“The Council is disappointed that Mayor de Blasio has failed to fund many significant citywide Council priorities in the Fiscal 2020 Executive Budget, including many social service programs as well as $250 million in reserves. 

“The reserves are necessary to protect the City in the event of an economic downturn and should not have been excluded in the Executive Budget. This is the fiscally responsible path for our City, and the Council is once again demanding we prioritize reserves.

“And by not funding vital services, the de Blasio Administration is engaging in the same ‘budget dance’ that it had once pledged to end. This is completely unfair to the nonprofits who run these programs and who are now unable to plan their future. This is unacceptable, and they deserve to be treated better than this.

“The Council did not propose $1 billion in Alternative Savings to the PEG Program to only have the Administration take many of those savings and not fund many of our priorities – priorities that were included in the Fiscal 2019 Adopted Budget.

“The Council will continue to fight for our priorities and programs that make our City stronger. That includes Fair Student Funding and pay parity for human service providers and early childhood educators.

“We will also continue to be vigilant regarding the upcoming 2020 Census. The Administration has proposed $26 million to help make sure New York City is properly counted. This is a decent start, but the Council requested $40 million. We will keep pushing for that to meet our needs. Our future is at stake.

“We look forward to the upcoming Executive Budget hearings.”

###