New York, New York (June 30) – Council Member and Vice-Chair of the Progressive Caucus Jennifer Gutiérrez released the following statement on her “No” Vote for the FY24 New York City Budget:
“I want to thank the Speaker for standing strong and not allowing services and institutions that have been a part of our City’s very fabric for over a century to be cut like our libraries, cultural institutions, and CUNY programs. These are engines of opportunity that the Mayor would have crippled if given the chance.
I am deeply proud of the victories this council achieved: meaningful steps to rethink our childcare infrastructure, including Promise NYC investments, capital funding for desperately-needed affordable housing, and expanding Fair Fares.
But I can not ignore the reality that my community is drowning in displacement, evictions, food insecurity, and childcare costs, and this budget leaves the city gasping for air.
The Mayor is placing the burden of the City’s success on the backs of the people on the front lines, without providing them with the resources they need. The Mayor’s budget fails our schools, our parents, our tenants, our unhoused, our seniors, our social service providers and it frames our economy of care as a question up for debate, rather than a requirement for our success.
As the forces of gentrification intensify and the cost of living continues to rise, the working class and the working poor are increasingly being pushed out of the neighborhoods they built. As a community organizer, I will use every tool at my disposal to fight back including voting no on a budget that does not go far enough to meet our needs. I look forward to working with my colleagues on real structural change that reimagines what it looks like to serve New Yorkers.”