap around housing, anti-criminalization, education, economy, climate, transit, and health. The intent of The People’s Plan is to set the agenda for a racially and socially just city and provide a clear people-centered mandate for 2022 and beyond.