Invests In Pks., Offers Free Lunch
The City Council and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an on-time budget last Thursday, June 19, highlighted by investments in policing, free lunch in all middle schools and $17 million for community and senior centers.
With the 2015 fiscal year beginning July 1, the mayor and council have agreed to spending of approximately $75 billion in city funds. The budget includes $6 million to hire 200 Police Administrative aides that will free another 200 Police Officers from desk duty, the creation of a meritbased scholarship reserved for New York City Public High School students that attend a CUNY school, $5 million for NYC Parks to maintain the spaces and hire 80 additional Park Enforcement Patrol officers and $10 million to expand child chare vouchers for low-income families.
The additional 32.5 million in funding for the NYC Department of Corrections (DOC) will be used to combat rising violence and mental illness at Rikers Island. The increase for the prison barge off the Queens coast represents the largest funding addition to the mayor’s executive budget for fiscal year 2015, City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley said in a statement.
Between 2010 and 2013, use-of – force incidents have risen 59 percent, slashing and stabbing incidents doubled and assaults on staff have increased 30 percent, according to the Department of Correction. Inmates with a mental health diagnosis have increased as well, and now comprise 40 percent of the entire population.
The funding announcement follows the recent deaths of several mentally ill inmates on Rikers Island and the June 12 council oversight hearing into the Department of Correction. Crowley is the Chairperson of the City Council Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services, which oversees the Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management, Department of Probation, Correction and Legal Aid Society.
“Last week’s NYC Council Oversight Hearing highlighted the troubling state of DOC’s current ability to manage the rise in violence and mentally ill inmates on Rikers Island,” Crowley said. “The addition of $32.5 million in funding to combat violence and mental illness on Rikers in this year’s budget deal marks a tremendous victory for all inmates in our jails, correction officers and for advocates with whom I fought tirelessly on this issue. With skyrocketing overtime costs and a growing mentally ill inmate population that requires very specialized care, we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Other budget highlights include; $19 million for a plan to combat violent crime in New York City Housing Authority developments, $17 million to keep 57 NYCHA community and senior centers open and $17.5 million to fund 10,700 summer jobs for young people.
“A budget agreement is where rhetoric meets the road–and we’ve delivered a fiscally responsible, progressive and honest budget that will have an enormous impact on New Yorkers across the five boroughs, while protecting our city’s fiscal health,” de Blasio said. This is one of the earliest agreements in recent history–a result of the productive dynamic we’ve developed with the council that ends the cynical budget dance and delivers results for New Yorkers.”
