Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies (CPS) announced that Jessica I. Monahan — a transportation policy expert who has secured federal funding for a range of nonprofits, local governments, Fortune 100 companies, emerging businesses, and government contractors — has joined its Washington D.C.-based lobbying team as a senior principal.
Today, the Mayor released the City’s November 2023 Financial Plan Update (the Plan). The Plan contains total funding of $110.5 billion for Fiscal Year 2024 which is approximately $314 million less than the Adopted Fiscal 2024 plan of $110.8 billion.
As the Mayor had indicated for several weeks every agency was required to find savings in their budgets and no agency was held harmless during this budget cut exercise know as a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG). The agencies hardest hit by cuts in the Plan were the Department of Education with a $546 million reduction, Social Services at $321.9 million and the NYPD which was cut by $131.9 million. The Mayor instructed agencies to submit PEG’s with the least amount of programmatic impact but it remains to be seen how successful the agencies were in doing so.
The Department of Cultural Affairs budget was reduced in Fiscal Year 2024 by $9.3 million. The majority of this PEG was taken in reductions to the CIG Operating Subsidy ($5.8 million) and Cultural Development Fund ($2.6 million).
Escalating costs associated with the asylum seeker crisis was cited as the main reason for the necessity of a PEG program of this size. The Administration estimates spending of $11 billion over Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025 on asylum seeker needs alone. The Mayor reiterated his call for more State and federal funding to help take some of the financial burden of this humanitarian crisis off of the City.
The City is legally required to have a balanced budget in the current fiscal year which the Plan achieves. In the Preliminary Plan, which will be released in January, the City will have to balance Fiscal Year 2025 which has an estimated deficit of $7.1 billion. In light of this fact we can expect another large PEG program in January barring any large new revenue streams from the State and federal governments.
The Mayor’s press release on today’s cuts can be found here: November-2023-financial-plan-update
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