Council Members Preview Mayor’s Executive Budget Plan

[hrmjustin]

Jill Colvin

City Council members emerged from a briefing with Mayor Bill de Blasio on his first executive budget plan, set to be presented later this afternoon, reporting few dramatic changes from the preliminary plan unveiled three months ago.

The plan does not appear to include money to hire 1,000 extra police officers or to pay for free school lunches for all school kids–two of the priorities the Council had asked for in its formal budget response, members said. But they nonetheless seemed pleased by what they’d seen.

“It seems, as we expected, when he became mayor that we were going to be like-minded and have a lot of common interests that were going to get taken care of in this budget. And that’s exactly what happen. There are smaller points that we’re going through and hopefully will iron out before it’s all said and done. But this is as close as we’ve been as a council and as an administration when it comes to doing what’s right for the city of New York and being on the same page,” said Councilman Antonio Reynoso, after departing the City Hall meeting with Mr. de Blasio.

Read more at http://observer.com/2014/05/council-members-react-to-mayors-executive-budget-plan/#ixzz319EEFt4x

[hrmjustin]

1. Mayor de Blasio's budget boosts after school, summer youth programs and infrastructure, says pol

JENNIFER FERMINO

Mayor de Blasio’s about-to-be-unveiled state budget will include significant expansion to after school programs, more than double the number of summer youth programs, and a huge plans for infrastructure improvements, according to a City Councilman briefed on the financial plan.

The number of slots in summer programs for city kids will jump from 17,000 to 33,000 under de Blasio’s plan, which will be unveiled later today, City Council-member Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) told reporters after his briefing on the plan.

De Blasio had hoped that a tax on New Yorkers making over $500,000 a year would fund the expansion of middle schools, but it was not approved in Albany. But he is going ahead with the expansion, and will fund it through the city, Johnson said.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/mayor-de-blasio-budget-boosts-school-summer-youth-programs-infrastructure-pol-blog-entry-1.1784510#ixzz319Ebz3ny