$88.1B NYC Budget Passes Amid Contentious Debate Over NYPD

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — An $88.1 billion budget for New York City passed the City Council on Tuesday with little unreserved praise and much railing against it.

Perhaps unhappiness was inevitable — a $9 billion hit from the coronavirus pandemic ensured tough decisions on the 2021 budget.

But on police reform — the other once-in-a-generation issue facing New York City — the budget united cop partisans and Black Lives Matter protesters in mutual disgust.

Police unions, among others, decried the $1 billion NYPD cut claimed and touted by Mayor Bill de Blasio. Meanwhile, reformers and many city elected officials cried foul on the "cut" — all it did was shift the police force's funds to other departments without addressing systemic problems that brought New Yorkers to the streets for weeks, they said.

De Blasio championed the budget but still expressed regret over "deep cuts" to city agencies.

"In many ways, the toughest budget challenge this city has seen in a long, long time," he said.

The final 32-17 City Council vote unfolded late Tuesday and into early Wednesday after hours of hearing delays. The deciding vote occurred was cast just seconds before midnight.

Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Members Daniel Fromm and Vanessa Gibson touted what the budget managed to salvage — the Summer Youth Employment Program, youth camps, Fair Futures, food pantries and other community programs. But Johnson, along with a vocal set of his colleagues, expressed disappointment over how police funding hashed out.

That sentiment brewed throughout a long summer day.

Storms, both literal and political, flitted over New York City on and off Tuesday as the budget vote loomed.

"Occupy City Hall" protesters in the morning faced down the NYPD. The demonstrators had camped outside the seat of city government — and graffitied its walls — for days to demand a $1 billion cut from the cops who that morning beat them with batons.

Then the city's Public Advocate Jumaane Williams made a stand of his own. He promised he would use his authority to effectively scuttle the budget if it didn't include a NYPD hiring freeze and commit to school safety changes.

Williams' threat hinged on a little-known section in the city Charter that allows him to sign off on tax collections. He said he wouldn't do so if his demands, and those of protesters, weren't met — a threat de Blasio didn't address other than a spokesperson's statement effectively brushing it off.

It wasn't until de Blasio held an afternoon news conference that many budget details were confirmed. He touted a handful of highlights — a $37.5 million expansion of NYC Care into Manhattan and Queens, $113 million for clinics treating long-term COVID-19 complications and $450 million to feed New Yorkers during the coronavirus crisis.

Other bullet points hit harder:

• $88.1 billion down from $95.3 billion projected in February
• $9 billion in anticipated coronavirus losses
• $0 in potential additional federal stimulus and state aid

De Blasio said up to 22,000 city employees could be laid off the federal and state aid don't come through.

Much of de Blasio's conference centered on his claimed $1 billion in NYPD cuts.

He argued the budget represented real reform in terms of NYPD's responsibilities and would shift funds toward youth programs. He said the budget also cancels the NYPD's July class, meaning 1,163 new officers won't join the department's ranks — a much more effective reduction in force than a hiring freeze instituted on all other city departments, he claimed.

The police budget changes maintain a balance between reform and protecting public safety, de Blasio claimed.

"It's a lot of redistribution but it's done in a way that's safe for this city," he said.

The redistribution in question will shift about $430 million from the NYPD toward summer youth programs, education and family and social services, de Blasio said. Another $537 million in NYPD capital funding will instead go toward NYCHA, broadband for NYCHA housing and Parks youth centers, he said.

Other "savings" from the NYPD will come from overtime reducing its overtime budget from $523 million to $296 million, city officials said.

But critics argued the moves only shifted NYPD funds to other departments, particularly the Department of Education is now school safety officers' budgetary home. Many City Council members, included some who ultimately voted for the budget, didn't think the NYPD budget shifts went far enough.

Johnson, who negotiated the budget between the mayor's office and his colleagues, said he wouldn't pretend the NYPD received a $1 billion cut.

"I wanted to go further," he said. "We got rid of two uniform classes — I wanted to get rid of all four classes. I wanted a full hiring freeze. Some of the members were not there — the mayor definitely was not there and would not budge on that."

Still, Johnson said he was proud Council members "fought like hell" to successfully restore funding de Blasio wanted to cut in education, CUNY, social services and numerous other programs.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a statement arguing the budget failed to answer the calls of protesters who demanded systemic change to policing. Their movement won't be suppressed by "manipulated math," he wrote.

"The '$1 billion cut' to the NYPD proposed by the Mayor and the City Council is not a $1 billion cut — it's a bait and switch and a paper-thin excuse for reform," he wrote.

Some Council members who voted against the budget criticized the NYPD funding cuts, but from the standpoint they were too much.

Council Member Chaim Deutsch said the budget wouldn't yield productive police reforms. He pointed out shootings are increasing across the city.

"This is not the time to start making cuts and imposing deeper restrictions on the NYPD," he said.

Council Member Robert Holden said the budget could be the final nail in the coffin for the city's safety.

"The bad old days, which I lived through, may come back and looks like they are," he said.

Many reform-minded Council members said cutting the NYPD by any amount would have be inconceivable earlier this year. Council Member I. Daneek Miller said the debate will continue.

"Police reform did not begin or end with this budget," he said.