Budgets are Moral Documents

Read about how ICNY is participating in this year's budget cycle and how your community can voice its needs!

Last month, Mayor Eric Adams released his Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 which distributes and balances approximately $109.4 billion across New York City’s various departments (e.g., Department of Education, Department of Sanitation, etc.). Earlier this week, ICNY joined the Campaign to Close Rikers monthly coalition meeting to discuss and analyze the proposed budget. Particularly, we focused on Department of Correction’s (DOC) budget and how it foreshadows a dwindling commitment to close Rikers by 2027.

We learned that the DOC budget remains disproportionately large at $2.6 billion. Much of this budget is due to DOC overstaffing and overtime costs — the ratio of uniformed staff to incarcerated individuals is more than four times the national average. Moreover, NYC is an outlier in its cost of incarceration, spending 350% more per incarcerated individual than Los Angeles or Cook County. In comparison, the Los Angeles jail system (the US’s most populated jail system) has a $1.3 billion budget but incarcerates approximately three times more than NYC.

The Campaign to Close Rikers’s Budget Analysis also revealed some stark cuts to alternatives to incarceration (ATI) programs:

• Proposed $6.7M in cuts to alternatives to incarceration programs

• Proposed $13.1M in cuts to the supervised release program

• Proposed $8M in cuts to re-entry services

To read more about the relationship between the proposed FY25 budget and incarceration, read the Vera Institute of Justice’s analysis here.

Though the DOC budget and proposed cuts to ATI programs are alarming, this budget is not final and there are ways for anyone in NYC to make their voice heard.

Across March, the City Council will be holding hearings for each committee, where individuals and organizations can submit testimonies (live or written):

• March 4, 10:00 am - Finance Committee

• March 5, 1:00 pm – Hospitals Committee

• March 8, 10:00 am - Criminal Justice Committee

• March 11, 10:00 am - General Welfare Committee

• March 11, 1:00 pm - Housing and Buildings Committee

• March 12, 1:00 pm - Public Housing Committee

• March 15, 1:00 pm - Economic Development

• March 18, 10:00 am – Education Committee 

• March 20, 10:00 am - Public Safety Committee

• March 21, 10:00 am - Health & Mental Health, Addiction, Disability Committee

• March 22, 10:00 am - Children and Youth Committee 

In partnership with the Campaign to Close Rikers, ICNY will be participating in the Criminal Justice Committee budget hearing on March 8. Before the hearing, there will also be a Close Rikers rally at 9 am at City Hall, which you can RSVP for here. And if you would like to prepare and submit testimony for budget hearings, check out the Campaign’s guide!

In addition to hearings and rallies, other advocacy strategies include briefing for City Council members, individual meetings with elected officials and lobbying, media (op-eds, social media, etc.) and grassroots outreach (canvassing, phone banking, etc.).

After the City Council hearings, they will propose a counter budget in early April. The Mayor’s Executive team responds with another budget in late April. The Council and Executive versions are then negotiated across May as Executive Budget Hearings are held. Finally, the Adopted Budget is voted and implemented at the start of the FY2025, which begins on July 1, 2024.

This is a critical time for our communities to submit testimonies and ensure their voices are heard. Last month’s Care not Criminalization rally reaffirmed that our city’s budget should spent on funding and building resources like affordable housing, libraries, and public parks. We encourage you all to join ICNY in various advocacy opportunities, so our FY25 budget better reflects the people’s priorities!