Council also voted on public safety bills that improve transparency, prohibit housing discrimination, protect students in crisis, and enhance access to mental healthcare for veterans
City Hall, NY – Today, the New York City Council voted to pass legislation that would ban solitary confinement in city jails. All people in city custody would have at least 14 hours of out-of-cell time in shared spaces.
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Today, Big Reuse, Earth Matter NY, and LES Ecology Center announced that they received philanthropic funding to support their community composting programs impacted by the city’s budget cuts. Funding for these services was due to end on January 1, 2024. The donation comes a week after GrowNYC received an anonymous donation to maintain their compost collection program for the fiscal year.
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“Accountability and transparency are essential to improving public safety, as they are a foundation of sound policing and building the community trust necessary to make our neighborhoods safer. Greater access to data on policing has contributed to New York City becoming safer for decades, and the improvements delivered by this bill can yield that same progress for New Yorkers now.
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“Our nation, and New York, was built on the institution of chattel slavery. Its legacy continues to permeate our lives, furthering the racial, economic, and systemic inequities that impact Black New Yorkers. Institutional racism, discrimination, and detrimental policies that have persisted across multiple generations contribute to locking Black people out of equitable opportunities and a widening racial wealth gap, where white households have a median net worth 15 times higher than Black households.
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Today, GrowNYC received an anonymous donation to maintain their compost collection program through the end of Fiscal Year 2024, allowing GrowNYC to avoid layoffs for 65 compost employees. The program and employees were at risk as a result of budget cuts in the Mayor’s November Financial Plan. In response, Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council Member Sandy Nurse, Chair of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, and Council Member Justin Brannan, Chair of the Committee on Finance, issued the following statement:
“This morning, we learned that GrowNYC received an anonymous donation to keep their operations open through the current fiscal year.
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City Hall, NY – Today, Speaker Adams joined Mayor Eric Adams for the signing of her Fair Housing Framework legislation into law. The bill, sponsored by Speaker Adams, would require the City to establish targeted housing production goals for each Community District to ensure each New York City neighborhood plays an equitable role in addressing the city’s housing crisis, while accounting for unique community needs.
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City Hall, NY – Today, Speaker Adrienne Adams delivered opening remarks at the Council’s Committee on Finance oversight hearing on the Mayor’s November Financial Plan. Below are the Speaker’s full remarks as prepared for delivery.
Good morning. I’m New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. Thank you for joining us today, and thank you to Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan for chairing today’s oversight hearing on the Mayor’s Fiscal Year 2024 November Financial Plan.
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Despite expectation that City will experience very rare decline in tax revenue for FY ‘24, Council projection estimates $1.2B more revenue than Mayor’s budget office
City Hall, NY – Today, the New York City Council released its Economic and Tax Revenue Forecast for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 November Plan. While the national and local economies have continued to be resilient and stable, the Council projects the City to be entering a period of slower economic and tax revenue growth in the next two years due to inflation and higher interest rates aimed at its reduction that are slowing economic growth.
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In response to Governor Hochul signing S.214A/A.2105A into law, which removes the requirement that crime victims provide documentation from law enforcement to be eligible for victim compensation funds and expands the period of time for a victim to file a compensation claim, Speaker Adrienne Adams issued the following statement:
“Unaddressed trauma plays a harmful role in producing negative health and safety outcomes for communities, underscoring the need to ensure crime survivors are supported in their recovery and pursuit of healing.
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Today, Governor Hochul signed four bills into law that improve health care access for New Yorkers. S.1839A/A.2609A requires the Health Equity Council to create recommendations to promote Sickle Cell Disease screening and detection. S.1451/A.782 expands on models to address disparities in health care access. S.3609B/A.3113A enhances the scope of Health Equity Impact Assessments to include reproductive health services and maternal health care.
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