The Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus (BLAC) of the New York City Council is advocating increased spending on health care, housing, and education in communities of color as Mayor Eric Adams gets ready to present his executive budget plan.
34 of the 51 members of the City Council make up the BLAC, which is co-chaired by Council Members Kevin Riley and Oswald Feliz, both Democrats from the Bronx. As a result, it has a sizable amount of influence during legislative discussions and negotiations over the city budget. Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers, and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams are all ex-officio members of the Caucus.
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The Caucus listed fifteen budget objectives in five categories—education, legal services, workforce development, housing, and health—in an agenda that was made public. These initiatives are meant to help the ongoing and recent problems experienced by neighborhoods lagging behind the city’s epidemic recovery. The BLAC agenda is entirely devoid of any mention of law enforcement, yet the list emphasizes social services at a time when Adams is advocating for general budget cutbacks and facing criticism for giving financing for law enforcement priority.
The Caucus members highlighted how differently non-white New Yorkers were affected by the epidemic and emphasized how important it was for the budget to “reflect these realities.” The declaration demanded more affordable and supportive housing, universal 3-K, and the ability to counsel renters facing eviction—all initiatives that have seen budget cuts or ambiguity during Adams’ leadership.
Council Members Riley and Feliz in a joint statement to the media noted, “The BLAC chose to center its Fiscal Year 2024 budget priorities around five core items: education, legal services, workforce development, housing, and health.” The statement continued, “We felt these five encompass the most pressing issues our city faces as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The day after the agenda was made public, Speaker Adams and Council Member Justin Brannan, who serves as the Council’s finance chair, unveiled the full Council’s response to the mayor’s $102.7 billion preliminary budget. In it, they noted an increase in revenue of $2.7 billion from the administration’s estimates and recommended allocating nearly half of it to investments in housing, social services, criminal justice programs, and education. Then, on Tuesday, Jacques Jiha, the mayor’s budget director, delivered a letter to municipal agencies establishing a new Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), which mandated a broad 4% cut to most local agencies (the exceptions being CUNY and the Department of Education, which must make a 3% cut to their budgets).
The Council and a number of radical Democrats promptly denounced the proposal, which follows two prior 3% PEGs and an agency vacancy reduction drive.
In the joint statement, they noted, “We cannot improve the well-being of our students, support our legal service providers or meet the city’s housing production needs as things stand.” In addition, it states, “The common denominator in addressing each of these critical areas is the need for a budget that provides the resources our city’s essential services need to effectively function, and the BLAC will be a voice ensuring this happens.”
The BLAC is also looking for funding for educational initiatives that support financial literacy, mental health, and social-emotional learning. Additionally, the politicians seek to build school additions in place of temporary classroom structures.
According to a caucus representative, the Council’s budget response covered a number of the BLAC recommendations. Additional funding of $61 million for 3-K and early childhood education programs, $14.1 million for school social workers and guidance counselors, $33 million for school-based mental health clinics and aid, and $500,000 for a pilot financial literacy program for middle and high schools are a few of the initiatives planned. The Council budget response contains $195 million for legal service providers and a $570,000 base for the Office of the Tenant Advocate, albeit it does not fully cover tenants’ rights to representation.
The BLAC is fighting for financing for public defenders and legal aid for immigrants in addition to the right to representation. The BLAC also wants to see more high school students and residents of NYCHA included in career development programs, a topic Adams has also regularly brought up.
The $10 million that was taken out of Small Business Services’ workforce development initiatives as part of the Council’s budget reaction was reinstated. Additional workforce assistance programs for immigrants, NYCHA residents, and minority- and women-owned companies totaled $12.5 million.
The BLAC agenda on housing calls for more supportive and affordable housing, including homes for veterans, as well as the establishment of an “Office for Homeowner Advocacy,” albeit nothing is known about it. The BLAC is supporting the Council’s efforts to advance a variety of housing measures, including the restoration of $31 million in municipal financing for NYCHA and the allocation of $3.3 billion for the building and maintenance of affordable housing.
In terms of health, the BLAC calls for the expansion of opioid prevention centers, community-based health centers, services for diabetes, mental health, and nutrition, as well as investments in the mental health workforce. The Council’s answer includes a variety of expenditures on diabetes, mental health, and food poverty in addition to $200 million to build four new public neighborhood healthcare clinics managed by New York City Health and Hospitals. Additionally, $20 million was provided to build overdose prevention facilities in each borough.
Speaker Adams’s spokesperson shared in an email to the media that, “A number of the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus’ priorities are reflected in the Council’s Preliminary Budget Response, which presented a responsible path forward for our city that balanced economic concerns with key investments.” It was also noted that “Both documents recognize that the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget must commit funding for the stability and success of our health, education, and housing infrastructure to benefit all New Yorkers.”
The agenda and the entire Council’s reaction both highlight the differences in opinion between the majority of the Council and the mayor on important spending-related issues.
In addition, Adams’s spokesperson noted that “The Council will continue advancing a vision that prioritizes the City’s fiscal health and New Yorkers’ needs in contrast to the Administration’s plan that obsessively focuses on round-after-round of unnecessary, destabilizing cuts.”
The mayor will present an executive budget proposal as the next phase in the budget process. This proposal will serve as the framework for budget discussions prior to the start of the city fiscal year on July 1. The state budget, which is past due, is looming over discussions and will decide whether or not the city will get billions of dollars in state financing.
Mayoral spokesperson Jonah Allon also stated in an email to the press, “In Mayor Adams’ Preliminary Budget, the administration made critical investments in public safety, affordable housing, clean streets, and so many other areas New Yorkers care deeply about — while simultaneously continuing the mayor’s strong record of fiscal responsibility and investing in our city’s future.” He noted, “The city faces significant fiscal and economic headwinds, including more than $4 billion in migrant costs by next year, funding labor settlements, and potential cuts and cost shifts from the state, which require prudent fiscal planning to ensure that we are spending within our means. We respect the Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus’ role as partners and will work with them to negotiate a budget that delivers for New Yorkers.”
The liberal Working Families Party supports the BLAC platform. In a statement to the media, WFP spokeswoman Ravi Mangla stated, “With the Mayor proposing even deeper cuts to agencies that deliver life-saving services and care, we applaud the BLA Caucus for fighting for investments that will support working families and strengthen our communities.”
The caucus’ objectives are also quite similar to many of the state-level initiatives that some of the Black elected leaders in New York City are pushing. Last month, Speaker Adams, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and twelve other Black elected officials from the five boroughs sent a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders outlining a different list of 17 budgetary priorities. The letter, which was originally made public by Politico New York, underlined the effect of the economy on the emigration of Black New Yorkers.
The cost of raising a family and a lack of employment opportunities were cited as reasons for the 200 000 Black inhabitants who departed New York City in the previous ten years, according to the officials.
The letter requests funds for housing, legal services, public safety, health, education, and several other areas that are also covered by the BLAC priorities. They include $50 million for legal assistance for renters and $90 million for immigrant legal services, as well as financing for Pre-K and 3-K in New York City.
The letter to state officials, like the BLAC agenda, avoids requests for supporting law enforcement, which Hochul and Adams both consider to be important. Its public safety section demands the passage of the Clean Slate Act, which backers claim will remove barriers to employment for former inmates in New York and increase annual earnings by $7.1 billion, primarily for people of color. It also calls for the establishment and funding of a state task force on missing women and girls of color.
The State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus published its own “People’s Budget” agenda in December, highlighting the need to move away from fossil fuels, preserve affordable housing, increase the minimum wage, and impose more taxes on the wealthiest.
Compared to the BLAC or the alliance of Black New York City electeds, the aims of the People’s Budget were far more comprehensive. However, there were a lot of similarities to the BLAC, such as increasing workforce diversity, financing for mental health and diabetes in communities of color, and extending workforce development initiatives.
