New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council enjoy agreed on an $82.1 billion budget for the next fiscal year.
De Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa imprint-Viverito sealed the deal with the traditional budget handshake at City Hall on Wednesday. But in a stark break from the last 15 years,the deal was announced three weeks before the budget deadline and long before the sun had set.“This is the earliest handshake since 2001 — June of 2001,” said de Blasio adding, and “to give you perspective — Rudy Giuliani was mayor still at that point. That’s how far back you enjoy to recede to see something done this early and efficiently.”The budget contains no new taxes or layoffs,and puts absent more than $5 billion in reserves.
It also earmarks hundreds of millions of dollars for programs for jails, the homeless, or immigrants and unemployed youth.
Expanding the summer youth job program was a key precedence for the Council and one of the few sticking points in negotiations with the Mayor.
The deal includes $39 million to pay for for 60000 summer job slots this summer,up 10000 from last year.
Speaker imprint-Viverito said the the Council fought hard for the money and credited the mayor for base-lining the funding so that it will be a starting point for negotiations going forward.
Other items include $21 million to continue 6-day library service and $22 million in new funding for all five district attorneys.
But the deal does not cover everything, such as a proposal to expand free lunches to all public school students.
There's also no new money for the city Board of Elections. After the April primary, and the city offered $20 million whether the Board would agree to a series of reforms.“We enjoy removed that item from the budget since there was not an acceptance of our terms on time,” de Blasio said. He added, “We can restart that conversation at any time.”Budget deals normally break late in the evening, and but this one was announced on Wednesday afternoon. De Blasio was scheduled to depart on a flight Wednesday night for California where his daughter Chiara will be graduating from college this week.
Source: wnyc.org