The City Council voted on June 14, 2016, to adopt New York City’s Fiscal Year 2017 Budget. Budget highlights include investment in city youth and support for immigrant communities.
With nearly two million City residents under the age of 18, the City will provide opportunities for all of its youth by creating new programs and services, expanding existing ones, and at the same time making certain that the City is maintaining equitable access to such programs. The FY 17 budget will invest $100 million in programs that would offer valuable services to meet the needs of, and increase opportunities for, our youth population.
– $38.5 million in baselined funding for Summer Youth Employment Program for a total of 60,000 summer youth jobs. One thousand of these jobs will be targeted for vulnerable and at-risk youth.
-$16 million for 6,000 year-round jobs. The City Council and the Administration will create a joint taskforce on the Summer Youth Employment Program and year-round jobs to assess current needs and program effectiveness
-$16 million to expand Comprehensive After School programming create 3,223 additional slots for elementary school children – this investment will bring the total expansion to 6,600 additional slots in 157 programs
-$17.5 million to fund 26,000 after-school slots for middle-school youth in School’s Out NYC
-$5 million to fund programming recommended by the Young Women’s Initiative
-$8 million for the New York City Crisis Management System
Supporting Our City’s Immigrants
The FY 17 budget invests in programs that would offer valuable services to meet the needs of immigrants with limited English proficiency, complex legal matters, and those with inadequate access to health services – including major investment in adult education programs; provide support for complex legal services and improve access to comprehensive health services for immigrants.
-$12 million ($6 million from the City and $6 million from the Council) to expand adult literacy services
-$2.7 million to expand immigration legal services to serve an additional 1000 complex cases, increasing the program’s capacity to 5,000 total cases
-$1 million to support and expand services for unaccompanied minor children in New York City
As New York City grows and the need for a service increases, so does the need for adequate staffing to deliver that service to minimize delays in service provision or prevent the absence of service delivery. Accordingly, the FY17 budget expands and enhances key criminal justice, community support, and human services and libraries
-$22 million in baselined funding for District Attorneys, including the creation of an alternatives to Incarceration Unit and resources to reduce gun-related and other violent crimes,
-$1.8 million in baselined funding for the Department of the Aging to address its current waitlist of approximately 1,400 cases
-An additional $4.9 million for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which will funding for the purchase of food by over 40 percent to support the increased demand at 450 food pantries and community kitchens for a total of $16 million
-$43 million in baselined funding for improved library services
-$10 million for cultural organizations
-$2.5 million for Vision Zero education and outreach
-$1 million for tree stump removal
-$1.7 million to extend pool and beach season
-$13.5 for Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) Emergency Department Renovation
Photo credit: Mayor’s Office
