What’s in the budget?

Despite the 2024 city budget being the largest in city history, at $106.7B, the distribution of these funds is a slap in the face for the millions of New Yorkers who have kids in public school, are CUNY students, are being priced out of our homes, receive SNAP benefits, and depend of city services. In other words, all New Yorkers. To put it simply: this budget is bad!

Adams’s proposed budget slashes over $2.3 billion from our city’s ESSENTIAL services, including but not limited to childcare services, City University of New York (CUNY), the departments of education, aging, housing services, mental health & hygiene, transportation, youth development, parks, the human rights commission, and more.

Where did that money go? The mayor spent over $2 billion on a historic raise for his buddies in the NYPD, and is projected to spend an additional $1.85 billion on policing in 2024. Mayor Adams is taking resources from schools and human services and funneling it to the NYPD (which costs the city a staggering $29 million per day). He cut $17 million from Rikers Island re-entry, job-training and support programs while at the same time letting jails purchase $90,000 worth of submachine guns.

Mayor Adams claims to care about public safety yet chooses to invest the bulk of our taxpayer dollars in systems of policing and incarceration – which fail and endanger our communities – and divest from the services that actually keep us safe and thriving.

How did we get here?

For months, JFREJ members and our fellow New Yorkers have canvassed, flyered, door-knocked, and rallied for #CareNotCuts, and our organizing did have an impact: In addition to slashing social services and public education, Mayor Adams also tried to make devastating cuts to NYC's public library system. By organizing a sustained mass public outcry, New Yorkers stopped him from defunding our beloved public libraries. All restored funding and reduced cuts are the result of New Yorkers' organizing, (including organizing by many inside the City Council), not the mayor's benevolence, and we’re not going to let anyone forget that.

The entire budget process and its result are unjust. For this reason, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice called on council members to vote no on Mayor Adams' budget. A no vote takes real courage; council members who vote 'no' risk retaliation, like losing funding for their districts. Just like the mayor has forced this budget on New Yorkers, he’s forced council members into a corner like tiles on a board he controls. The real, long-term work is to flip the board over entirely; Regardless of how council members vote, our ultimate goal is to build a powerful mass movement against Eric Adams.