"With over half of New York’s families unable to meet the minimum cost of living in our city amid an affordability crisis, we must not repeat the mistakes of the past by pushing austerity at times of greatest need.
"As I argued in Washington, D.C. last week, the necessity of state and federal funding to support the needs of asylum seekers is real and urgent. At the same time, so is the need to provide essential government services at their full capacity. These goals are part of the same moral and governing mandate, and one cannot be used as justification to impede the other. The issues highlighted during this surge in people seeking asylum also pre-dated it – the day before the first bus arrived at Port Authority, there were already 50,000 New Yorkers in shelters, many for years. Our city’s current budgetary challenges have certainly been exacerbated, but are rooted in years of government failure to address systemic problems.
"Our city has faced fiscal hardship many times in our history, and the prudent path has been investment, then and now. Not funding agencies and programs adequately, or worse, cutting them, has a real cost, and we must all agree to prevent them in the final budget.
"I know that there are areas of agreement with the administration on issues like preventing gun violence, creating deeply affordable housing, and supporting mental healthcare. Beyond agreeing on principles, we have to prioritize funding and implementation of programs to meet them. On gun violence, for example, we still await a long-promised report and plan to be put in place, and a previously funded anti-violence mentorship pilot to launch.
"As we continue to review the details of this executive budget proposal, we must be clear that in the coming fiscal year, it’s time for concrete action. We can neither retreat from past promises nor preserve the status quo - we must progress."
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