The Expendable

IBT

An FDNY firefighter has died from a heart attack after he was fired as part of the city's initiative to allocate funds for its migrant crisis, leaving his widow and children struggling to run their home. Derek Floyd, 36, suffered cardiac arrest and died on April 15, just four months after the city fired him as part of a budget crunch to fund migrant services.

Floyd was one of the about 10 Fire Department employees categorized under the "long term duty" — people either injured on the job and assigned office work or absent due to prolonged illness. They were terminated just weeks before Christmas, as per sources within the FDNY.

Floyd's death has left his grieving widow, along with his six-year-old son Ethan and two-year-old daughter Abigail, facing the daunting possibility of being unable to afford their home.

Floyd, a veteran who completed three tours in the Middle East with the Marines, had been assigned to a desk job within the Fire Department chaplain's office because he had suffered another heart attack in 2019 while he was in the Fire Academy.

 While working in the chaplain's office on modified duty, Floyd helped coordinate the funerals of deceased FDNY members.

Despite being a married father of two young children, he was striving to get medical clearance to return to active duty as a firefighter before his termination.

Floyd was close to qualifying for additional medical benefits for his family and over $600,000 worth of death benefits when he was dismissed, leaving his family without any support despite his years of service.

Following his dismissal from the FDNY, Floyd found a job with a non-profit organization helping veterans. However, the salary was a lot lower than what he earned with the FDNY, the benefits were limited, and the demanding hours prevented him from spending time with his 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.

"He used to be so present for, like, our kids and stuff," Cristine said. "Being a firefighter was something he was really passionate about. He was really a big-time, like, family person, he was all about his kids.

"If Derek would have stayed on, he would have had a life insurance policy with the FDNY. That would have helped out financially because right now, it's really bad. I'm honestly swimming in a lot of debt," his grieving widow revealed.

Mayor Adams defunds twenty fire engines

Schools, out, of, money

 

NY Daily News 

Cuts to the city’s education budget will be deeply felt in public preschool and summer programs, as well as so-called “community schools” that provide extra services to families beyond what a typical school can offer, Mayor Adams’ administration said Thursday.

The revised plan would shave $547 million off the Education Department’s overall budget this school year — a figure that will grow to $602 million in the 2024-2025 school year and even more in the 2025-2026 year, budget documents show.

“It is about to get really tough,” Schools Chancellor David Banks warned a parent-led education council on Staten Island last week. “The city is in a bad financial situation, the mayor’s been saying. I don’t know if people fully appreciate it.”

Public schools were already headed toward fiscal woe before Adams announced cuts he blamed on the city’s growing cost of housing and caring for migrants.

Many of the educational programs to be trimmed have been buoyed in recent years by federal stimulus. With the end of the pandemic, those funds are set to expire in less than a year — and the city has lacked a plan to save them.

“That money is going away. It’s almost done,” Banks said.

Some $120 million will be saved annually by eliminating thousands of the 37,000 unfilled slots in public preschool programs, which city officials say has been underused by parents and children. Mayor Adams’ staff did not say how many of those seats were on the chopping block, but that decisions would be made with education officials over the coming year.

The Adams administration is also cutting $18 million from community schools over the next two years. Community schools partner with local organizations to provide services not only to students, but their whole families. While kids receive healthcare and mental health counseling, parents can take adult education classes and other services.

29,000

NY Post 

The NYPD’s force will be reduced to just 29,000 cops by the end of fiscal year 2025 — the lowest level since the mid-90s — amid a slew of city-wide budget cuts revealed by Mayor Eric Adams Thursday as the Big Apple grapples with its multi-billion-dollar migrant crisis.

Under City Hall’s newly unveiled updated 2024 financial plan, the next five police academy classes will be axed — essentially decimating an already strained department as roughly 4,500 officers are expected to leave their ranks within the next 18 months.

Firefighters are also in the firing line with FDNY members who are on “long-term light duties” — meaning they’ve been injured on the job or are out sick — being forced into early retirement or fired under the plan.

“The defund the police crowd’s woke dream has come true. We were fed a line of BS that the wave of migrants would be a benefit to the city. Now we are defunding the police to pay for their beds,” Council Republican Minority Leader, Joe Borelli, raged.

President of the FDNY’s union Andrew Ansbro, too, slammed the sweeping budget reductions, arguing the Adams administration “should have taken a different approach with the life-saving agencies like the FDNY and NYPD, which could really affect safety in New York City.”

“Our job being dangerous, we have lot of members who getting physical injured … now they are being pushed out the door to early retirement when they have a lot to offer. They are cutting back on people who really help the safety of FDNY and residents of New York City,” he added.

In total, the NYPD’s budget of $5.6 billion will cut by $132 million next fiscal year with the axing of new academy classes over the next year and a half clawing back roughly $42 million.

Hizzoner’s push to shrink the department comes despite the centerpiece of his 2021 mayoral campaign being the need to bolster public safety. The NYPD’s staffing levels last fell below 29,000 back in 1993, according to city records.

Mayor Adams austerity nickels

 

 NY Daily News

Mayor Adams announced Saturday there would be cuts as high as 15% to all city agencies by next spring — including NYPD and health department — in response to the costly migrant crisis, which could further impact the delivery of city services.

The mayor made a surprise speech over the weekend telling New Yorkers that the lack of substantial support from the federal and state government regarding the crisis — at a time when COVID aid is drying up — has forced the city to impose austerity cuts.

“We are in the middle of a humanitarian crisis involving asylum seekers, a crisis that will cost our city $12 billion over three fiscal years,” Adams said. “While our compassion is limitless our resources are not.”

Those cuts, the administration said, intend to “minimize disruption to programs and services, and there will not be layoffs,” according to a press release on the announcement. The current budget stands at $107 billion.

The cuts must be submitted ahead of the city’s budget update in November. If the city doesn’t get more federal help between now and January, Adams warned that there could be an additional 5% cut in January and another 5% in April. Adams also intends to impose a 5% cut in the following four years. City agencies could stave off those cuts if more federal and state aide comes through, according to Adams.

Adams’ announcement comes as the city continues to take in thousands of migrants mostly entering from the U.S.-Mexico border. To date, there have been somewhere around 110,000 migrants arriving in New York City.

An estimated 60,000 migrants are currently under the city’s care, according to the government figures.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams — who leads the 51-member body that’s heavily scrutinized the mayor’s strategy on the crisis — released a joint statement with the council finance chair Justin Brannan, saying they’re reviewing the letter from the mayor’s office informing them of further cuts.

“There remains an urgent need for increased state and federal support to aid the City’s response to increased international migration,” they wrote. “Tens of thousands of people seeking asylum are arriving in our city at a time when we are already confronting a housing crisis, record homelessness, and the sunset of federal COVID stimulus funds. New York City cannot be expected to handle this on our own. The costs are considerable, and it is critical that the city receives more aid, while safeguarding funding that supports New Yorkers. The future of our city and its continued economic recovery relies on the investments we make into our communities and the essential services they rely on.”

 

Mayor Adams announces little ugly city budget while the big ugly state budget remains in limbo

City & State

New York City Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a $106.7 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 on Wednesday – the largest in city history – backing off, in small part, from some of the 4% agency cuts he’s stressed as necessary. The proposal reflects few, if any, direct service cuts, while adjusting spending estimates downward to hedge for future “storm clouds ahead” like ongoing costs associated with the influx of asylum-seekers, according to Adams. The proposal also includes a limited slate of new spending proposals to, as Adams put it, improve the city’s sustainability and resilience, strengthen mental health resources, uplift “working people,” and bolster the college to workforce pipeline. 

“We had to make tough choices in this budget. We had to negotiate competing needs. We realize that not everyone will be happy, but that is OK,” Adams said from City Hall Wednesday afternoon. 

Here are some of the top numbers you need to know to understand the city’s finances.

$106.7 billion – The size of the proposed expense budget, which is the largest ever. The total spending increased $4 billion dollars since the preliminary budget, which landed at $102.7 billion in January. The actual adopted budget last June was $101 billion… but the city is now expecting to actually spend $108.9 billion through the end of fiscal year 2023. 

$4.2 billion, $6 billion, $7 billion – The respective budget gaps in fiscal years 2025, 2026 and 2027. While Adams presented a balanced budget for the current fiscal year and the upcoming fiscal year 2024, hefty budget gaps remain in the outyear due in part to increased pay for city workers under new labor contracts. Fiscal watchdogs have warned that these budget gaps necessitate caution in New York City’s current spending plans.

$1.6 billion – The total savings achieved between fiscal years 2023 and 2024 through the latest Program to Eliminate the Gap, according to City Hall. Adams said that these cuts were accomplished without any layoffs or service reductions – but with some savings achieved by taking vacant jobs off the rolls, it’s unclear how the city will maintain previous levels of service. 

$4.3 billion – The amount of money that the city anticipates spending on providing shelter, food, clothing and other services to asylum-seekers through the end of fiscal year 2024. This is a figure that Adams has pointed to repeatedly in recent weeks as one of the big reasons that cuts are necessary. While the city will likely receive $1 billion in aid from the state, and predicts getting $600 million from the federal government, that total would only cover under 40% of the city’s projected costs. 

Over 57,000 people – The latest estimate of how many asylum-seekers have arrived in New York City in the past year. Some 35,000 are currently in city shelters, City Hall says.

70,000 people – How many asylum-seekers City Hall anticipates will be in the city’s care by June 2024.

$16 billion – The total anticipated cost of agreements with the city’s remaining unionized workforces that have yet to strike deals, over the next five years. The city has already reached agreements with District Council 37 and the Police Benevolent Association, which will likely set the economic framework for ongoing negotiations with the United Federation of Teachers and other labor groups. 

26 days – How late the state budget is past the April 1 deadline – and counting. Adams is releasing its executive budget without final numbers from the state, which funds about 17% of the city budget. “We may have to go back,” to create new estimates after it’s finalized, Adams said, “and our budget mod is going to reflect that.”

50% – Of working-age households in New York City don’t make incomes that cover their basic needs like housing, food, transportation and health care, according to a report sponsored by the United Way of New York City and the Fund for the City of New York. While the jarring figure is not included in Adams’ budget proposal, its recent release adds gravity to the negotiations over proposed cuts to programs and services.

$23.2 million – The cost of expanding the Department of Sanitation’s voluntary curbside composting program to all five boroughs by 2024. While Adams mostly focused on savings, this was one of a few new, relatively low-cost initiatives added to the budget. 

$27 million – Baseline funding allocated to continue the expansion of the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, or B-HEARD pilot program into the rest of the Bronx as well as other high-need neighborhoods throughout the city. The program, aimed at changing how the city responds to mental health emergencies by dispatching social workers and paramedics to people in crisis, is currently operating in a handful of neighborhoods. 

 Might as well leave this here since our Mayor is being all frugal...

NY Post 

The NYPD commissioner in charge of employee relations is having a difficult time — with her employee relations. 

More than 10 cops working under Deputy Commissioner Lisa White — who’s in charge of officer morale in the 35,000 uniformed member force — have either transferred or asked to be transferred out of her office because of her off-the-wall shenanigans, including claiming there are ghosts in her office and that workers are bugging her phone, police sources told The Post. 

The final straw for one of them, a detective assigned to drive her in a department-assigned Ford SUV, came when White, 61, ordered the cop to turn on the lights and sirens because she was late for work.

When the detective refused, White ordered her out, hopped into the driver’s seat and took over, barreling from her Crown Heights apartment to One Police Plaza in lower Manhattan like a bat out of hell, the sources said.

“She told the driver to pull over and she went behind the wheel and almost got in like f–king five accidents,” a police source said. “It was so bad that the driver … said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. Now she’s putting my life at risk.’”

The detective-driver was one of “multiple” officers who have requested to transfer out of White’s unit — even some cops White brought to the unit with her — since Mayor Adams appointed her in May 2022, insiders said.  

“There’s been a large turnover in that office and more people are requesting to go,” the source said.

Bizarrely, the deputy commissioner has accused employees of “planting bugs in her office, bugs in her phone” and “all sorts of crazy stuff,” the source said.

She once accused them of releasing “confidential information” when someone gave out her schedule.

She’s also told employees “there’s ghosts in her office,” a second police source said.

Some of her higher ups want White out because of her antics, but she has close personal ties to Adams, the sources said.

Queens doesn't get the money

 

QNS

The Queens Borough Board voted overwhelmingly to approve the package of budget priorities Monday, Feb. 13, although several community board chairs expressed concern over issues caused by the city’s migrant crisis.

Chaired by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, the budget priorities were developed largely from input received from two days of public hearings late last month on Mayor Eric Adam’s proposed $102 billion 2024 budget.

Pursuant to the City Charter, the Borough Board must submit its budget priorities each year to the mayor, the City Council and the city’s Office of Management and Budget.

Irak Cehonski, director of budget for the Queens Borough President’s Office, presented numbers on Monday that showed significant budget shortfalls for city agencies — except for the NYPD — and how much they’ll affect city services in Queens.

Most concerning among the budget cuts included a $295.3 million shortfall for the Department of Education and a $257 million shortfall for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

“Especially coming out of the pandemic, I don’t know how we cut anything to do with health,” Richards said. “We weren’t prepared during the first wave of the pandemic — I know all of us remember those days and we don’t want to see it again — so we need to make sure we’re fighting those cuts as well.”

Richards also bristled at the Summer Youth Employment Program being slashed by $21.7 million; the Department of Sanitation facing more than $53 billion in reductions; a $61.6 million shortfall at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development; and a $12.2 million shortfall for Queens Public Library.

Cehonski said the Department of Homeless Services slashing nearly $70 million is a “huge concern” for Queens and moments later Community Board 3 Chairman Frank Taylor explained why.

“It is devastating to my community of which I serve, Community Board 3 in North Corona, East Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights,” Taylor said. “Everyone knows we’re a shelter town with 12 or 13 of them and the city wants to cut money and resources.”

He also railed against the lack of affordable housing, MTA bus reductions on Northern Boulevard, and the chronic shortage of hospital beds after a dozen hospitals shuttered in the last 15 years.

“This is not fair. This is deplorable,” Taylor said. “We pay some of the highest taxes in the city per capita and we’re not getting anything over here except more shelters.”

Rev. Carlene Thorbs, chairwoman of Community Board 12, which has coped with high shelter populations around JFK Airport for decades, called the influx of migrants “heartbreaking” and said that the city needs to be more transparent.

“We’re taking in a lot of the asylum seekers and we don’t know where they are because nobody wants to tell us because it’s a security situation but we’re supposed to be ready for them in our schools,” she said. “You’ve got to trust us to assist and to help because we can’t even get a list as to where they are unless something tragic happens and then it pops up on the news. It has to be fixed and it has to be fixed now because if our mayor doesn’t fix it, it will never get done.”

 But at least we'll get some open streets.

 

wE neEd mORe pROteCtEd bIkE lAneS

AMNY 

Almost $200 million in Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) repair funds may be shifted out of this year’s city budget if Mayor Eric Adams gets his way — raising concerns among local lawmakers that City Hall is kicking the can down the road when it comes to keeping the highway’s crumbling triple-cantilever section safe.

The mayor’s Executive Budget proposes to cut $180.5 million from the Department of Transportation’s spending on BQE fixes this year — a drop from $225.1 million to just $44.6 million — and moves those funds into later years, according to a City Council briefing document from Thursday.

City Council Member Lincoln Restler, whose district includes the Brooklyn Heights waterfront area with the deteriorating section of the highway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street, accused the agency of moving the project over to the slow lane.

“The dramatic reductions in funding by upwards of $180 million that should have been spent this year… is of grave concern and, frankly, is indicative of the lack of urgency the DOT is placing on making the necessary repairs at this location,” said Restler at a lengthy May 12 Council budget hearing on transportation.

The city still plans to spend the same $1.5 billion overall through 2031 on BQE repairs, according to the brief, but Restler warned that holding off on short-term repairs could hamstring a larger revamp of the highway. 

“I am disappointed and concerned about the safety of our community, about our ability to preserve the lifespan of the triple-cantilever for these 20 years, so that a bolder, more transformative solution can take place,” the pol said.

The funding shift was first brought up by the Council’s Finance Committee chairperson Justin Brannan, who also questioned the move.

“Has it been determined that, with the cantilever reaching the end of its useful life expectancy, is shifting the planned work from ’23 into the out years safe?” the Bay Ridge lawmaker asked.

DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez assured the politicians that the structure remains sound.

“There is no issue related to safety,” Rodriguez said. “None of this decision to move money puts anything at risk.”

Mayor Adams virgin budget cuts

NY Daily News

Mayor Adams rolled out a $98.5 billion municipal government budget blueprint Wednesday that he touted as an antidote to “decades of inefficiency” that would root out wasteful spending and boost public safety without increasing funding for the NYPD.

The 2023 fiscal year preliminary budget, which marks the first salvo in a monthslong negotiation process with the City Council, is about $200 million smaller than former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2022 budget. Adams credits the decrease to the 3% spending cut he ordered at nearly all municipal agencies last month.

“My administration is laser-focused on fiscal discipline,” Adams said at City Hall while unveiling the preliminary budget, his first since taking office. “We are not spending our money. We are spending your money.”

Thanks to the 3% shave, known as a “Program to Eliminate the Gap” or PEG, Adams’ budget expects to reduce municipal government spending by nearly $2 billion and head count by 10,200 over the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years without any layoffs.

Among the agencies ordered to trim the fat is the NYPD, which Adams said he does not envision getting a larger pot of cash for as part of his 2023 budget.

In fact, Adams said the NYPD will see a “slight decrease” in spending as he works to phase out redundant administrative positions in the department and put more cops on patrol.

But the mayor stressed the NYPD budget stabilization will not take away from his mission to crack down on the city’s recent spike in violent crime — and did not rule out hiring more officers.

“No matter what we do, I’m going to make sure we have the right number of officers to keep our city safe,” he told reporters in a news conference following his speech.

He added, “That’s the No. 1 concern right now — public safety.”

 The Health Department was exempt from Adams’ 3% reduction directive due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but would nonetheless get a $194 million cut, while Health + Hospitals, the city’s public hospital system, would have its budget sliced by more than $400 million.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development would also get a nearly $1 million reduction in funding, angering affordable housing advocates who accused Adams of breaking a campaign promise.

“We are extremely disappointed that Mayor Eric Adams did not even mention housing in his remarks nor prioritize it in his budget plans, instead choosing to maintain the status quo and abandon his campaign promise to double city capital spending on affordable housing and NYCHA,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference.

“In the process, he sent a loud and clear signal to his struggling constituents: ‘Despite what I said on the campaign trail, don’t expect bold action on housing.’ ”

 That's good, siphon money from the health dept. and housing, that won't simultaneously exacerbate the city's perpetual mental health and homeless crises

 

 

Adams plans to cut the police

 

NY Daily News 

Mayor Adams slammed his own police department Wednesday for engaging in “all this showy stuff” instead of directing more cops to the neighborhoods that need them the most.

He also revealed he’s still undecided on whether he’ll order a cost savings regimen for the NYPD — and suggested his decision would depend on the department’s ability to more efficiently and effectively deploy cops.

“Here’s my problem with the NYPD,” he said. “You hired … a police officer to be on patrol to go after the bad guys — that was why you hired him. He should not be sitting in the license division. His dangerous day should not be a paper cut. He needs to be on patrol.”

Last week, Adams announced plans to slash city spending by 3%, but he included the caveat that some agencies would be exempt from such cuts, like the Health Department and the city’s network of public hospitals.

On Wednesday, he was asked if the NYPD would get similar treatment. Adams responded that it all depends.

He vowed to begin “using my technology” to perform an analysis of how NYPD resources are allocated — but noted that he’s already witnessed firsthand what he views to be waste.

NYPD staffing of parades is one place he suggested he has his sights on.

“I’m sure you have gone to a parade, and you walk down the block, and you saw ten officers just standing there. And I bet you they’re all on overtime, and you’re saying, ‘Why are they all here for the Steuben Parade?” he said. “Why aren’t you on patrol somewhere?”

He then pointed to his own official events as well.

“I told the chief of department the other day. I’ll go to a school or do a visit in the community. When I get there, I have ten police officers standing there to show me that, ‘Hey Mr. Mayor, we’re here.’ I don’t need you here! I need you on patrol!” he said. “Give me one cop right out front. It’s a wrap. I don’t want to see all of this display of police presence. No — you want to impress me — have that display in Brownsville. Have that display in Harlem. Go to the communities that need you to be there.”

Since the pandemic is winding down, Cuomo feels hospitals need budget cuts

 

QNS

Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz joined City Council candidate Shekar Krishnan, union representatives and members of the New York State Nurses Association at Elmhurst Hospital to protest Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed $600 million budget cuts to public hospitals.

“Our community suffered so much during the pandemic. Our essential and frontline workers were put in harm’s way every day. Elmhurst Hospital was overrun and undersupplied, and our communities lost so many loved ones,” Cruz said. “For the executive branch to now propose cutting more than $20 million from Elmhurst Hospital’s budget is both dangerous and cruel. These cuts have been rejected by the Assembly as they will be fatal to our healthcare workers and they will be fatal to the many patients in their care. Our hospitals need more funding, not less.”

Krishnan, a community activist and civil rights lawyer specializing in fighting housing discrimination and preventing community displacement, co-founded Communities Resist, a legal services organization that addresses housing and racial justice in Queens and Brooklyn.

“It is unbelievable and irresponsible that in the midst of a global pandemic there are proposals to cut funding for our public hospitals. Elmhurst Hospital serves nearly a million residents and was the epicenter of the epicenter of the pandemic,” Krishnan said. “We cannot stand by and let our community be deprioritized and disinvested in again and again. We demand full funding for our public hospitals, expansion of the new York Cares Act, and greater support for community-based healthcare services.”

Nefritte Larkin spoke on behalf of the New York State Nursing Association which represents more than 9,000 workers in the city’s public hospital system.

“We are the frontline workers. We were here every single day and we’re still here,” Larkin said. “For Governor Cuomo to even suggest that there will be budget cuts to our safety net hospitals is a gross insult not just to the communities of color but also to the workers.”

 

Here come the transit service cuts and fare hikes

 

THE CITY 

During the peak of the pandemic last spring, MTA buses became the workhorse of the transit system, shuttling more daily riders than the subway for the first time in decades.

Even after fare collection resumed in late August, the ridership decline on buses never fell nearly as steep as subway use.

But when the MTA unveiled its proposed “Doomsday” cuts Wednesday — potentially slashing service by 40% by next May and eliminating more than 9,000 jobs — bus workers were set to absorb close to two-thirds of the positions lost.

Riders who rely on buses, meanwhile, were left wondering how they’d get around a city still slowed by COVID-19.

“Believe me, it’s going to be ugly,” said Michelle Singleton, 55, a nurse from Harlem who, prior to the pandemic, commuted on the M11. “That’s why I won’t be riding the bus any more.”

At the agency’s monthly board meeting, MTA officials presented worst-case scenarios should the agency be unable to secure $12 billion in emergency federal funding to help close the enormous deficits created by the pandemic.

Without a bailout, the MTA faces a slew of unappetizing prospects — including higher-than-projected fare and toll increases, the elimination of seven-day and 30-day unlimited MetroCards and significant cuts to subway, bus and commuter rail frequency.

“We know that any reduction in service will hurt the city and the region, including customers who need us most,” Patrick Foye, the MTA chairperson said at the meeting. “But without the certainty of substantial federal dollars, there is no recourse.”

For buses, that could mean the elimination of entire lines, a slowdown on long-planned route redesigns in each borough, even the loss of a next-bus texting service and on-board WiFi.

 

NY Daily News

Transit fares in New York will go up next spring — and the MTA is considering eliminating unlimited ride MetroCards as a part of the hike.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday voted to seek fare hikes that boost passenger revenue by 4%. Over the next two months, transit officials will review a slate of proposals to meet that target.

One idea is to keep the base subway and bus fare at $2.75 while eliminating the seven- and 30-day unlimited ride passes.

Another is to raise the base fare to $2.85. More options on the table include increasing the surcharge for new MetroCards from $1 to $3 and no longer allowing coin payments on buses.

Subway in vain: Austerity cuts and fare increases coming without Fed aid

Gothamist

The MTA called an emergency board meeting on Wednesday to outline the most draconian cuts it would make if the federal government doesn’t deliver on its request for $12 billion before the end of the year.

The agency says it needs the funds to balance the budget and get through 2021. In November, they will present next year’s budget options to the board, which it must vote on by December 31st. (Last year’s operating budget came in at $16 billion.) If the $12 billion doesn’t come through, the MTA is considering slashing subway and bus service by 40 percent, and commuter rail service by 50 percent. 

Layoffs and fare and additional toll hikes other than the planned ones are also on the table. Nearly all capital projects would be put on hold under this plan.

In July, the agency estimated that it was losing $200 million a week from a combination of the dramatic drop in ridership and tax revenue and the increased cost of cleaning buses and trains to lower the risk of coronavirus infection. Subway service is down 75 percent from pre-pandemic levels, and buses are down 45 percent. Foye says if service levels continue at this rate the financial shortfall will be far worse than the Great Depression.

The MTA exhausted its first round of $3.9 billion in federal relief funding at the end of July. Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate went on recess without passing a second relief bill.

“The future of the MTA and the future of the New York region rests squarely in the hands of the federal government, the U.S. Senate specifically,” Foye said. “If they fail to do so, horrendous choices lay ahead.”

The MTA estimates that cutting subway and bus service by 40 percent, and laying off 7,200 transit workers would save the agency $880 million a year.

But the president of the Transit Workers Union Local 100 and board member John Samulsen said there’s no way the union would accept these cuts. “We’ve paid with blood,” he said, “That you’d come to ask the workers that just put their necks on the line by being on the frontline of this fight against Covid-19 is ridiculous.” The union says nearly 100 transit workers suffered COVID-related deaths.

The MTA’s CFO Bob Foran also predicted the agency would need to cut 50 percent of commuter railroad service to balance the budget, leading to 850 Long Island Railroad job cuts.

Speaking Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo added the state doesn’t have enough money to prevent these types of cuts. “It’s not mathematically possible,” he said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said they’ll fight to secure the funding.

Trash still accumulates on Addabbo Bridge

Queens Chronicle

 Despite recent efforts of Howard Beach residents to draw the city’s attention to trash-strewn Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge, government officials have not followed up.

After a group of local women cleaned the bridge on July 16, they left around 60 garbage bags out for the Department of Sanitation to pick up, which had not come to pass as of Tuesday afternoon.

One of the organizers, Gina Barillaro, said that she had coordinated with state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) before the event, who assured her that he would get sanitation workers to clean up the bags. Addabbo instructed her to leave the bags along each opening in the chain link fence running along the walkway, she said.

“It was so bad. There was like a bag or two by each opening,” Barillaro said.

She was dismayed to find them there — many ripped open and scattered by vermin — several days later, and did not hear back from Addabbo’s office when she followed up. Another organizer, Vincenza Connors, went back Tuesday only to find the trash bags still there nearly a month later.

Addabbo said that the lack of response is a result of the city’s recent budget cuts to the Sanitation Department. He said that he called Garage 10, the sanitation unit in charge of the bridge, but that it could not follow through on his request due to a loss of manpower.

“What we’re finding out is that due to budget cuts, these local garages, Garage 10 being one of them, got deep cuts into their operation,” Addabbo said.

Chirlane McCray's ThriveNYC program and personal media entourage has to be funded somehow...

NY Post

“People will die” if City Hall follows through with a plan to lay off nearly 400 EMTs and paramedics, the head of the union representing those workers told The Post.

Oren Barzilay, head of EMS Local 2507, said FDNY brass told him that 10 percent of the city’s 3,700 EMTs and paramedics will be cut under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to slash 22,000 municipal workers.

“The response times will go through the roof. That would put people at risk. People will die,” Barzilay warned.

De Blasio has said the reductions will come in October if the city doesn’t get state or federal aid to fill a major budget deficit caused by the coronavirus. Earlier this month he ordered agencies to come up with lists of cuts, according to Politico.

The number of EMTs and paramedics has already dropped from 4,100 before the pandemic. Four of his members died from the virus and three others committed suicide, Barzilay said. They were on the frontline of the crisis, rushing patients to hospitals around the five boroughs.

During the pandemic, his members responded to 7,000 emergency 911 calls, nearly double the normal amount.

“We were the only ones going into homes to save lives. That’s what we did. This is the thanks the men and women from EMS are now getting,” Barzilay fumed.

“COVID is not over. What happens if there is a surge?” he asked.
Reps for FDNY and City Hall did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Another union source said the cuts are nearly inconceivable.

“I don’t know where they would trim EMS, we are understaffed,” said Anthony Almojera, vice president of EMS Local 3621.

City Council pruned budget for tree inspection and maintenance

 THE CITY

The city’s canopy of more than 2.6 million street and park trees will have to wait for scheduled prunings due to new budget cuts — a move slammed by a former Parks Department commissioner as “foolish” and dangerous.

The Fiscal 2021 Executive Plan includes a budget reduction of $7.2 million for tree pruning contracts, leaving about $1.5 million for the job. City trees are generally trimmed every seven to 10 years.

Park advocates and government officials, pointing to past incidents where people were severely injured — or worse — by plummeting branches, sounded the alarm over the cuts.

“The problem with not pruning is if a limb falls from a tall tree, it can cause tremendous damage. It can kill people,” said Adrian Benepe, who served as Parks commissioner from 2002 to 2012.

“It’s a meaningless cut that could cause damage both to the trees and to people.”

After the city slashed tree-pruning funding in 2010, tree-related injury claims soared. By delaying pruning contracts, the city saved $1 million — but settlement costs neared $15 million, records show.

“One bad tree limb fall wipes out all your savings,” said Benepe. “This saving is pennywise and pound foolish.”

During 2010, the city pruned less than 30,000 street trees — 50,000 fewer trees than the year before. Full funding for the Parks pruning program wasn’t restored until FY2013 when the 10-year pruning cycle was reinstated.

Claims for injuries caused by trees increased by 92% — from just under 400 claims to over 700 — during the period of reduced pruning and maintenance. In some community districts outside Manhattan claims increased by 590%, according to a 2015 ClaimStat report by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

In 2015, Stringer told the City Council that there is a direct correlation between million-dollar legal claims and the amount of money the city allocates for tree pruning each year.

 

Reduced tree pruning isn’t synonymous with dangerous conditions, said Dan Kastanis, a Parks Department spokesperson. “Tree pruning is important, but inspections keep people safe, and proactive tree inspections are continuing in every borough, every day,” he said.

DeBlasio & Council screw community out of better police protection

From the Queens Chronicle:

Residents of Southeast Queens thought 40 years of advocacy and hard work had come to fruition in July 2017 when Mayor de Blasio joined them along with NYPD brass and elected officials in Rosedale, next to the land that was finally going to become the NYPD’s new 116th Precinct.

But with a stroke of his pen, de Blasio transferred the $92 million in capital funding to other projects, including a community center in Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans.

NYPD critics, including those on the City Council, had advertised that they were looking to cut $1 billion from the NYPD’s operating budget, and much of that was switched to other departments for social service programs.

The NYPD last week told the Chronicle that it was committed to fulfilling its promise to the residents of Southeast Queens.

But the mayor and Council also agreed on more than $530 million in cuts to the NYPD’s capital budget, and the 116th Precinct proved to be too tempting a target.

And one of the most ardent proponents of police reform on the Council — Public Safety Committee Chairman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton) — also was the biggest supporter of the precinct in City Hall.

“I voted against the budget,” Richards told the Chronicle in an interview.

See what they lost out on by caving.

Update:

See where all that money that was snatched from the 116th of which it's still being spent on the NYPD is actually going to. What is the "special expense"?

One thing's for sure, the city and the NYPD (and the protesters of Occupy City Hall) feels the residents of Southeast Queens lives aren't that special and don't matter much.

JQ LLC

 

Bummer summer for city kids

NY Post

For NYC kids, this summer will be a bummer.

With the last day of school next Friday, the city has ended outdoor, recreational, and job programs for youths of all ages.

“Hundreds of thousands of NYC kids who have been cooped up for three months may have nothing fun to do,” said education consultant David Rubel. “Kids need outdoor play if they’re going to come back to school in September ready to learn.”

Thanks to Mayor de Blasio’s budget cuts and coronavirus restrictions, the popular Summer Youth 
Employment Program, which gave jobs to nearly 75,000 teens and young adults in 2019, has been been eliminated as of now. Officials are scrambling to find funding.

The dire news comes after students have been stuck at home since mid-March amid the Covid-19 shutdown, with laptops and iPads replacing in-person classes.

The Department of Youth and Community Development has wiped out an array of programs that offered arts, sports, games, and field trips enjoyed by 100,000 young people last summer.

Mayor de Blasio defunds affordable housing

The Real Deal

  City Council members are fighting Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed cuts to the city’s capital budget, saying it will mean a loss of 21,000 affordable apartments over the next few years.

Based on an analysis by the New York Housing Conference, officials estimate that the mayor’s proposed $2.3 billion reduction in the city’s capital budget will delay financing for 5,000 new affordable units and 15,000 affordable and supportive housing units that would have been preserved.

Under the mayor’s proposal, $583 million would be slashed from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s capital budget in fiscal year 2020 and $457 million in fiscal year 2021, a nearly 40 percent reduction.

“While the subsequent three years are projected to offset these losses, they are beyond the term of the de Blasio administration,” Council members Vanessa Gibson and Brad Lander wrote in a report released Monday.

The mayor proposed the cuts to help balance the city budget, due July 1, after the pandemic wiped out what is now estimated as $9 billion in city revenue over two years.

But the report calls the planned capital budget cuts a “misguided application of austerity economics” that have “little benefit for immediate budget savings.” According to the report, proposed cuts will also result in the loss of more than 9,000 construction jobs.

During a press conference Monday, Gibson noted that demand for supportive housing is only going to increase in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

“Housing has to be prioritized,” she said, adding that minority communities have been disproportionately hurt by the pandemic. “They have felt this pandemic the most, and they are going to feel this capital budget the most.”

Mayor de Blasio keeps two cities alive by planning cuts to "affordable" housing

Politico

The Real Deal

Mayor Bill de Blasio’ signature affordable housing plan, already troubled by a string of setbacks at the start of year as rezonings encountered roadblocks, is set to take another big blow.
 
The mayor has proposed cutting $583 million from the plan’s budget for the fiscal year which ends June 30 and another $456 million next year, Politico reported. The de Blasio administration says it will compensate by adding just over $1 billion to the budgets for fiscal years 2022 through 2024.
 
“The agency is taking a hard look at the projects in our pipeline and working creatively with partners to find additional sources of financing to move our projects forward,” a spokesperson for the city’s housing department told Politico.
 
“We understand that affordable housing will be more important than ever on the other side of this crisis, which is why we are advocating for more federal resources to support our push forward.”

All those open streets aren't going to pay for themselves.